HUIZEN VAN HET KIND FAMILY CENTERS
Nele Travers – EXPOO Liesbeth Lambert - VBJK
THE ESSENTIALS
▪
What: Interprofessional collaboration at the local level – coordination by local municipality
▪ Who: families: (future) parents, caregivers, children and youngsters
▪ How:
Network-based and/ or center-based (a hybrid model), combined with outreaching activities
▪ Aim:
o support families in a holistic way on different life domains
o increasing accessibility for families with children in Flanders
THE BEGINNING
“A (problem) of a child or a family is never isolated, it is always holistic. So
services should work holistic as well.”
(Katrien Verhegge, TFIEY)
THE DECREE
▪
Nordic inspiration: Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland
▪
Flemisch decree on the organisation of preventive family support: 2014
▪
A regulatory framework that is very open: local needs & opportunities
▪
Task to organize:
1. Preventive healthcare 2. Parenting support
3. Social support and social cohesion
A wide target group: all (future) families with children from 0-24 years
TYPICAL FOR FLANDERS: A WIDE RANGE OF ORGANISATIONS
A wide range of organisations is involved, on top of ‘Kind en Gezin’ services (eg. Infant health center, child care), such as:
•Local authority and its services
•Libraries
•Poverty organisations
•Playground activities
•Youth work
•Education related services
•Mental health services
•Parenting support services
•Midwives
…
That is its strength!
→NGO’s, private and public sector are starting to collaborate!
→Local governement often in the ‘managing’
role
→Flemish government supports and facilitates.
Also financial incentives.
→A lot of differentation
HUIZEN VAN HET KIND: ADDED VALUE
Added-value
Families and children Higher accessibility, easier to find what you need
Services better linked to needs and diversity of issues More community cohesion
Smoother transitions from one service to another Shared ownership and strengthened partnerships
Professionals and organisations
Combining strength and capacities in dealing with challenges Co-learning and professional development
Higher efficiency
Policy level Less overlap, gaps and fragmentation Better use of scarce resources
HUIZEN VAN HET KIND: 3 PRINCIPALS
P ROPORTIONAL UNIVERSALISM
FOR ALL FAMILIES 1 EXTRA SUPPORT FOR FAMILIES WITH MORE NEEDS
P
ARTICIPATIVE WORK WITH FAMILIESFAMILIES AS PARTNERS
I
NTEGRATED WORKINGattention for children and parents, in all their facets & life domains
P RINCIPAL : P ROPORTIONAL UNIVERSALISM
= supporting all children and families in proportion to their needs
Aiming at the
same (universal) goals for every child means that an approach in proportion to the needs of the
child is needed.
Aiming at the
same (universal)
goals for every
child, does not
mean doing the
same for every
child.
P RINCIPAL : P ROPORTIONAL UNIVERSALISM
= focus on accessibility
P RINCIPAL : P ARTICIPATIVE WORK WITH FAMILIES
▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ_72SvF1wU&t=11s
▪ Family and community involvement
P RINCIPAL : P ARTICIPATIVE WORK WITH FAMILIES
PRINCIPAL: INTEGRATED WORKING
Many different terms:
cooperation, collaboration, inter-agency working, comprehensive working, interdisciplinary working, integrated approach, networking, …
Integrated work as an ‘umbrella concept’
PRINCIPAL: INTEGRATED WORKING
A definition:
“The cooperation between organisations and/ or services to avoid fragmentation, facilitate better alignment of services and increase benefits for families.” INTESYS survey, 2016)
Inspiring example in Brussels:
Huizen van het Kind: Childcare + play and meeting activities
+ preventive parental support services.
INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH INTESYS
THE INTEYS TOOLKIT + INTESYS JOURNEY
INTEGRATED WORKING: INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH INTESYS
Recommendations for integrated working – INTESYS: 7 Rationales
1. Serve every child, family, communities. Start = their needs and demands
2. Agreed vision on EC & children, commonly agreed values, goals for joint action 3. Coordinated policies across sectors, services and age groups
4. Culture & practice of cooperation & visionary and competent leadership at all levels
5. Funding mechanisms & financial models → cooperation across governance levels, sectors, and services
6. Competent frontline workers
7. Time, monitoring & evaluating the processes and practices of collaboration, cooperation, coordination and the outcomes of integration
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INTEGRATED WORKING – INTESYS: 7 RATIONALES
1. Serve every child, family, communities. Start = their needs and demands
➢ National level: children & families can participate in designing & monitoring
➢ Local level: balance between “go structure” (outreach) & “come structure”
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INTEGRATED WORKING – INTESYS: 7 RATIONALES
2. Agreed vision on EC & children, commonly agreed values, goals for joint action
➢EU, national, local level: open dialogue with stakeholders on vision of EC, children, child &
family centrality, children’s rights, values of social justice, respect for diversity, …
➢Revisited to meet the changing needs and changes in the local context
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INTEGRATED WORKING – INTESYS: 7 RATIONALES
3. Coordinated policies across sectors, services and age groups
➢EU, national, local level: cross sectoral bodies
➢EU level: European Reference Framework for Integrated ECS (easily adapted )
Child & family centrality, coherent policies across sectors and services on staffing, financing, programming.
Universal progressive approach
Define building blocks of integration
Holistic idea (health, education, child & family protection, welfare, culture, …)
Participatory mechanisms
INTEGRATED WORKING: INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH INTESYS
4. Culture & practice of cooperation & visionary and competent leadership at all levels
➢CPD of practitioners & managers (i.e. learning experiences that bridge professions, services,
& enables cooperation)
➢Platforms for promoting successful examples of cooperation, nurture peer learning
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INTEGRATED WORKING – INTESYS: 7 RATIONALES
5. Funding mechanisms & financial models → cooperation across governance levels, sectors, and services
➢EU level: EU funding programmes
➢National level: sustainable funding models >< financial fragmentation
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INTEGRATED WORKING – INTESYS: 7 RATIONALES
6. Competent frontline workers
➢Higher education → multidisciplinary knowledge, care ethics, systemic and integrative
interventions with families and community, valuing diversity, intercultural awareness, human / children’s rights
➢EQF: knowledge, skills, attitudes for cooperation across professions
➢European competence framework, on integrated working beyond ECEC
➢National level: CPD across services & sectors, dialogue among professional cultures, shared learning, group reflection, smooth cooperation
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INTEGRATED WORKING – INTESYS: 7 RATIONALES
7. Time, monitoring & evaluating the processes and practices of collaboration, cooperation, coordination and the outcomes of integration
➢EU funding
➢Ethical approach to collection, sharing, protection of data
➢Comprehensive European Reference Framework for Integrated ECS to guide member states
Define quality & indicators for monitoring
Monitor processes in building integration
Define indicators to measure staff capacity & satisfaction
Learn about child and family outcomes
