How does one family, one plan in youth welfare services work?

In 2017, the Flemish Government launched 'one family, one plan', inviting youth workers from different services to work together in intersectoral teams. The aim is to provide quick and nearby support and assistance to those families who are unable to find the right help immediately. How does one family, one plan in youth welfare services work? Our Social Inclusion Research Centre conducted research on the experience of counsellors, applicants and families.

When the CLB (pupil guidance centre) referred Kaat and Jeroen's family to a context counselling service, they were told that they would have to wait several months before they would get counselling. In the meantime, Kaat, Jeroen and their three young children were living in a two-bedroom flat that was too small for their family with many of the moving boxes still unpacked. There was no space for the children to play after the father injured his back and had to spend his days in a hospital bed in the living room. They applied for counselling for their youngest son, who was diagnosed with autism but the waiting time is six months. The mother is currently visiting a psychologist with the oldest son because of his difficult behaviour.

Tensions are clearly running high. The parents are looking for support to pay off their debts and the quest for a new home is proving much more difficult than they thought. The mother is completely discouraged. She has no idea where to seek support. While the CLB is aware of the family's many needs, it cannot provide sufficient support on the various levels that this family needs it. Waiting times for appropriate assistance only threaten to escalate the family's difficulties.

The names in this example are fictitious.

Difficult to access assistance

Kaat and Jeroen are definitely not alone in their search for the right support. After the introduction of the Decree on Integrated Youth Care Services in 2014, it soon became apparent that there was an issue with applicants not finding their way to more targeted assistance. Longer waiting lists left many families without any form of support. Families with multiple problems in particular found it difficult to access the right support.

To ensure continuity in the support process for these families, the 1G1P regional partnerships create a partnership between several services that provide directly accessible youth welfare services. Youth and disability care, the Centre for General Welfare Work (CAW), Child and Family, CLB and mental health services have all joined forces for this new concept. They provide counsellors for an intersectoral team who usually work partly for the original service and partly for 1G1P.

Benefit from one plan

Counsellors from regional partnerships ensure continuity in assistance by quickly (within the month) launching a flexible offering for these families. Families for whom assistance is not immediately available or who are on a waiting list for appropriate assistance thus receive support to prevent escalation of problems. In complex situations where families receive support from different organisations, assistance is coordinated by drawing up one single plan for the family.

The framework provided by the Flemish government for the launch of these partnerships leaves a lot of margin for alignment with regional needs and opportunities. The first part of the study by the Social Inclusion Research Centre of the KdG University of Applied Sciences and Arts thus revealed many organisational and methodological differences across the regions. These differences are often a source of ambiguity and even annoyance to the outside world.

Approach offers added value

However, the second phase of the study revealed that despite the differences, there are also many similarities. Families with similar needs apply for support, for example. In our conversations with counsellors, applicants, and families, we find that the added value they experience is very similar and thus transcends organisational differences.

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