Organization of school social work:  Collaboration between a student health-team and a leisure center

Emma Ottosson

doi:10.1921/jpts20252475

Authors

Emma Ottosson University West, Trollhattan, Sweden and Vasterviks kommun, Sweden https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9199-0414

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1921/jpts20252475

Keywords:

School social work, school-counsel, leisurecenter, rural, social support

Abstract

Many children in need of social support in various forms fall through the cracks and thus do not receive the support they would need. Children's support needs can either be identified by adults in the children's vicinity or alternatively by the children themselves. In the latter case, the support needs to be visible and accessible to the children, to enable the children to initiate support themselves.
This article is based on a previous case-study and show, in summary, that the professionals do outreach and exploratory work with the aim of identifying the children in need of support, who do not seek the support themselves. The outreach and exploratory work may need to be adapted based on the situation and needs. The professionals use their judgement, sense perception and practical knowledge to be able to adapt the work based on children's needs. But to be able to adapt the work requires that the professionals have room for action and resources, as the situated work requires more time and knowledge. When the professionals use their full range of action and work in the border country, they can make a difference, say the professionals in the study. The professionals work to make it accessible and create agency so that children have the opportunity to seek support themselves if needed. In order to increase children's conditions for seeking support, they work on professional relationship building, this with the aim of children feeling trust and confidence when they need to seek support and thereby dare to talk about what can feel difficult. The relationship-building work is promotion and prevention, which can risk being held back when the remedial work takes too much time and resources. The professionals state that commitment is an important part of the relationship-building work, and that they use themselves as tools when creating relationships with children.
In order for more children in need of support to be identified, the professionals may need more knowledge about specific children. By using a collaborative practice technology, the professionals can share their knowledge, so a larger overall picture of the children is created. By working cross-border, the person who has a relationship with the child can carry out the work, while the person with the greatest competence in the relevant area supervises the executor.

Author Biography

Emma Ottosson, University West, Trollhattan, Sweden and Vasterviks kommun, Sweden

Emma Ottosson recently completed a licentiate thesis on collaboration in school social work. Earlier this year, Emma also wrote a chapter in an anthology focussing on rural perspectives within school social work. Additionally, Emma is writing a Swedish report with the aim of disseminating more practice-oriented knowledge to professionals who work with school social work. Emma has previously written about children's agency and children who live in financial vulnerability.

Emma Ottosson also works practically in social work, mainly with developing the work with a child perspective in financial assistance.

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