School, Together

The Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County has launched the project ‘School, Together’, aimed at enhancing services for children, young people, and parents experiencing challenges related to school attendance. Throughout 2024, we will be developing these services in collaboration with families.

We are well aware that everyone needs to skip school from time to time. However, with increasing school absenteeism we have to take time to reflect on the causes behind the absences. Studies show that a rate of absences as high as 10 percent entails additional risks and a rate higher than 20 percent can significantly damage wellbeing and learning.

Our goal is to strengthen the effectiveness and timeliness of support measures offered to children and young people frequently absent from school and their families as well as to reduce the negative impact caused by absences. We seek to create an operational model for the entire Wellbeing Services County. This model will be used to support children's learning and attendance through timely and effective services. We focus on ways to enhance collaboration between the child’s home, school, and social and health services. By fostering better understanding between all parties about the reasons for absences and the factors that perpetuate them, we can plan support measures with agreement understanding, increasing the chances of improvement.

There are many different reasons why someone might be absent from school. Therefore, we can discover solutions by considering a wide range of perspectives and taking right-sized steps towards the goals. Along with individualised support measures, we also utilise collective support measures, such as group activities and school collaboration, when arranging support to children, young people and their parents. Furthermore, we evaluate the structural factors of schools and the Wellbeing Services County from the perspective of children, young people and families.

The project ‘School, Together’ continues throughout 2024, and families have an opportunity to engage in the service development process. Our efforts extend across the Wellbeing Services County and involve active collaboration with families and local employees. Our collaborative partners include schools, student welfare services, healthcare services, family social work, and child welfare personnel. Collaborative partners are chosen on a case-by-case basis according to situation and need.

More information on school attendance issues:

https://www.koulukunnossa.fi/(external link) (in Finnish and Swedish)                        

Yhteisellä koulutiellä : Käsikirja perusopetuksen oppilaiden läsnäolon tukemiseen ja poissaolojen vähentämiseen - Valto (valtioneuvosto.fi)(external link) (in Finnish and Swedish)

Kouluyhteisö | Mielenterveystalo.fi(external link) (in Finnish and Swedish)

Should you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our project manager or your designated contact person.

Kalle Kivi, Project Manager
Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County / Services for Children, Youth, and Families
Tel. 040 646 5935 / kalle.kivi@luvn.fi

Research funding provided by the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland (RRP).