How are the conditions?

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse how school and social service in the city of Malmö cooperate regarding children at risk and what they do in order to meet their needs. We also aim to explore the view and knowledge of the personnel and their experience of the guardians’ impact during collaboration. The empirical data was collected by personal interviews with personnel from the school and social service. The results have been analysed from a theory of organizational culture and symbolic interaction. The study shows that the organizations have various forms of cooperation, whereof the majority occur in individual cases, and that preventative work is not a priority due to reorganisations and changes in society. One of the central aspects regarding collaboration is intervention in an early stage to meet the childrens needs. We question if this could be done if preventative work would be a low priority. Both parties experiencing frustration from the personnel of the other organization, which mainly occurs from lack of trust and knowledge about the working situation of the other. The personnel from school and social service consider themselves to have an understanding for the personnel of the other organization. However, this is not a comprehension, which the personnel are experiencing from the personnel of the other organization. The view of the personnel between school and social service differs, which could be explained by “language differences” seen from a perspective of symbolic interaction. The differences might decrease and result in a better understanding between the parties if preventative work were to be prioritized for creating networks and strengthen their relations. The results also show that the guardians have a significant impact concerning the organizations to be able to cooperate in individual cases. This is because the confidentiality needs to be removed in order to enable cooperation between the parties. One conclusion based on the results is that visions and guidelines are not conformed in what is possible to integrate in the daily practical work of the personnel. Furthermore, several political decisions have to be made in order to give the personnel in school and social service adequate conditions for cooperation