Under the Integration Act, the integration plan can also be drawn up for a family.
The municipality is responsible for drawing up the integration plan for a family. When the need to draw up a plan for a family is being assessed, special consideration is given to the requirements of parenthood supporting and guiding the development of the child or the young person and to the need of the parents for support and training.
The integration plan for a family is drawn up in multi-sectoral cooperation and coordinated with individual integration plans and other plans drawn up for the family members.
The integration plan for a family is a useful tool, for example, when the family's situation has raised an official’s concerns or a network of many different actors already works with the family.
The needs of an immigrant family may concern the following matters
- organising childcare or early childhood education and care
- supporting children’s schoolwork
- caring for and looking after sick or disabled family members
- housing arrangements.
Organising the care of the children outside home gives the immigrant parent caring for the child at home an opportunity to participate in regular activities that promote integration. Excluding parents from measures promoting integration slows down language learning, participation in the local community and society and thus makes it more difficult for the family to manage their affairs, support the integration of the children and realise their own further plans.
Participation in early childhood education and care supports the integration and language learning of the immigrant family’s child and development of the other abilities the child will need at school. The child’s individual early childhood education plan can be coordinated with the family’s integration plan.
It is advisable to agree on the services concerning the whole family in the integration plan especially when the customer is
- a family with a background involving trauma (children and/or parents)
- a family with substance abuse
- a family in which the risk of domestic violence has been observed
- a family in need of special support because of an illness or disability.
Offering preventive measures that promote the whole family's integration is an important part of the family’s integration plan. For example, the following can be recorded in the family’s integration plan: available support forms from healthcare, the mental health sector, substance abuse services and work with children, and a plan for guiding the family to these services.
Read more:
Family Federation of Finland: Kotoutujan kompassi (Only in Finnish)
Integration plan for a minor (Only in Finnish)
