Social guidance for families with children
The City Strategy states that families will be supported in a multidisciplinary way, with resources directed towards early and wide-ranging support. Access to social guidance for families with children has been improved and the service has been expanded and developed. However, the waiting time for the service has increased, and the availability of skilled personnel has decreased.
The goal of the assessment
The assessment’s main question was whether the availability of social guidance for families with children has been improved and its activities developed in accordance with the strategy and budget objectives. Social guidance for families with children is early and low-threshold support for families with children under 17 years of age that is usually provided in the family’s home. Social guidance for families with children supports families with the challenges of parenting, relationships between family members, raising children, managing everyday life and problems with children’s schooling.
Conclusions
The assessment found that the availability of social guidance for families with children has been improved, and its activities have been developed in accordance with the City Strategy and budget objectives. However, the queues for the service have increased and the availability of skilled personnel has decreased. In addition, the service is referred clients who need more intensive services. Cooperation between services needs to be developed further. For example, in addition to the social guidance unit, service needs assessments are carried out by the unit for service needs assessment and support for families with children. Differing views on the scope, criteria and division of labour of these assessments have been found within the services. The staff have reported some overlap in the work of the various services. In addition, congestion and staff shortages in other services affect the opportunities for cooperation.
The Audit Committee concludes that
the Social Services, Health Care and Rescue Services Division should
- develop services for families with children as a whole, ensuring that clients have access to services that meet their service needs, such as neuropsychiatric coaching.
- ensure the availability of staff for services for families with children through adequate measures.
the Social Services, Health Care and Rescue Services Division’s Family and Social Services Department should
- raise awareness of social guidance for families with children, especially for families with school-age children and those that speak a foreign language, so that families in need of support can apply for and access services at an early stage.
- clarify the division of labour in service needs assessments between social guidance for families with children, child welfare and family social work.
- ensure that social guidance for families with children can focus on core tasks despite development and organisational reforms.