Project leader René Peeters: ‘Put teacher and youth care worker side by side’.

Project leader René Peeters: ‘Put teacher and youth care worker side by side’.

Youth care workers and teachers must work closer together on the development of children. Municipalities become responsible for bringing together education, care, and youth care and making non-optional local agreements. That is the core of the advice that project leader René Peeters hands over today to the Coalition Education, Care and Youth.

Teachers in regular education keep children with support needs in class for too long. Parents and children are still often sent from pillar to post. Sometimes it takes months before a child can find a place somewhere because it is unclear whether the municipality, the Partnership Tailored Education or the health insurer should pay for specific care in class. There is no suitable provision for children who stay at home.

These are just some examples of bottlenecks in the connection between education, care, and youth care. For a group of 23 national organizations, this was the reason to solve these urgent problems together. They call themselves the Coalition Education, Care and Youth.

Top 3 main advices

In his report the project leader gives advice based on findings from successful regions. The most important three:

1. Provide a balanced range of professionals around children and young people who can be involved where needed. Broaden school teams with staff from youth care and/or care organizations, depending on the school population.
2. Make non-optional local agreements between education, youth care, care, and municipalities. These form the ‘constitution of the region’ and guide other plans around education, care, and youth. The municipality should take the role of bringing parties together. This coordinating role fits the other responsibilities municipalities received in 2015.
3. Make parents and caregivers familiar with the care and youth care offer via school. Work actively with parents and involve them well in every process around the child.

Involving parents and children is essential to achieve results

One of the advices that Ouders & Onderwijs welcomes is in paragraph 3.3 of the report.

”To get an effective approach and/or find a suitable place for the child, the involvement of parents and the child is essential. It is after all about the children and their parents. If they do not support the approach or are unhappy with the place, it is not a sustainable solution. The effectiveness of the approach is then undermined and it can lead to stagnation. In practice, parents sometimes feel ignored and frustrated. They then feel forced to take legal steps to prove they are right. Parents have much expertise when it comes to dealing with their child; this is not always used enough.
In Finland, primary school teachers get three hours a week to collaborate with other professionals. This is fixed in the collective labor agreement.”

What now?

The coalition has gratefully received the advices. In the coming periods, the organizations will discuss with their own base what the advices mean on the execution level. In any case, there is a will to do the right things and to work well together on opportunities for children.

Ouders & Onderwijs will of course also talk with parents about the given advices. We work together with Ieder(in) and are currently looking for an effective way to involve as many parents as possible.