CBP: What is a social welfare coordinator and how does it help children and adolescents in school? | Experts | Moms and dads

The new course has started in most of the autonomous communities and with it a new figure has been welcomed to join the schools: the Welfare and Protection Coordinator (CBP). This is a new position created thanks to the Law for the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents against Violence, whose functions are, according to Ana Cobos, president of the Confederation of Psychopedagogical and Guidance Organizations in Spain (COPOE), “to provide students with emotional well-being, be aware of crises, act in prevention programs and be on the side of students in situations that can change their physical, mental and social health”.

That is, try to end situations that affect minors and that affect everyone. For example him bullying Data provided by UNESCO in 2020 justify this concern: every third student is a victim of bullying. Globally, 32% of students between the ages of 11 and 15 have been bullied by their peers. For its part, the non-governmental organization Torture Without Borders reported just a few months ago 11,229 serious cases of bullying between January 2021 and February 2022 in Spanish schools.

A necessary figure against bullying and violence

Ramiro A. Ortegon Delgadillo, president of the PDA Bullying Platform and director of the UNIR School Harassment Master, points out other issues that the welfare and protection coordinator should pay special attention to. On the one hand, the issue of sexual abuse: “In Spain, every fifth child is victimized in cases of sexual abuse against children,” he specifies. On the other hand, violence between adolescent couples: “There is a higher prevalence at this vital stage.”

Given these data, Ortegon is convinced that this figure is necessary: ​​”Families must take care of individual well-being. But there is an entity in the centers that we fathers and mothers do not have in our homes, which is called a group. Teachers are responsible for ensuring that children and adolescents relate to and from well-being or co-existence when in the group. It’s an even more complicated question when today the boundaries of the group are blurring beyond the classroom thanks to the possibilities that the Internet gives us.”

Greater prevention and detection of cases

The director of the UNIR School Harassment Master assures that from this course and especially in the medium term, the work of this new figure will begin to bear fruit. And it will do so in terms of both prevention and detection. “It should be noted in a greater number of preventive actions, coordinated with each other and with a strategic sense towards a healthier life. Also in greater detection of risky situations, not because there are more, but because we have not seen them before, since we have not been present. It should also be noted that with a better design of response to open cases, specialized professionals imply better trained professionals,” he maintains.

In this sense, Ana Cobos would choose “strengthening the orientation department instead of creating a new figure”. In fact, a teacher or professor will be responsible for coordinating juvenile welfare. The consultant believes that this is a job for which “the appropriate training is psychopedagogy. The appropriate thing would be to increase the ratio of guidance departments so that they are responsible for this work”.

Better communication with students and families

In any case, it would imply, at least in theory, an improvement in student communication with the center in cases of harassment. “The Welfare and Protection Co-ordinator will be responsible for coordinating teams of boys and girls and young people who help improve co-existence by detecting possible cases. But you will also be the person to go to when there is a signal; someone who really knows what to do and what to say to the student when there is a problem. To me, that’s one of the real changes or improvements.”

As for families, they will also notice your existence. “The response we have to give as parents to any indication of violence or abuse should be to communicate with the center through CBP, but let me not just talk about the number. Our role in the family is also important, regardless of the role our child is placed in. After all, when there is violence, there is more or less conscious pain”.

Baby, primary and secondary

The CBP figure will be present in all centers where there are minors, that is, primary and secondary schools. A good choice, because although adolescence is the time when most conflicts arise, they have been brewing in childhood. “Prevention work in nursery and primary schools is essential for good mental health throughout life. These are years in which the foundations of the emotional future are laid. Besides, boys and girls are like mushrooms, like tender stems, much easier to mold for learning. Even the plasticity of the brain in these stages is greater”, says Ana Kobos.

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