sou · GYB393en · 2011-01-01 00:00:00 — Knowledge regarding children of preschool age who actually do not go to preschool is sparse, and at present there are no national statistics to add from the child welfare centres. On the other hand, the state of knowledge in has improved with regard to preschools' and schools' ways of working in the area of mental ill-health. In both and , early intervention is seen as an important success factor. These countries have therefore chosen to prioritise specialized educational interventions for children and pupils at early ages. Equivalent investments have not been made in , although the issue of the significance of specialized educative and supportive efforts in preschool has been considered in earlier investigations.7 The Royal of causal relationships between schools, learning and mental health, in addition to other important research findings, also reveals relevant gaps in knowledge. The study was based on international research, since the high demands imposed on causality had the consequence that Swedish studies did not meet the criteria for preparatory review. Against this background, it was that was behind the intervention, with the result that educational science and the educational perspective did not achieve a prominent position; indeed, other disciplines achieved greater prominence. In there is currently an ongoing debate on early intervention, the value of diagnosis, and perspectives on neuropsychiatric functional impairments. Different research disciplines do not share a common perspective in the area. Lack of concordance in this sense may be of importance for how children and pupils are received, and there is a risk that it will lead to a failure to achieve equality between the interventions children and young people receive. In the course of the work of the Commission, it has emerged that practitioners in preschools, schools and other educational arenas regard early intervention as an important success factor. There are also indications that early interventions, from a societal perspective, can be cost-effective. Further, it is clear that there is a lack of Swedish research in areas of crucial importance. Educationalists who took part in the municipal study have clearly demanded greater knowledge-based support at national level. In the light of what now has been said, and particularly given the lack of a stable body of knowledge, I propose that the Government makes a specialized investment, of limited duration, in the early-intervention arena, for the purpose of obtaining better grounds for decision-making. This would be prior to adopting a position on whether and how early interventions should be prioritised and, in such case, how the School Health and and child healthcare should and can play an important role in this work, especially if the School Health and , or parts 7 Including by , U 1990:01.The Committee for Supervision of the Education Act. of it, is also made available to preschools. Such an investment must be regarded as a key next step in the work performed by through their major conference, but the investment would at the same time provide a clear foundation in education science. The investment should, in my view, involve the Government appointing a delegation to support and develop an overall picture of the state of knowledge and work with early interventions directed at children of preschool age and pupils at early grades of primary school from an education-policy perspective. The Delegation's work should focus on clarifying the value and effects of early interventions for these groups and take its point of departure in the findings of the work of by investigating the causal relationships between school, learning and mental health. The work should be based partly on an evaluation of the empirical foundation produced within the municipal sector, and partly on the knowledge developed by already-completed and ongoing research projects in the area of mental health. It is especially important for the Delegation to illuminate the role of the School Health and and the importance of interaction between schools, healthcare and . The Delegation should adopt a cross-disciplinary perspective and illuminate the international research available in the area. Thereby, the Delegation's work will provide opportunities both to consolidate and further develop the knowledge that exists and supplement it from the perspective of education science, an aspect that is currently lacking to a very high degree. The question of whether early interventions are cost effective within a preventive mode of working should be investigated within the frame of the work. The Delegation should report the results of its work to the Government. The reporting should be so designed that it can provide grounds for recommendations to practitioners and decisionmakers concerning how early interventions should be pursued. Further, the results of this time-restricted effort might be able to supply better decision-making grounds with regard to early interventions and also, hopefully, contribute to supporting educational activities and developing collaboration between the School Health and and other stakeholders. In my view, a number of municipalities should be invited to participate in the work. Further, a variety of research projects should be linked to the Delegation, and a cross-disciplinary approach adopted in order to answer the question of the significance of early interventions. Since educational and educationscience research has been uncommon so far, this perspective needs to be strengthened. I propose, therefore, that the Delegation establishes links with five or more different research teams, where various educational approaches and also economic and competence are represented, but with an emphasis on the questions posed in education science. In this regard, the Delegation can use the 's to administer and constitute research teams, preferably with international and Nordic involvement. Several questions should be answered within the frame of the Delegations mission so that the state of knowledge is improved and, if possible, a concordant view attained. If it proves impossible to obtain a unified perspective on the value of early interventions, the Delegation, in our case, must clarify any differences in approach and on what scientific grounds they are based. The Delegation shall be operative for two years, and in the course of its work contribute to the dissemination of knowledge about its results and about the task of the Delegation itself. Within the Delegation, there should be representatives of agencies with sectoral responsibility, and of the principal organisers, i.e. both municipal and independent actors. The composition of the Delegation should also reflect the overall perspective and crossdisciplinary competence demanded in the area of early intervention. Science and proven experience In this area there are three proposals and assessments. The first is concerned with research issues. The others concern follow-up of basic teacher and headteacher training, and a developmental investment in early interventions for children of preschool age. Research and the dissemination of knowledge Measures to strengthen research into children and young people in need of special support and in exposed situations are needed. The research situation needs to be reinforced in several areas, where research is lacking, or where Swedish research is required to supplement international research findings. Resource distribution to the area needs to be reviewed in conjunction with the preparation of the Government's bill on research policy. Further, measures must be taken to stimulate a cross-discipli- nary approach and an overall perspective. The preconditions for pursuing research and being able to make so-called policy evaluations within the area need to be developed and reinforced. This applies in particular to access to data at individual level to enable research of a longitudinal nature and the use of quantitative methods. research that is closely related to practice needs to be stimulated. Practitioners in school express the view that there is a lack of research perceived to be relevant to their own activities. The dissemination of knowledge about research results needs to be made more effective, and development aimed at rendering visible and testing the content of proven experience, and the production of recommended good practices, needs to be initiated. I affirm that currently there is no actor with any such national responsibility in the educational arena, but point out that the need is there. My judgment also is that there are grounds for studying the development work being pursued by , in conjunction with principal organisers and professionals, surrounding national guidelines within both and healthcare. This work is long-term and has taken place stepwise, with the result that the state of knowledge about what might be called good practice has been developed in ever more areas. The Authorities and Regions (SALAR), in its development activities surrounding open comparisons has shown that there is an interest in participating within several municipal sectors, such as with regard to the identification of success factors. I wish to state that I regard work on national guidelines as a form of development designed to give prominence to what should be capable of becoming good practice – a recommendation rather than a binding regulation – not any kind of rigid pointer and therefore compatible with the concept of educational freedom or local school development. My assessment is that that this route might be interesting to pursue even within the school arena. such development that aims to produce what can be characterized as good practice must be regarded as long-term, and should take place stepwise and in collaboration with research within the area, SALAR and the authorities that can contribute to the adoption of a cross-sectoral perspective. But, above all, the profession itself must be committed to making visible what can be designated as proven experience. Thereby, it becomes capable of being evaluated and possible to define as good practice. I also wish to maintain that such work much be shaped in a setting that suits preschools, schools and other education providers. It is not possible to copy the work that is currently being performed in healthcare, but it is possible to obtain wisdom and allow oneself to be inspired. I consider that the wishes expressed, above all for more support at national level require a response; knowledge dissemination needs to be improved, and it is required of the educational sector that it forges stronger links between research and practice. This can be achieved if more senior-subject teachers are employed, and if work is initiated for the purpose of highlighting that which can be designated as proven experience. Such clarification entails that it can be both evaluated and defined. It should be possible to consider where the responsibility should be placed for the development work and the shaping of any such responsibility in conjunction with the new evaluation function within the educational arena of which notice has been given in the budget proposal for 2011 (Government . 46.8 In my view, a suitable combination of information for such a function might consist in knowledge dissemination, policy evaluation in the education sector with cross-disciplinary content, and responsibility for highlighting and evaluating the content of proven experience or good practice. Follow-up of basic teacher and headteacher training for Higher Education and the for Education should jointly be tasked to review the content of basic teacher training in conjunction with evaluation of the new training. Such review should focus on whether the training prepares educationalists sufficiently for the demands imposed by children and pupils with more complex needs for support. for Education should also be tasked to follow up and evaluate the training of headteachers. 8 Government : 2010/11:Utgiftsområde 16, s.49. investigation should be conducted into the extent to which the training provides sufficient knowledge of the rules governing work with children and pupils with multiple compounded needs and the duty to collaborate with regard to children and pupils who are vulnerable or at risk of becoming vulnerable, and thereby related legislation on professional confidentiality. To the extent that there are shortcomings in the training courses, measures should be taken by the for Education to meet the requirement of providing for further competence development. interventions for children of preschool age My proposal is that the Government tasks the for Education, in collaboration with , to arrange regional conferences for those responsible for and in preschools and educational welfare for the purpose of providing information on the state of knowledge and practical applications of early interventions for children of preschool age. The background to the proposal is that early interventions for children of preschool age have been identified as important in research. Today, there are research findings and results from development work that should be circulated to categories of personnel who are in preschools and educational welfare. There are municipalities that work consciously for early detection and intervention. Such dissemination of knowledge and information based on practice should be capable of contributing to the raising of awareness and encouraging an educational discussion on the issue of early interventions for children of preschool age. When the question has been discussed earlier, educational issues have not always been the main focus. My view is that the question of early intervention needs to be discussed from a cross-discipli- nary perspective with the new curriculums as a foundation. Impact assessment of the Commission's proposals The Commission shall, in accordance with the Committee Ordinance (1998:1474), report on the possible consequences of the proposals it has presented. The problems analysis conducted by the Commission demonstrates serious problems with regard to both modes of working and collaboration. I have also shown that, due to national efforts aimed at the education sector not being coordinated, there is a substantial amount of duplicate work. The proposals I make, and the costs that may be associated with them, must be balanced against the picture of the problems presented. Not doing anything to bring about change is seen, against this background, as associated with both socio-economic costs and costs that are charged specifically against the operations involved. The proposals for taking an inventory of, and following up the need for, clarifications in the educational arena in themselves do not entail any change in the extent of municipal self-governance. A possible impact arises only if the Government, following proposals from the for Education and the Schools Inspectorate, comes to the conclusion that standardisation needs to be reinforced and takes action in this direction. That I, in this report, raise the question is motivated by the strong wishes and needs for clarifying the system of rules that have emerged from the Commission's investigations. does the Commission see any consequences in the proposals for municipal operations in terms of application of the funding principles for local government. The proposals I make concerning collaboration do not have socio-economic consequences, but should lead to an improvement in the state of knowledge with regard to effects. A clear example of this is the developmental activity designed to create a common knowledge-based perspective on the value and effects of early interventions. The proposals I make that require extra funding are described below: The proposal for collaboration at central municipal level must be financed by a stimulation grant, time-restricted to two years. For this, I propose that funds for this purpose are allocated in an amount of million over a total of two budget years. These funds shall cover costs for participation from research, for evaluation, and for socio-economic computations. A suitable number of municipalities shall obtain compensation for the costs of project administration. The proposal for work on developing increased knowledge of early interventions shall be funded by a total amount of million for two years, which will be taken from the temporary stimulation grant that the Government has announced with regard to the School Health and . The funds shall support a delegation, a number of research projects with a crossdisciplinary focus, external evaluation of municipal empirical knowledge of early interventions, and scientific reviews of international research within the area. Externally oriented operations shall be performed, a final report presented, and a final conference arranged. The proposal for investment in competence development for persons responsible for and in preschools or other educational provisions for children of preschool age is estimated to cost million and is a one-off lump sum.