From left: Vivianne Varga, Rebecca Ljungqvist and Rocio Palma Lopez, social secretary at the Children and Youth Investigation in Burl\u00f6v Municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We wanted to secure the children's perspective \u2013 Ommej became a crucial piece of the puzzle in Burl\u00f6v<\/strong> When the child's voice is at risk of being lost<\/strong> The children set the agenda<\/strong> When a child's voice makes a real difference<\/strong> More than efficiency \u2013 stronger relationships<\/strong> Many thanks to Burl\u00f6v Municipality for a great collaboration. We are always happy when our users describe the benefits Ommej is intended to create, in practice.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fr\u00e5n v\u00e4nster: Vivianne Varga, Rebecca Ljungqvist och Rocio Palma Lopez, socialsekreterare vid Utredning barn och unga i Burl\u00f6vs kommun. Vi ville s\u00e4kra barnperspektivet \u2013 Ommej blev en avg\u00f6rande pusselbit i Burl\u00f6v Hur s\u00e4kerst\u00e4ller man att barnets r\u00f6st verkligen blir h\u00f6rd, \u00e4ven n\u00e4r samtal \u00e4r sv\u00e5ra eller n\u00e4r barnet inte vill eller orkar komma till socialtj\u00e4nsten?\u2028F\u00f6r […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ommej.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ommej.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ommej.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ommej.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ommej.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6206"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ommej.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6212,"href":"https:\/\/ommej.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6206\/revisions\/6212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ommej.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ommej.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ommej.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ommej.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
How do you ensure that the child's voice is truly heard, even when conversations are difficult or when the child does not want or have the energy to come to social services? For Burl\u00f6v's social services, Ommej became a tool that made children's participation possible in practice and changed both conversations, working methods and relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The issue of children's participation had long been central to Burl\u00f6v's social services.
\u201cWe talked a lot about how we can strengthen the child perspective. How we can stop talking about children and instead talk to them,\u201d says social service employees.
At the same time, it became increasingly clear that traditional working methods were not always enough. Much of children's everyday life and communication today takes place digitally, and for some children \u2013 especially children with NPF or experience of trauma \u2013 physical meetings with social services are both difficult and energy-consuming.
\u2013 The child's perspective is crucial for interventions to be right. But we needed a better way to actually see what is important for the child \u2013 not just risks and problems, but also what works.
A need for something more<\/strong>
When the working group learned about Ommej, interest was quickly piqued. The tool's clear focus on children's participation was well aligned with the needs of the organization.
At the same time, there were initial concerns.
\u2013 We thought about whether it would be complicated, how it would work in everyday life, and how colleagues with different digital habits would adopt the tool.
Those concerns quickly dissipated.
\u2013 It turned out that Ommej was very user-friendly, both for the children and for us as professionals. It was quick to get started and the results were immediately useful in the conversations.
A decisive factor was the close collaboration during the implementation.
\u2013 You (Ommejs) have been incredibly responsive. When something has come up, we have received quick feedback and solutions the same day. That is a big difference compared to many other systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>
Today, Ommej is a natural part of daily work and the difference is clearly noticeable in the meeting with the children.
\u2013 For many children, this means that they get to set the agenda and express what is important to them even before the conversation.
This affects both the child's safety and the content of the conversation.
\u2013 The children are often calmer, less anxious and more engaged. Some have even said that it was fun to answer.
Ommej also contributes to a common goal in the work.
\u2013 It won't be "what the social services think", but something that actually comes from the child themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>
One case in particular has stuck with the staff. A young person with NPF and extensive trauma did not want to participate in conversations, which made the work difficult.
\u2013 When we used Ommej, the youth suddenly wanted to respond. Much more information emerged than we had before and it allowed us to completely refocus our efforts.
The result was more targeted support for the parent, stronger relationships in the family and more goal-focused work in family treatment.
\u2013 Even when we didn't meet the child physically, we were able to stay in touch via Ommej and follow up in a completely different way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the biggest positive surprises was not about efficiency, but about relationships.
\u2013 We thought the main benefit would be faster processes. What we didn't anticipate was how positively family relationships would be affected when the child's voice was truly heard.
Advice to other municipalities<\/strong>
To other municipalities facing similar challenges, the advice is clear:
\u2013 Dare to try. It's not difficult. It makes us better at our job and more children actually get to speak. Ommej is a very useful complement \u2013 and we need many tools.
And if they had been allowed to wish for something?
\u2013 That we had known about Ommej before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n