The government, led by Minister for Social Affairs Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M) and the Sweden Democrats, presented a budget proposal on Wednesday to strengthen preventive measures for children and young people.
Today, we are presenting new measures to break the very cynical recruitment of children and young people by criminal networks, says Waltersson Grönvall.
Increased appropriations
The National Board of Institutional Care, SiS, is proposed to receive increased appropriations of 696 million kronor next year. The funds are needed, among other things, for the authority to be able to allocate places immediately when needed.
Last summer, the National Board of Institutional Care, SiS, went into crisis mode due to a lack of places. The reason was the dramatic increase in the number of young people sentenced to closed youth care.
The Minister for Social Affairs cannot say how many new places the extra funds for next year will provide. However, she hopes that the most acute shortage of places will soon be alleviated.
New places will be available this fall. I hope that it will be resolved in the coming months, says Waltersson Grönvall.
Funds for municipalities
The government is also proposing 200 million kronor extra for municipalities in a targeted effort to make social services work more crime-preventively.
In addition, 221 million is proposed for next year to address serious deficiencies in family homes, emergency foster care, supported housing, and homes for care or accommodation (HVB), including special youth homes.
There is a great need to strengthen the care chain for children and young people, says Minister for Education Lotta Edholm (L).
The existing state grant for school social teams is being extended and strengthened with 300 million in 2025. They are a collaboration between schools and social services to increase student attendance and provide support at an early stage.
The National Board of Institutional Care, SiS, conducts individually adapted compulsory care and implements closed youth care.
The authority has 21 special youth homes with 709 places and ten LVM homes with 309 places for the care of adult substance abusers.
SiS has approximately 4,000 permanent employees.
Source: SiS website