The issue of cooperation between social workers in nursery schools and educational institutions

Abstract

In educational institutions, where children/young people spend a significant part of their time, traumas and problems related to them, or even issues related to their everyday life and lifestyle, are also revealed or precipitated in the secondary socialisation area. In this context, our research aims to explore the everyday activities of social workers in preschools and schools, focusing on their relationships within educational institutions—their cooperation with teachers/educators and other professionals—and the factors that influence these relationships.

As of 2018, social assistance in preschools and schools is provided at district level as a special service by the Family and Child Welfare Centres. As a result, social workers appeared in educational institutions. With the presence of a new external specialist, it could be assumed that once they became more integrated into the daily operations of preschools and schools, a large amount of latency would be revealed. As expected, the number of cases has increased, despite the fact that the preventive nature of the activity remains a priority in individual cases. In practice, this means that the social worker, acting as a bridge between the mother and the host institution, first examines the case of the child affected by a problem and, if there is a difficulty or an obstacle that can be resolved without basic care, helps the family and the public education institution in doing so.

The issue of cooperation and the need to focus on the factors that influence it are therefore also of unquestionable relevance in terms of effectiveness, which is also theoretically framed by the ecological model, the issue of competence boundaries and teamwork. The legal framework, the methodological guidelines and the protocol on the activity cannot be ignored.

The vignette method of data collection, which is a combination of questionnaire surveys and experimental decision-making, covers both preschool and school social workers and the teachers/educators. The aim of our research is to examine the relationships between support staff and teachers/educators within the institution, as well as their relationships with other professionals, and to examine their responses to and interventions in the problem outlined in the vignette, and the possibilities for such interventions.