Every year, thousands of children stay at least one night at women’s shelters in Sweden with their guardian. At shelters the violence stops, but children’s rights are at stake. To be exposed to violence against a parent or be subjected to violence directly can lead to trauma later in life. A safe environment with healthy relationships with adults that understand the consequences of abuse may be a support for the child´s recovery. However, children may have additional needs of support while staying at the shelter or there might be gaps in services when children leave the shelter.

During 2021-2022 five organizations have been working together in the project AVEC – After the violence to improve the situation for children in shelters: Save the Children Sweden, Children´s Welfare Foundation Sweden, the Gothenburg Church City Mission Foundation, Marie Cederschiöld University (former Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College) and Barnafrid -National Centre on Violence Against Children at Linköping University. The project was based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the EU Charter, Directive 2019/29/EU and the Istanbul Convention. The overall objective of the AVEC project was the following: With a child rights approach, increase and improve protection and support for children at women’s shelters who are victims of domestic violence; increase the children’s mental well-being during and after their stay at the shelter.

Through the AVEC project a working model called the “Puzzle” has been developed. The Puzzle consists of five puzzle pieces: 1) trauma informed care, 2) participation and information, 3) play and activity, 4) child centred cooperation, and 5) violence informed case management. The current report concerns the piece “child centred cooperation” (4). The report describes the work to design, pilot and evaluate model for multi-agency and multi-disciplinary coordination involving women’s shelters and social services, based on a child rights perspective, current research, and existing legislation.

The work resulted in the IDEAL model for child centred cooperation which is outlined in the second part of this report. The model concerns different stages of the placement process, specifically aims and activities when children are coming into the shelter (I), during placement (D), when planning for and exiting the shelter (E), at the transition to life after the shelter stay (A), and finally activities securing a more long-term situation that aids children’s recovery (L). The model is focused upon cooperation between statutory services, that is, agencies making decisions on placements of adults or children at a women’s shelter and agencies responsible for child welfare investigations, as well as agencies offering support to victims of violence, and women’s shelters and similar.