Introduction:
Professional education and training, such as social work and teacher education, provide students with expert knowledge and discipline specific theory and practice within respective field. However, students in social work and teacher education will, in their future line of work, meet the same persons and clients. For example, students in social work will meet children in exposed and vulnerable situations within social services. And students in teacher education will meet the same children in schools, with the same social problems, but with a different focus and perspective.
It is therefore important that higher education have interprofessional learning as a core theme in its programme syllabus. A respectful and well-coordinated collaboration between different profession-based education programmes can tip the scales to children’s positive wellbeing in both social work and education.
This study contributes with increased insight into the school's guidelines and how these guidelines affect school staff's work when there is suspicion or knowledge that a child is at risk. Furthermore, the study contributes with teachers' experiences of communication with social services, which can guide social services in their contact with schools. The collaboration can thus be improved to benefit the child's best interests, which is both the school's and social services' common goal. For future research, the authors of this study are interested in how social services perceive schools in communication and exploring what they consider to be limitations in communication.
The students referred to in this abstract will, in the future, work in different professions – as teachers and social workers – sometimes with the same young people. For several years, research has shown that teachers, from preschool to elementary and upper secondary school, feel the need for more support from social services regarding children's psychosocial health. In turn, social services experience difficulties receiving reports of concern and social problems without having communicated this with the teachers. Their work would benefit and be more preventive if teachers had a contact person within social services, and more importantly, children would benefit from this preventive collaboration.

Project description:
This project aims to give students in the teacher education program and the social work program a shared understanding of each other's professional roles and legal frameworks. Students in both disciplines will together receive and introductory lecture in law that concern both professions. Afterward, they will work together in workshops on a shared case that develops throughout the semester. By analysing and handling a fictional but realistic situation involving a child in school, students will gain practical experience in communicating and collaborating across professional boundaries. The project creates a valuable foundation for future careers where teachers and social services often need to collaborate to identify and act on concerns for children. Through this interprofessional learning during education, we can strengthen students' ability to work preventively and effectively in real situations – for the child's best interests.

Keywords: Interprofessional learning, Teacher-Social work collaboration, Child well-being, Preventive social work, Education and social services.