The Norwegian Child Welfare Services (Norwegian: Barnevernet, literally "child protection") are the public agencies responsible for child welfare in Norway. They consist of services in each municipality, which are aided and supervised by different governmental bodies at the state as well as the county level.
Contents
- Organisation
- Support and assistance
- Duties
- Statistics
- National and international criticism
- Relevant legislation
- References
The Child Welfare Services’ statutory obligation is "to ensure that children and youth who live in conditions that may be detrimental to their health and development receive the necessary assistance and care at the right time." Roughly 3% of all children in Norway receive some sort of measure from the Child Welfare Services, most of them in the form of relief measures to the child and its parents (such as counselling, advice, external support contacts, access to day care etc.). In about one quarter of the cases, the children are placed outside their homes (mainly in foster families or institutions) after care orders.
Organisation
The Norwegian Child Welfare Services were established, and their activities are regulated, by the Child Welfare Act of 1992, which has the purpose "to ensure that children and youth who live in conditions that may be detrimental to their health and development receive the necessary assistance and care at the right time," and "to help ensure children and youth grow up in a secure environment"
The superior authority in the field of child welfare in Norway is the Ministry of Children and Equality (Norwegian Barne- og likestillingsdepartementet, abbreviated BLD). The Ministry is responsible for developing regulations and guidelines, but is not involved in individual cases.
Each Norwegian municipality is obliged to have Child Welfare Services. These are responsible for the local and day-to-day implementation of the Child Welfare Act (such as preventive work, investigation, support service, approval of foster families, follow-up of children placed in foster families or institutions). This "municipal child welfare" is aided by two agencies that constitute the "governmental child welfare":
In addition, the following bodies at the county level are involved in child welfare:
Support and assistance
The Child Welfare Services are responsible for implementing measures for children and their families in situations where there are special needs in relation to the home environment. Assistance may be provided as counselling, advisory services, and aid measures, including external support contacts, relief measures in the home, and access to day care.
Under the guidelines of the Norwegian Child Welfare Services, children are entitled to participate in decisions involving their personal welfare, and have the right to state their views in accordance with their age and level of maturity. This applies especially in cases where there are administrative and legal proceedings that will strongly affect the children's day-to-day lives.
Duties
The Child Welfare Services are required to take action if measures implemented in the home environment are not sufficient to safeguard the child's needs. In such cases, the Child Welfare Service in consultation with the parents may place children under foster care, in a child welfare institution, or introduce specific parent–child measures.
Removing a child from the home without parental consent is a measure of last resort in cases of (justifiable suspicion of) serious neglect, maltreatment, violence, abuse, trafficking etc. This requires a decision from the County Social Welfare Board on the basis of a recommendation submitted by the municipal authorities. In urgent cases (i.e. imminent danger for the physical or mental health of the child), the municipal welfare services are entitled (and obliged) to issue a provisional care order. Provisional care orders expire after six weeks unless they are confirmed by the County Social Welfare Board. Decisions taken by the County Social Welfare Board may only be overturned by the courts.
The municipal Child Welfare Services are charged with monitoring the development of children who have been placed in care outside their homes as well as their parents.
Child Welfare Service employees are privy to a large amount of personal client information, and must comply with strict rules of confidentiality. However, information may be provided to other administrative agencies when this is necessary for carrying out child welfare service tasks.
Statistics
According to figures provided by Statistics Norway, 36,800 children received measures from the Norwegian Child Welfare Services at the end of 2015. This means that 2.9% of all children in Norway received some sort of measure. Of these, 12% were aged 0–2 years, 23% 3–5 years, 30% 6–12 years, and 35% 13–17 years. In addition, 6,800 young people aged 18–22 years (1.1% of their age class) received follow-up care.
60% of the 36,800 children received support measures within their families. 16% received support measures while placed outside their homes with the consent of their parents. In the remainder 24% of the cases, children were placed outside their homes after care orders. Of the 14,850 children living outside their homes by the end of 2015, 72% lived in foster families, 14% were old enough to live by themselves with follow-up from the Child Welfare Services, and 8% were taken care of in institutions, while 5% where temporarily placed in private homes awaiting other solutions.
The main reasons for measures (both support measures and care measures) were lacking parenting skills (29%), parents’ mental problems (17%), high domestic conflict level (11%) and parents’ drug misuse (8%).
Statistics Norway has also published some figures according to immigration status: while 2.2% of all children with Norwegian parents received measures, the corresponding figures were 3.2% for children born in Norway by immigrant parents, and 4.9% for immigrant children. The latter group includes minor asylum seekers arriving without parents.
National and international criticism
The Norwegian Child Welfare Services are periodically the subject of public criticism, generally on two main issues. On the one hand, they are criticised for detecting too few cases of parental neglect and helping children too late (i.e., for having a too high threshold for taking action). On the other hand, they are criticised for taking over custody too easily (i.e., for having a too low threshold for taking action). Due to their duty of confidentiality, the Norwegian Child Welfare Services themselves cannot participate in public debates of single cases.
The Norwegian Child Welfare Services are obliged to ensure the well-being of all children residing in Norway, irrespective of their (or their parents’) nationality. While Norwegian legislation, following the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, treats children as legal subjects in their own rights, some cultures regard children as the sole responsibility of the family. In several cases, therefore, culture clashes seem to exacerbate conflicts between the Child Welfare Services and immigrant parents.