Integration and differentiation in collaboration between services for youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The need for a holistic social work-like approach to labour market inclusion is widely acknowledged. When considering the case of youth not in employment, education, or training (NEETs), services from different public service organisations are often needed. To succeed in providing holistic, integrated services, interagency collaboration is necessary. Drawing on 24 semi-structured interviews with managers and practitioners, this paper aims to investigate how services in different municipalities work to enable integrated service delivery to NEETs with complex problems. The study takes place in six Norwegian municipalities, three of which had higher NEET shares than predicted and three with lower NEET shares. The municipalities are compared to explore whether there are systematic differences and similarities regarding the collaboration between services for young people in vulnerable situations. The findings suggest that the municipalities with lower NEET shares than predicted had more integrated services compared to those with higher NEET shares. The municipalities handled differentiation in collaboration differently. In the municipalities with higher NEET shares, differentiation had caused disconnections between services, while the municipalities with lower NEET shares worked to achieve a common ground through strategies such as more extensive and closer collaboration, clearer communication, and more organised information sharing across services.