How can different parties in society work together for the good of the children?

Success factors for collaboration are administrative management, in-service training and co-creation. However, the children, to whom the project is aimed, are not involved in the work to any greater degree. This is shown by an evaluation of Trygga barnet, a collaboration model in the city of Malm?.

There are several areas in Malm? that are considered to be socially vulnerable, with high unemployment, a high proportion of welfare recipients, a low level of education and poor school results for the children. Therefore, the city of Malm? has developed a model called Trygga barnet, an early coordinated effort for the best interests of children. In a pilot development project, they have focused on children aged 0–15 with early signs of risk of ending up in social vulnerability and crime.

Success factors and challenges

Agneta Mallén, senior lecturer at Lund University, together with associate professors Goran Basic and Veronika Burcar Alm at Linnaeus University, have discussed and analyzed collaboration processes in the pilot project in a report. The focus has been on how collaboration works in relation to the best interests of the child, but the evaluation also provides more general knowledge about collaboration processes.

"We can see that the success factors for collaboration are administrative management, in-service training and co-creation. Collaboration also benefits from interaction at meetings and from knowledge and understanding of each other in the operations. A new way of working, called The Five Questions, is perceived very positively. In short, the staff in the project that we talked to see Trygga barnet as a meaningful model", says Goran Basic.

The researchers have also mapped a number of challenges for collaboration in the pilot project.

"The children, to whom the project is aimed, are not involved to any greater degree in the work. Boys seem to have a greater chance of being picked up by Trygga barnet than girls. The structure of the pilot project is perceived as unclear by those involved in the pilot operations, and cultural differences and organizational gaps challenge collaboration between the pilot organisations", says Goran Basic.

Observations and interviews

The Trygga barnet project is financed by The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsf?rebyggande r?det, or Br?). Collaborating parties in the project are the labour market and social services administration, primary school administration and pre-school administration in the city of Malm?, as well as child health care and kids and youth psychiatry in Region Sk?ne. The evaluation is based on participant observation of 15 project meetings as well as qualitative face-to-face interviews with seven employees within Trygga barnet's pilot operations during 2022–2023.More information and open access to publication