Working together: Social Services and Schools

Transcription

1 Working together: Social Services and Schools Mobilising our Joint Resources (Kraftsamling) Erik Nilsson, Interim Chief Executive, municipality of Botkyrka, Sweden Graham Owen, Interim Director Social Services, Botkyrka, Sweden The municipality of Botkyrka, some facts Botkyrka is a municipality outside of Stockholm Population 85,000 53% of Inhabitants have a foreign background 100 different languages spoken 1

2 Schools in Botkyrka 46 municipal pre-schools and 12 private preschools 5 open pre-schools 21 municipal comprehensive schools and 6 independent schools 3 upper secondary schools and 3 independent secondary schools Cooperation Social Services/Schools The issues: How important is leadership, both political and professional? Is legislation supportive or counterproductive? Importance of a formal, highly- structured set of guidelines? How is collobaration organised in your countries? 2

3 Kraftsamling/Mobilisation:Our starting point We work together with the children that schools are worried about We work together to give support as early as possible We support children in the best possible way with the child s needs in focus We schools and social services are partners with as much as openness and transparency as possible Schools are an important resource in Social Services work with children at risk as children spend a considerable amount of time in the school environment Background Social Services and Education committees directed to improve collaboration and take measures to better identify children at risk and in need of support Pre-study carried out mapping existing collaboration and identifying development areas Both committees club decisions to jointly collaborate. The project Kraftsamling carried out Both committes incorporated the project into their everyday work 1st january

4 Project Implementation A steering group jointly chaired by the Director of Social Services and the Director of Education Local collaboration groups jointly chaired by team leaders and head teachers Every school has a contact social worker from Social Services Staff within Social services and Schools use a joint policy document with routines for collobaration centered on individual children A joint development programme for schools and social services implemented Structured cooperation and collaboration on all levels from the individual social worker/school representaive to management to political decision makers 4

5 Prevention and early intervention Group level Field workers visit school welfare teams once a term. Information to parents at the start of each term. Individual level Offers of a meeting to discuss need of support High risk children or children on register Group level Social Services contact workers give advice to school personnel on group/class problems. Individual level Contact workers Report worry in time Give feedback to school personnel Close cooperation during child care investigations Cordination of support in schools and Social Services support in the homes Dialogue during placement outside the home and with return to the home 5

6 Moving forward Police representation in steering group and local collaboration groups from 2012 Community Intervention groups young people at risk of developing a criminal identity. Honour-related violence identifying risks Mobile Team for school attendance Parental Support YAP Youth Advocate programs a pre-study Making Social Services accessible A short presentation of a film showing two Botkyrka youngsters meeting a social worker and asking questions about what Social Services do. (approx 2 minute clip, english text) 6

7 A Case study Presentation of a case study how a child at risk is identified by his class teacher as needing contact with Social Services and the following process. Discussion questions related to the case study. Group discussion: Reflect on the case study How does this compare to access to Social Services in your country? General discussion related to presentation What experiences of organised collaboration between Social Services and schools (or other agencies) which focus on detection of vulnerable children and youth at risk do you have in your country? Do we have examples of good practice to share with each other? Are there any specific methods which are successful in aiding early detection which can be used in collaboration between Social Services and Schools? 7