Educational assistance

Definition - What is a parental authority?

An educational assistance is an independent, public and specific service offer in the field of youth welfare for education, which is anchored in Book VIII of the Social Code. The educational support service is for families who have problems with their underage children, mostly development-related problems, and who cannot resolve conflicts without outside help.
Parents or persons who have custody can voluntarily apply for legal guardianship. The parents are provided with support that can not only provide advice, but also seek solutions to the trouble spots on site, such as at school.

What are the tasks of a parental authority?

With a parenting assistance, families with problems within the family are helped. Parents have conflicts with their children that they cannot resolve without outside help. The educational support tries to resolve these conflicts so that the children or parents, for example, are no longer under emotional pressure and are relieved.
In addition, the main task of the educational assistance is to develop family structures that enable the child or young person in the family to develop optimally and create the prerequisites for the best possible educational care.

The child is not only supported in difficult situations, but also receives support in coming to terms with and coping with everyday life. The child is supported by an educational specialist. This specialist also has the task of intervening in the event that the child's well-being is at risk.

Furthermore, the specialist not only deals with the child, but also makes it their task to examine the child's social environment and, if necessary, to include it in problem-solving if there are also sources of conflict there. This also includes school for children who, for example, skip a lot or have problems with classmates at school.
In the event that a child is undersupplied, the legal guardian takes over the tasks of the parents in order to ensure optimal care for the child.

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What are the goals of a parenting agency?

The aim of the educational support is to support a child in his or her personality development through socio-educational, individual achievements and thus give the child the opportunity to develop into a self-reliant young adult with a personality capable of community. The help is particularly aimed at development-related problems that cannot be solved within the family.
The educational support team supports the family not only with development problems involving the child's social environment, but also with the promotion or training of an independent lifestyle for the child, taking into account the family environment. One of the goals of the educational assistance is to encourage a child so that he or she gains a subjective ability to act, especially in critical life situations in which conflicts prevail and the emotional balance is endangered.

Furthermore, the educational support should give the child or young person a healthy sense of self-worth and help them to successfully solve problems that do not only exist in the family. This also includes successfully coping with school requirements, dealing with people of the same age at school or with friends, or establishing contact with people of the same age for the first time if there was no previous contact. This not only looks at where the deficits of the person lie, but also which resources the person brings and which should be promoted.

You can find out everything about the topic at: Educational goals

Which methods are used?

The guardianship acts as an advisor within a family in which conflict is prevalent. She advises on everyday questions and problems and on improving communication between parents and children, so that parents learn to better understand their children and their needs. Conversely, parents should also learn to have realistic expectations of their child.

Furthermore, the parenting worker can take on the role of mediator and mediate between home, school or training center and the young person. For example, conversations between the teacher and the child can be organized by the educational assistant, accompanied by the assistant.

In order to be able to build a trusting relationship with the family, regular meetings take place between the family, the child and the supporter. In these meetings, the supporter uses the time to jointly set up rules that are not only implemented within the framework of the support, but are also generally observed.

The rules always relate to previously agreed goals or educational goals that the family wants to achieve. Correspondingly, one method of educational support is to grasp the problems within the family, to work out goals together with the family and to support the family in achieving these goals. The parents are always strengthened in their ability to bring up children and trained through parenting work.

Are you interested in this topic? You can read more about this in the next article: Parental advice

How do I apply for a legal guardian?

At the youth welfare office or a counseling center for educational assistance, all the necessary forms that they must fill out are made available to the applicant for a parenting assistance. Information about the family's living situation and the child's life path must be disclosed in the application.

After submitting the application, it will be checked and evaluated to determine whether parenting assistance is really necessary and helpful. If the application is accepted, the first contact takes place between the young person and the legal guardian.

Where do I apply for it?

When applying for a legal guardianship, the applicant must contact the youth welfare office or an advice center run by a private agency for an initial interview with the district social service. The young person or the parents apply to the responsible district social worker for a legal guardian, this act does not cause the applicant any costs.

Who bears the costs?

A parental authority is a social benefit. These serve to implement social justice, so that a humane existence is protected and so that people can develop their personality freely. Accordingly, the state (the youth welfare office) bears the costs for an educational assistance and covers them with the gross domestic product.
An exception can be juvenile offenders, for whom the court prescribes a legal guardian. The youth welfare office may not cover the costs for them.

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