Empowering Residential Child Care through Interprofessional Learning

Abstract

Child custody is an essential prerequisite for the well-being of children in developed countries. It is based on the notion that children and adolescents, especially the younger ones, should grow up in a family that is best able to meet their developmental needs. However, in some cases, children and adolescents are rarely placed in institutional care, most often in the case of adolescents with special needs, those with serious emotional and behavioural difficulties, or adolescents who have refused to live with foster families. Working with groups of adolescents in institutional care can be quite challenging for professionals. Staff need training to help them care fully for the children and adolescents in their care. Project countries have different qualification requirements for staff working in children’s residential care. Institutional child care is classified under different disciplines (social work, health sciences, education). Specific qualification requirements for staff are related to the care of a child or adolescent in an institution. Despite the different educational requirements for staff in Project countries, child care staff face similar challenges, tasks and responsibilities. The project aims to: assess the situation of child care institutions and the need for integrated training in the partner countries; Promote the development of competences of institutional child care workers in order to fully care for and ensure the well-being of the child of the most vulnerable adolescents; Develop a study module able to meet the needs and future challenges of child care workers; Develop the training of child care workers in European child care institutions through massive open and distance MOOCs courses.