Problem addressed
The Entire Family project’s innovation lies in its holistic approach and its focus on coordination. Case workers engage with the whole family rather than solely the adults, take an integrated view of their life situations and factors preventing their self-sufficiency, and engage frequently (e.g. monthly) with the entire family and with individual family members.
Entire Family works principally through interviews, beginning with exploratory meetings to understand the family situation (e.g. number of children, school attendance, housing, plans for economic self-reliance, health challenges, etc.). Through this close cooperation with the family and other actors, needs are identified, and realistic plans put in place to help parents to find work. The simultaneous focus on all members of the family and their individual needs, as well as collaboration with the municipality’s health and care administration, ensures that each family member progresses towards increased self-reliance.
The whole family is strengthened, not just one individual. Maintaining that holistic view of the family is facilitated by a limited case load for case workers, with each assigned just half the usual number of cases (around 30), allowing them to dedicate more time and resources to each family.
Innovative solution
From 2017 until 2019, the city of Malmö implemented the Entire Family (Hela Familjen) project, with a total funding of EUR 3.09 million, including EUR 1.45 million from the ESF. It supported families’ economic self-reliance, through education and employment for children, young people and adults. The project built on experiences from the previous three-year long Entire Family project, which showed positive results for families on long-term public benefits. In 2019, Entire Family became part of the regular social services of the Department of Housing and Income Support of the City of Malmö. It targets parents receiving welfare benefits for an extended period of time and who remain outside the labour market because of complex underlying problems.
The Entire Family project’s innovation lies in its holistic approach and its focus on coordination. Case workers engage with the whole family rather than solely the adults, take an integrated view of their life situations and factors preventing their self-sufficiency, and engage frequently (e.g. monthly) with the entire family and with individual family members.
Entire Family works principally through interviews, beginning with exploratory meetings to understand the family situation (e.g. number of children, school attendance, housing, plans for economic self-reliance, health challenges, etc.). Through this close cooperation with the family and other actors, needs are identified, and realistic plans put in place to help parents to find work. The simultaneous focus on all members of the family and their individual needs, as well as collaboration with the municipality’s health and care administration, ensures that each family member progresses towards increased self-reliance.
The whole family is strengthened, not just one individual. Maintaining that holistic view of the family is facilitated by a limited case load for case workers, with each assigned just half the usual number of cases (around 30), allowing them to dedicate more time and resources to each family.
Entire Family is managed by the Department of Housing and Income Support of the City of Malmö, which also funds the project. The work is led by a director, who has overall responsibility for implementation and development of the programme. The Department of Housing and Income Support employs project managers in the city’s five social service districts, who continuously improve services and guide the work of the Entire Family operational teams. Those teams then work directly with the families.
Key results and benefits
The Department of Housing and Income Support of the City of Malmö evaluates Entire Family on a continuous basis. Every month, social workers report on several key performance indicators (KPIs):
1) Number of families that no longer need income support after participating in the programme;
2) Number of families that are partially self-sufficient after the programme, i.e. they are still receiving student loans and/or student benefits, or employment or sickness benefit, or continue to need complementary income support;
3) Number of meetings held between families and social workers during the programme, including meetings with additional services and other departments;
4) Steps that families have taken towards self-sufficiency, such as language training, establishing contact with healthcare providers, organising healthcare treatment, signing a rental agreement, organising debt payment, organising day-care, or finishing high school.
At the end of the ESF-funded project, Ramboll was commissioned to undertake an external evaluation.
The combined results of the ongoing internal evaluation and the external evaluation were used to adapt the programme. Initially, only families who had been on income support for at least 36 months could participate in Entire Family, but that was modified to allow families on income support for shorter durations to participate if they were at risk of becoming dependent on income support in the longer term.
The ESF-funded phase of the Entire Family project ran from 2017 to 2019. It reached 817 families, exceeding the planned target (600) by 36%. Of these 817, 167 found work, 30 began studies, and 187 were self-sufficient after the end of the project, despite having received income support for over 10 years. Children’s school results also improved. 62% of the families were single-parent households headed by women. More women than men were successful in becoming self-sufficient through education or employment. The project’s mid-term report estimated that the Malmö municipality would save a minimum of SEK 16 million in 2018 and 2019. The final evaluation report by Ramboll suggested that approximately EUR 15 000 can be saved each year for each family that successfully transitions from income support to financial self-sufficiency. Due to its success, the project has been mainstreamed as part of the city services provided by Malmö’s welfare support.
A female client from a traditional Roma family spoke about the many hours of motivational sessions she received that helped her to overcome her belief that women should not work, multiple check-ins each week by the social worker to support during her early months of education, and regular meetings with school staff to improve her child’s attendance rate. She said, ’Without your support I could not have done it! I have realised that I am determined and once I have made up my mind I can do it, in spite of being questioned by family and friends!’
A male client with a migrant background believed he could never find a job in Sweden. He was encouraged by his social worker and a career counsellor, including through the success stories of other migrants. On finding a job, he said ’I will frame my employment contract and put it on the wall!’
Another client said: ’I’ve had income support for 11 years, and my child doesn’t know anything else, but now I have a job, thanks to you and the Labour Market Specialist.’
Potential for mainstreaming
The concept of the Entire Family project is transferrable to all organisations specialising in income support, whether in Sweden or elsewhere in the EU. The idea to engage with adult and child members of a family in order to improve their self-reliance can also be easily taken up in other contexts.
Special attention should be paid to gender equality within the family, in order to ensure equal opportunities for women. The experience from Malmö showed that male family members tended to spend more time on the project than women, despite similar project participation requirements. Entire Family is now consciously setting the same expectations for both women and men, and encouraging female household members to actively contribute to the process.
A socially healthy and equal family is better prepared to face challenges and to encourage children to make choices that will lead to a better future, such as prioritising education and health, and promoting meaningful after-school activities for both girls and boys.
The low case load per case worker (maximum 30 families) is essential to the success of the project, allowing more time with each family, and sufficient financial and social support until they reach self-sufficiency through employment or education.
Work with families with a migration background may need more time, as many have little or no formal education, especially women, and first need to learn Swedish. It also takes longer to work with large families, which require two incomes to support all household members and thus need both parents motivated to establish a long-term plan for economic independence. Experience from the project proves the importance of building relationships and trust over time, which helps to overcome potential resistance from project participants.
The added value of EU investment was essential to this project. ESF funding allowed Entire Family to be started and facilitated project owners in developing and testing various methods of support.
