Frontline Professionals Performing Collaborative Work with Low-Income Families: Challenges across Organizational Boundaries

Abstract

This article discusses certain challenges relating to interagency collaboration between the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) and Child Welfare Services (CWS). We have asked what obstacles to holistic work with low-income families who receive measures from NAV and CWS simultaneously can be identified. The departure point is collaboration on a local project at the municipal level. The differences between the views of the individual services (and the mandates based on these views) with regard to parental obligations have proved challenging. Using the theory of institutional logic, we have explored how different logics have influenced these services’ approaches to parenthood and the significance of these influences for interagency collaboration. We have also investigated how caseworkers in the two services have managed to create reflective spaces for negotiating and bridging various understandings to create new ways of working together. In addition to collecting and analysing data, our task as researchers has been to facilitate joint working processes in the project. The article is based on interviews with caseworkers from both services, discussions during two workshops, and a subsequent dialogue seminar with employees from the two services.