16th EUSPR Conference and Members’ Meeting

Factors associated with Parents’ and Employees’ Evaluations of Interorganizational Collaboration in Norwegian Child Welfare Services

Not scheduled

15m

CharitéCrossOver/0-0 - Atrium (Virchowweg 6)

Poster Posters day 1

Speaker

Ms Claire Degail (Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare - North, UiT The Arctic University of Norway)

Description

Background: Norway’s Child Welfare Services (CWS) are municipal services that aim to prevent child abuse and neglect. To this end, CWS often work with other health or social services, frequently referred to as interorganizational collaboration. This study aims to investigate the associations of different factors with parents and employees’ evaluations of interorganizational collaboration, including continuity of contact with the same CWS workers, number and types of additional services used, leadership, teamwork, employees’ years of experience and co-location of CWS with other services, and population size.

Methods: Parents (n = 317) and employees (n = 433) answered surveys in 26 different municipal CWS across Norway, under the framework of the SKO-study, a study on collaboration and quality in Norwegian municipal services. Employees’ and parents’ evaluations of interorganizational collaboration were measured with questionnaires. Mixed-effects regression analyses were used to analyze how the different factors of interest were associated with parents’ and employees’ evaluations of interorganizational collaboration.

Results: Parents evaluated interorganizational collaboration more highly when they had a high continuity of contact with the same CWS workers, when CWS was co-localized with other services and in larger municipalities. Employees evaluated interorganizational collaboration more highly when they had also evaluated leadership highly, but at a slightly lower level in larger municipalities.

Discussion: Continuity of contact, co-location, and leadership quality were associated with interorganizational collaboration. Future research could focus on how to increase continuity of contact and improve leadership, while future policies could encourage co-location of services. The risk of selection bias is a limitation, as more satisfied parents and employees may have been more likely to become research participants. The study also does not prove causality.