Samverkan och prioritering av tillsyn i skolor - Mot ett socialt hållbart Malmö

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to explore how the Environmental Health Department in Malmö Sweden can apply local recommendations to reduce systematic health inequities in their regulation and monitoring of the indoor environments at elementary and junior high schools, aiming ultimately at a more socially just society. The study was comprised of qualitative interviews exploring synergy possibilities between regulatory agencies and school authorities as well as a GIS-based visualization investigating prioritization of resources and the relation between a school’s indoor quality and the socioeconomic status of its neighborhood based on residents’ highest level of education. The main synergy opportunities between regulatory officials were identified to be sharing of information and experience as well as coordinating inspections and coercive measures in an effort to avoid redundancies and eliminate overlap. The main areas of improvement between the Environmental Health Department and school officials were identified to be increased dialog and boosting the Environmental Health Departments advising role. The study also revealed that coordination of efforts had previously been undermined by high employee turnover, reorganization and poorly defined forms of collaboration. Regular meetings and contact people were identified to be effective ways of creating continuity and communication between organizations necessary for coordinating efforts and improving synergy in the future. Based on the GIS visualization no apparent relation could be identified between a school´s indoor quality and the socioeconomic status of its neighborhood. Data for schools in more underprivileged areas was however underrepresented which may have influenced the results. Among schools that have not been inspected by the Environmental Health Department or the Swedish Work Environment Authority between 2012-2015, two clusters of schools in neighborhoods with a lower level of education were identified that should be prioritized for inspection. The GIS study visualized that problems such as cleaning and ventilation are widespread and can be targeted most effectively at a central level rather than placing demands on individual schools.