Regulate scarce youth aid

There is much talk in the Netherlands about the quality and accessibility of youth care. The newspapers are full of it and politics is overflowing with it. Vulnerable young people and families have to deal with waiting lists too often, municipalities and providers say they have too little money for a solid assistance program.

By 2020, the Netherlands made 429,000 young people under 23 use youth assistance. These are one in 10 young people. About five percent 3 require this special, infrequent youth assistance. In total, these are
20,000 young people. Remarkably, this involves about twenty-five percent of the indicated costs for youth aid. And if we add in all the other costs, it even amounts to thirty to forty percent of the cost of youth aid. So while it is rare, it does involve a lot of money.

So here we are dealing with a small group of vulnerable children, youth and families, with high social costs, where for many reasons it is complicated to organize the necessary care. We all agree that vulnerable young people deserve the help they need. No one denies that something needs to be done about this. The only question is: what exactly needs to be done – and how?

System change as a sustainable solution

Part of the best solution to this issue is a modest change in the way these forms of care are purchased. Administratively and politically, this is not the fastest and simplest solution. However, in our view it is one of the most effective solutions that can structurally solve the scarcity of special forms of youth care.

However, this is not applied or solved within a few months. To avoid waiting for this, we additionally offer in this publication an outline of solutions for regions. This will allow you to get started right away on improving the covering care landscape.

joel muniz fLhghqC2Jp4 unsplash scaled e1732217951691

Scarce facilities – publication

We hope to inspire you with this edition and see with us (new) opportunities to further improve the Dutch healthcare system and thus make a difference for those families to whom help does not arrive as easily.