Deliberative Decision-Making on the Norwegian County Social Welfare Board: The Experiences of Expert and Lay Members

Barnevernet kan gjennomføre adopsjoner av fosterbarn uten biologiske foreldres samtykke. Dette representerer en betydelig utøvelse av statlig makt, og norsk rett krever saerlig tungtveiende grunner for å tillate adopsjon. Det er også sjelden slike adopsjoner gjøres i Norge. Artikkelen undersøker hvordan befolkningen vurderer adopsjon som barneverntiltak, og om de er på linje med politikerne og retten i dette spørsmålet. Vi har gjennomført en surveyundersøkelse til et representativt utvalg (n = 1000) av den norske befolkningen om synet på barnevernsadopsjon. Resultatene fra studien viser at befolkningen generelt synes å vaere positive til adopsjon som tiltak i barnevernet, og at politikerne synes å vaere på linje med befolkningen. Synet på verdien av biologiske bånd i befolkningen varierer med politisk orientering, alder, kjønn og inntekt, men majoriteten er av den oppfatning at fordelene med adopsjon trumfer verdien av biologiske bånd. Når det kommer til bruk av tvang, er befolkningen delt i sitt syn. Vi tror våre funn skyldes at et barneperspektiv har fått større plass i det norske samfunnet.

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“…. De folkevalgte medlemmene trekkes etter samme vilkår og prosedyre som juryordningen for domstolene, cf Skivenes & Tonheim (2016)…”

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Adopsjon eller offentlig omsorg? Enstudie av befolkningens syn på adopsjon som tiltak i barnevernet

Helland

Pedersen

Skivenes

2020

TfS

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“…Hence, social workers experience personal pressure in these processes (Beckett et al, 2007). Making a poor decision may have dramatic consequences for the parties involved and for the legitimacy of the service (Skivenes & Tonheim, 2017). The work often takes place under stressful conditions within critical office climates and amid diminishing resources (Engstrom, 2016; Juhasz & Skivenes, 2016; Miranda & Godwin, 2018; Taylor et al, 2008).…”

Section: Setting the Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Child protection work is dual by nature, combining aspects of care and control (Featherstone et al, 2014, p. 1). Moreover, child welfare services' (CWS) decision‐making is largely based on professional competence, discretion (Skivenes & Tonheim, 2017) and normative understandings of children's well‐being (Berrick et al, 2015, 2016). Thus, due to CWS caseworkers' power, exploring and challenging their perceptions and reasoning are significant (Featherstone et al, 2014; Samsonsen & Turney, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breaking bad news: Child welfare workers' informing parents of care order proceedings

Otterlei

Studsrød

2021

Child & Family Social Work

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Removing children from parents through care orders is a highly intrusive intervention. This article explores how 12 experienced Norwegian child welfare workers perceive and cope with breaking bad news to parents of the decision for a care order initiative.A thematic analysis of qualitative in-depth interviews revealed that the task of breaking bad news to parents includes several challenging aspects involving ethics, care and control that are influenced by relational and emotional aspects. Caseworkers felt obligated to convey the decision humanely and caretake children and parents, ensuring safety, determinacy and control. Caseworkers struggled to endure heightened emotions, handle the painful switch from helper to traitor and cope with an extreme though necessary intervention of child protection work. Care order meetings are complex and unpredictable and challenge child welfare workers professional and human capacity, as it represents considerable professional and personal demands.The article discusses the challenges of breaking bad news in the child protection profession compared with professions in the health care field. Moreover, discussing how caseworkers' coping strategies may impact their practice and highlights caseworkers' burden with the task, pointing to practical implications.

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“…In Denmark the decision making regarding voluntary out-of-home placements is usually organised in the same way, even though the municipalities' self-governance means that there might be differences within the country (Servicestyrelsen 2011). The authority to decide on coercive out-of-home placements in these countries is shared between laypersons, child-welfare experts, and judges, which means a combination of knowledge perspectives (BEK 1127 af 24/09/2015; Skivenes and Tonheim 2017).…”

Section: Professionalized Hybrid and Layperson Decision-making Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Professionalised, hybrid, and layperson models in Nordic child protection - actors in decision-making in out of home placements

Hultman

Forkby

Höjer

2018

Nordic Social Work Research

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Decisions about child protection and interventions in families are one of the most difficult responsibilities of welfare states. The aim of this article is to describe and analyse the commonalities and differences in the child protection decision-making systems in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. We focus on the actors involved, especially the laypersons, and their role in the decision-making process when deciding on out-ofhome placements, both on voluntary and coercive grounds.The study is based on a comprehensive analysis of official documents, legislation, guidelines, and reports about child protection in each country together with a review of recent research in the area. This is complemented by 12 interviews with key informants with knowledge about the child protection systems in their respective countries.We found that there is an expanding influence from external experts and dwindling influence from laypersons. We discuss the organisation in terms of three different decision-making modelsa professionalised decision-making model in Finland, a hybrid decision-making model in Norway and Denmark, and a layperson decision-making model in Sweden. One conclusion is that all of the countries aim for children to be involved and for decisions to be made in compliance with the rule of law, but this is realised quite differently when it comes to which actors should be given the authority to make the decisions. Which model is the best would have different answers depending on which perspective the models are evaluated from. However, the consequences of decisionmaking models for children need to be studied further.

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Deliberative Decision-Making on the Norwegian County Social Welfare Board: The Experiences of Expert and Lay Members

Cited by 14 publications

References 31 publications

Adopsjon eller offentlig omsorg? Enstudie av befolkningens syn på adopsjon som tiltak i barnevernet

Adopsjon eller offentlig omsorg? Enstudie av befolkningens syn på adopsjon som tiltak i barnevernet

Breaking bad news: Child welfare workers' informing parents of care order proceedings

Professionalised, hybrid, and layperson models in Nordic child protection - actors in decision-making in out of home placements

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