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22/09/09
Training on interagency co-operation for specialists working with emergency foster family
On the 23-24 of September in Brovary, Kyiv region EveryChild Ukraine will arrange training on inter-agency co-operation for specialists working with emergency foster family in terms of the project "Preventing Separation of Children through Implementation of Gate-keeping Mechanism". The objective in this training is to outline the approach to inter-agency work which is envisaged by the project, and the process by which this work is to be implemented and monitored.
Training will bring together specialists from Social center for children, families and youth, staff of Children's services, residential care staff, foster carers, and auxiliary and ancillary staff who come into contact with children in Brovary city (police, hospitals, schools, kindergartens). This training should equip them to respond appropriately to concern that a child may have been abused or be at risk of significant harm.
"Children rarely contact police or social workers directly about abuse, -- Mariya Rostal'na from EveryChild Ukraine explains,- Most child protection referrals come from other agencies, for instance schools or primary health care professionals, or from the public, often parents and relatives, friends and neighbours. Thus social work services and the police rely on others in contact with children to tell them about concerns and to pass on information given by children".
With the introduction of emergency fostering family in Brovary as an innovative service of child protection, EveryChild Ukraine identified the need in the community and among specialists to explain the differences between usual and emergency fostering, to organize a team which will work with foster parents, biological family and children.
As inter-agency co-operation can require a lot of time and effort on the part of those involved in the agencies, the primary task of the meeting is to reach agreement on how they can work together, what resources are involved and who provides them, what outcomes are expected, what are the responsibilities and mechanism for co-operation in each case.Everychild Ukraine doesn't consider training on inter-agency co-operation as an end in itself, on the contrary - in its opinion, it is an another step in the process through which agencies believe that they can deliver better services with better outcomes for families and children by working together, rather on their own.
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Emergency Foster Family is an integral part of gate-keeping mechanism developed in Kyiv region in terms of the project "Preventing Separation of Children through Implementation of Gate-keeping Mechanism" aimed at the development of a replicable model of gate-keeping and community-based services for children and families in Kyiv Oblast which demonstrates a 30% reduction in the number of children in institutional care.
