Responsibility group meeting

If your child or you as a youth have a need for long-term and coordinated health and care services in the municipality, you are entitled to them IP (Individual Plan) and coordinator, which in turn triggers responsibility group meetings around the child. This is done through a coordinator in the municipality. The coordinator calls various bodies/people around the child to the responsibility group meetings, and for those who have an individual plan, it is often used actively in and outside the meetings.

The purpose of responsibility group meetings is to relieve the family by bringing together agencies and people involved around the child so that they avoid many different meetings. In this way, everyone also gets the same important information, and can hopefully coordinate the work in a better way for the family. It is usual to have responsibility group meetings 2-4 times a year, but you can have it much more often. It varies according to needs and parents themselves decide when to call for a new meeting.

The responsibility group meeting owned by the parents, on behalf of the child and/or young person, and it is they who decide who will be invited to the meetings. Bodies cannot claim to be part of the responsibility group meetings - unless required.

Together with the coordinator in the municipality, the parents/young people assess who is appropriate for the meeting in question. It is not unusual for the participants in these meetings to vary, e.g. if the child is under investigation or if the interdisciplinary team around the child is expanded/reduced. We recommend that there are always some regular participants who know the child and the family's situation for the sake of continuity.

Minutes of the responsibility group meeting must always be written.

Following a responsibility group meeting, the coordinator, or the person responsible for writing the minutes, must enter new information into the individual plan. It is important that this matches the parents' experience of the meeting. Goals and sub-goals, who is responsible for implementation and follow-up, etc. must also be updated and entered into the IP. How this is done depends on whether you have a digital IP or a "paper version". If the plan is not digital or if there are participants in the responsibility group meetings who do not have access to the IP, the updated plan can be sent out to the relevant participants - if the parents so wish.

In any case, the aim is to spare the parents some of the coordination role they otherwise have to take on with sick children and/or children with functional variations.

Example of bodies/persons who can participate in responsibility group meetings

The office/case manager in the municipality that has responsibility for assistance/relief/health and care services
Occupational and/or physiotherapist in the municipality
Kindergarten and school employees (managers/employees in kindergarten, principal, social worker, inspector, contact teacher, environmental worker, health nurse and/or special education teacher, etc.)
PPT (Pedagogical and psychological service), including special education/speech therapist
Statped
Health nurse (health station/school health service)
GP
The specialist health service (follow-up doctor, liaison nurse, HABU (Child and Adolescent Rehabilitation), BUP (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, social worker, hospital coordinator)
Housing office
NAV Help Center
Child psychologist
Family centre/family protection office
Child protection

The advantage of having regular responsibility group meetings is that it provides room for discussion, problem solving and ideas together with several involved parties around the child and family. It is also extremely important that the participants actual listens to what the different agencies think about matters surrounding the child, because everyone has different expertise and experience. In any case, the alpha and omega is that the parents are taken seriously and listened to, because the parents become experts on their children and sit on a completely unique knowledge of that particular child.

When you have a new responsibility group meeting, you should be able to expect that the various agencies have worked with the goals you have set and followed up on the child in accordance with The IP. The bodies must be able to give a summary and feedback on how and what they have worked on, where in the process they are in terms of goal achievement, and possibly what you think is useful further.

In these meetings, one may also find it appropriate that some bodies work more closely than others. It can sometimes be useful for parents to have meetings with one or more of the responsibility group between the responsibility group meetings, e.g. if you are working with something completely concrete or intensive, or just to hold the threads, which will again be referred to in the next responsibility group meeting. It can give parents both security and control over their own lives. If you have a digital IP, it may be enough to update it at regular intervals and send messages internally between meetings.

It can also be easier to raise an issue when there are several famous people around a table, than it can be to have to raise it on your own in a large responsibility group meeting.

Practice

The coordinator in the municipality contacts parents before a new responsibility group meeting to find out who will be invited and when
Parents can contact the coordinator in the municipality at any time to request a new responsibility group meeting
The coordinator in the municipality sends out a notice and meeting agenda to the relevant participants with the date and place of the responsibility group meeting
The coordinator collects any cases, waivers, any new information that needs to be read up
The coordinator is most often the moderator (holds the floor in the meeting) in the order stated in the notice, and is happy to let one by one have the floor for an update from each individual party
You often start with the parents, who will talk about the situation at home and otherwise how they experience it
The coordinator, or another selected participant, keeps minutes and/or enters the information in the individual plan
Parents should get the minutes to read through and possibly correct after the meeting

Tips

Never go to responsibility group meetings alone!
You decide who will take part in the responsibility group meetings - no one else
Take notes in advance so that you don't forget what you are going to cover and want to say
Sit at the end of the table - balance of power
Ask open-ended questions if you feel you are overrun or disagree (e.g. "Why do you think this is best, even if we parents say otherwise?")
Some parents like to take their update/status at the end the opening round (according to the agencies) in the meeting, because they can then respond to/correct things that have been said along the way
Always distribute tasks/responsibilities between the bodies/participants in the IP so that you parents avoid being stuck with all the follow-up and all the work anyway

Legislation / guidelines

The Directorate of Health's supervisor on Cooperation on services for children, young people and their families

The Directorate of Health's supervisor on Rehabilitation, habilitation, individual plan and coordinator

The Health and Care Services Act

Section 7-1.Individual plan

The municipality must draw up an individual plan for patients and users with a need for long-term and coordinated services in accordance with the law here. The municipality must collaborate with other service providers on the plan to contribute to a holistic offer for the individual.

If a patient or user needs services both under this Act and the Specialist Health Services Act or the Mental Health Protection Act, the municipality must ensure that an individual plan is drawn up, and that planning work is coordinated.

The King in Council may, in regulations, make further provisions on which patient and user groups the duty covers under the first paragraph, and on the content of individual plans.

The Patient and User Rights Act

§ 2-5.Right to an individual plan

Patients and users who need long-term and coordinated health and care services have the right to have an individual plan drawn up in accordance with the provisions of the Health and Care Services Act, the Specialist Health Services Act and act on the establishment and implementation of mental health care.