CARPE  - in short 

Needs and problems
The Disability Services are a specific area of their own, but, as The National Board of Health and Welfare has observed, the limited competence development that the employees within the Services receive is often based on the needs of the services for the care of the elderly instead. There is a marked shortage of courses tailored to the specific needs of the Disability Services. The care of disabled has undergone great changes since the responsibility for this care was transferred from the county to the local authorities: new users come from their family homes instead of institutions, the technical development has been significant, diagnoses have changed, and more users have a non-Swedish cultural background. Based on the description of competence development needs that managers and employees in six municipalities gave during the pre-project it became apparent that the employees have not received enough competence development to be able to keep up with these changes.

Aim 
The main aims of this project are

• to raise awareness of the care of disabled among decision makers at national, regional and local level, and among prospective employees as well as schools
  
  
• to jointly create specific forms of competence development based on the needs that were identified in the pre-project
  
  
• to carry out competence development, evaluate it and make necessary changes
  
  
• to further develop a network model for learning and development which can be used by competence representatives and others within competence development 
  
  
• to further develop places of work with a high degree of mutual trust where existing qualifications are made the most of and every co-worker’s development is promoted
  
  
• to start a regional and national discussion as a step towards a common terminology for the care of disabled 
  
  
• to seize the opportunity that this project affords of paving the way for a future “Centre for Learning and Development within Disability Services in Stockholm County”
  
  

Implementation
At the start the project will include employees of all professions within the municipal Disability Services of the City of Stockholm (project owner), Järfälla, Sollentuna, Tyresö, Huddinge and the City of Lidingö. One aim is that the number of participating municipalities will increase during the project. Cooperation partners are The National Board of Health and Welfare, the County Administrative Board in Stockholm, Stockholm County Council Habilitation Services, and Kommunal (the Swedish Municipal Workers’ Union) at national level. Cooperation will be sought with all organisations within Stockholm County that are interested in developing the Disability Services further as well as with national organisations that are important for the care of disabled.

Participation is not enough for a project to be successful, participants also have to feel a sense of joint-ownership. Therefore this project has a network organisation with managers and competence representatives as well as reference- and workgroups with a wide participation from all municipalities. 
This project affords a large number of individuals on different levels the possibility to discuss problems and solutions with colleagues from other municipalities as well as meet them in joint courses.