Zoetermeer tackles youth care more sharply
Municipality of Zoetermeer has a major financial problem with the increasing cost of special Youth Care. Therefore, the college is changing its approach to special help for children and youth. Alderman Marijke van der Meer emphasizes that most children in Zoetermeer are doing well and the number of children in need of care is stable: "It is mainly the costs of it that are now skyrocketing. If we want the facilities that are important for all children - such as libraries, sports and culture and city farms - to remain open, we really have to ensure that youth care costs a lot less money," warns Van der Meer.
The College proposes measures to the City Council to make the costs of Youth Care affordable and manageable again. Alderman Van der Meer distinguishes three groups of children: the majority of children who are doing well, children with a simple request for help and children who have serious problems with learning, behavior, who are difficult to raise or other psychological problems. Van der Meer: "It is important that Zoetermeer children who really need help from specialists, or who cannot live at home because of circumstances, continue to receive good help with as little waiting time as possible. But also for the children with a simple request for help we want to continue to ensure that they can continue to grow up in a good way."
In a message to the city council, the college announces that the cost of regionally procured aid has increased from just under 50 million euros in 2022 to an expected more than 71 million euros in 2024. In addition, the Zoetermeer municipality spends money on other help for young people and on prevention.
Municipality of Zoetermeer is not the only municipality struggling with cost increases; it is a trend that is visible nationwide. Because Zoetermeer has purchased a lot of care and still organizes relatively little itself, the municipality is extra affected by the increase. Also nationally, the number of children receiving special assistance is high but fairly stable. The increase in costs is mainly caused by the fact that increasingly heavy and expensive help is being offered. In addition, the assistance processes take a long time.
Reforming Youth Care
The college has proposed to the council to reform youth care in Zoetermeer. For example, the council wants to prevent assistance processes as much as possible and, if necessary, to shorten them. Zoetermeer wants to make good agreements with care providers about the timeframes for completing offered help. Another important change is that there will be less one-on-one help and more help in small groups. Youth will then only qualify for individual help if it is really not possible to help them in groups. "Of course we will make sure that we have appropriate help ready for children and youth in Zoetermeer who need it as much as possible," Van der Meer emphasizes: "We will therefore organize the so-called access to youth care in such a way that we can see when specialized help is really needed, and when we can help the youth or their parents with a few conversations via Meerpunt or the Youth Information Point (JIP). In doing so, we have to make sure that we mainly address the cause of the problems and help the youth by helping their parents."
The City Council is expected to meet on the proposed measures in September.
