Implementation of integrated services – the example of family centres in North Rhine-Westphalia

Abstract

This paper deals with the implementation of integrated services providing early support for young children and their families. The integration of services is considered to have highly positive effects on the development of children and on the prevention of child neglect and maltreatment. Therefore, childcare centres have been developed into family centres offering different services in order to foster this integration. The implementation of integrated services requires adequate governance structures on different levels. The external level concerns the framework the state offers for the integration of services. On an intermediate level, the cooperation between different institutions on the local level is to be considered. The internal level is related to questions of management, organisational development and team building. Based on experiences from family centres in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), the paper focuses on these different aspects of the governance of integrated services.

Keywords:

• family centre
• integration of services
• governance
• cooperation
• management

Notes

1. The different evaluation reports are available via internet; https://www.paedquis-familienzentrum.de/downloads (2013-04-13).

2. Unfortunately, the results of these evaluations are not published. Some of the information given in this paper is based on internal reports that summarize the evaluation results. As the systematic scientific evaluation was finished in 2008, there is a lack of ongoing empirical data. The participation in the external evaluation allows the author to observe the development of family centres and to discuss with local actors. Some of the descriptions given in this article are based on these observations and discussions, they are important to understand governance structures even if sometimes they cannot be documented by citable resources.

3. Stöbe-Blossey (2011a); the survey contained qualitative interviews with the directors of 23 family centres.

4. www.familienzentrum.nrw.de; cf. Stöbe-Blossey, Mierau, and Tietze (2008) and Stöbe-Blossey (2010).

5. Cf. reports and discussions in the advisory board; 5 December 2012 (unpublished).

6. Cf. for example www.gekita.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Infoblatt_erweiterte_Oeffnungszeiten.pdf (2013-04-14)

7. “Kinderbildungsgesetz” (2008-08-01); www.mfkjks.nrw.de/kinder-und-jugend/kibiz-aenderungsgesetz/kibiz.html

8. www.neue-wege-nrw.de (2013-04-14)

9. In Germany, there are two forms of labour market agencies: job centres are in charge of long-time unemployed persons, employment offices provide services to persons covered by unemployment insurance and for other people who are in search of a job.