Norwegian Child Welfare Research Articles

Balancing power struggles: Understanding the dynamics between standards set by the government, adolescents, and staff at a therapeutic residential care facility

ABSTRACT During four days of observation at a therapeutic residential care (TRC) facility for adolescents with complex behavioral issues, we encountered a growing trend in the Norwegian child welfare system. High demand for institutional beds, along with reduced capacity in psychiatric services and the legal system, has led to increased reliance on the Duty to Assist obligation of the TRCs, administered by the Office for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufetat) in Norway. This obligation is legally binding, ensuring the provision of justifiable treatment. Our observations of staff interactions and documentation analysis of an adolescent, Peter, revealed that staff’s ability to deliver appropriate care and manage high-risk situations is constrained by governmental standards set through law and regulation. Through the theoretical lens of power and discretion, we found that the combination of forced treatment at open institutions, with a strong emphasis on user involvement, creates a power struggle. Without clear practice standards, staff are left to rely on their own competencies in managing conflicts, resulting in inconsistent and unpredictable interactions. This inconsistency increases the likelihood that Peter will resist the care and treatment being offered.

Whose children are we concerned about, and why? A cohort study of sociodemographic referral patterns to the Norwegian child welfare system

Whose children are we concerned about, and why? A cohort study of sociodemographic referral patterns to the Norwegian child welfare system

Examining the Complexities of Conducting Randomized Controlled Trials in Child Welfare Settings

ABSTRACT Background Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the gold standard for assessing the effectiveness of interventions. At the same time, it is challenging to evaluate interventions using experimental designs in child welfare settings. Objective This study explores the facilitators and challenges faced when carrying out a pilot RCT of a home-visitation intervention, Family Partner, that was implemented within Norwegian child welfare services. Method This study draws on 29 qualitative in-depth interviews and four focus group interviews that were carried out with child welfare workers, managers and stakeholders. Results Results revealed one facilitator and four challenges with carrying out RCTs in child welfare settings: The main facilitator was the staff’s belief in the intervention, while the challenges were 1) ethical concerns in participant recruitment and information sharing, 2) resource management challenges in randomization, 3) emotional strains in response to randomization, and 4) contamination between the intervention and control participants. Conclusion While we present possible solutions to the challenges, our results also highlight the importance of careful planning, preparation, piloting, and using mixed method research approaches when conducting RCTs within child welfare services.

The practice of zero tolerance: emergency placement by child welfare services in Norway

The article discusses the emergency placement of children by the Norwegian Child Welfare Services. Nine mothers were interviewed about their experiences of the transfer of care of their children. Several of the mothers had their children removed due to an emergency decision. The article focuses on one of these stories and analyses the way in which emergency placement can be seen as a form of communication and practice. The purpose of this article is to generate knowledge about how the concept of ‘zero tolerance’ is used to legitimise emergency placements and how this practice might cause more harm than benefits for individual children. The article’s analytical perspective is grounded in the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann.

From Fear and Distrust to Trust and Collaboration: Exploring Transitions in the Quality of Relationships in the Encounters Between Immigrant Parents and Child Welfare Services

This article examines the characteristics of transitions in the quality of relationships from fear and distrust to trust and collaboration in the encounters between immigrant parents and child welfare services and explores what these changes demonstrate about trust and collaboration within such contexts. The study draws on empirical data from interviews with ten immigrant parents who have experience with the Norwegian Child Welfare Services due to allegations of child abuse and/or neglect. The findings show that the transition from fear and distrust to trust and collaborative relations does not evolve in clearly defined phases but rather unfolds as a complex cyclical process. This process appears to involve fear, distrust, and uncooperative behavior as a point of departure but can, in some cases, develop into trusting and collaborative relations with disruption and restoration during the process. The characteristics of the transitions seem to demonstrate that parents can engage in trusting and collaborative relations amid institutional distrust, fear, and vulnerability, if they experience the encounter as meaningful. The turning points in this regard include the following: (1) parents’ experience of positive interactions and relational trust with child welfare professionals and (2) defining moments in the subsequent intervention process, including parents’ awareness that the intervention will not lead to child removal and/or the positive impacts of therapeutic intervention measures like parental training courses, counseling, and financial support.

Norwegian Child Welfare Managers’ perceptions of the impacts of COVID-19 infection control measures upon service functionality: A longitudinal study

This article examines Norway’s child welfare service managers’ perceptions of infection control measures on service functionality. The longitudinal study entailed nine rounds of surveys (N = 153–214) with child welfare managers between April 2020 and September 2021, collected by the Norwegian Directorate for Children Youth and Family Affairs after the onset of the Norwegian lockdown of March 2020. The findings suggest links between the strictness of measures and ability of child welfare services to ensure appropriate service delivery. Lockdown caused significant difficulties for many municipalities, while milder measures had less impact. We discuss some implications for practice with children and families.

Leaders as the targets of workplace bullying - prevalence and outcomes

PurposeBullying of leaders is an underexplored topic in organizational research. To fill this knowledge gap, the aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of bullying of leaders and to examine whether holding a formal leadership position influences the relationships between exposure to bullying and the outcomes job satisfaction and depression.MethodsData from two separate surveys were employed: (1) A cross-sectional occupation specific sample comprising 678 Norwegian child welfare social workers; (2) A nationally representative probability sample of 1,608 Norwegian employees with two time-points (6 months’ time-lag).ResultsAnalyzing multiple indicators of workplace bullying, holding a formal leadership position had no impact on the initial risk of being bullied. Analyses of prospective data showed that leaders report a somewhat stronger increase in levels of bullying over time compared to non-leaders, although the effect size was small. With exception of a small buffering effect on the cross-sectional association between exposure to bullying behaviors and job satisfaction in the second sample, holding a leadership position had no effect on the strength of the association between bullying and outcomes.ConclusionThe findings show that leaders have the same risk of being bullied and are influenced by bullying in roughly the same manner as non-leaders. Organizational measures and interventions against bullying should therefore consider leaders as a risk group in line with other employees.

Parental Satisfaction With Child Welfare Services in Norway

ABSTRACTThis study aims to examine parents' satisfaction with Norwegian child welfare services (CWS) and factors associated with parents' satisfaction. Different factors were included in the analysis, such as characteristics of the contact with CWS, and service aspects, as evaluated by parents (accessibility, information quality, workers' skills and user participation). Data were collected from 412 parents in 20 different municipalities. Over half of the participants (56%) reported that they overall received the needed help to a great or very great extent, while 60% were satisfied to a great extent or more. The majority of parents (76%) reported that their case manager was courteous and respectful, while nearly half of the parents (47%) stated that the help they received made it easier for them to provide care. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that workers' skills, user participation and information quality were associated with both satisfaction with outcomes of CWS and overall satisfaction, while duration of contact was also associated with satisfaction with outcomes of CWS. These results highlight the importance of achieving and maintaining high workers' skills, information quality and user participation in CWS.

How Do Child Welfare Workers Understand and Practice Child Participation?

ABSTRACTChild participation is strongly emphasized as a value and a right in the Norwegian child welfare (CW) system. Based on focus group interviews with 24 CW employees, we explore how CW workers understand and practice child participation in various work phases: assessment; supportive measures in the home; out‐of‐home placements. Two main forms of participation were identified: indirect participation, where the child is observed or communicates with other professionals, and direct participation, where the child speaks to a CW worker. The topics of conversations with children are divided into two categories: general topics regarding the child's everyday life and CW‐related topics, associated with the case and the child's situation. CW workers' understandings of children's participation provide the basis for the form and content of participation offered and lead to the child being assigned various positions. This ranges from direct participation where the child is positioned as the primary participant in direct interaction about their situation to indirect participation where the child is represented or observed by adults. We argue for a more nuanced understanding of what child participation implies and increased awareness of how different forms and contexts affect opportunities for children's participation.

Mental health and quality of life among Norwegian child welfare service workers

ABSTRACT Social workers in child welfare services play an important role in preventing crises and identifying the need for and implementing relevant measures among children and families of different ages and circumstances, often with little recognition. The main aim of this study was to examine mental health and overall- and professional quality of life of 978 Norwegian child welfare (CW) service workers. The design was cross-sectional and quantitative analyses showed that several demographic and job-related factors were associated with poorer mental health and quality of life. Approximately half of the respondents showed levels of psychological distress that warranted professional support and moderate or high levels of burnout and secondary stress (professional quality of life). Professional quality of life explained most of the variance in psychological distress and overall quality of life, respectively, after controlling for demographic and job-related variables. The findings of this study can lay the foundation for preventing mental health and quality of life issues among CW workers, as it indicates the focus areas for schools of social work in terms of the mental health of students and future CW workers.

Which participation practices can be found in child welfare service records?

ABSTRACT Several studies show insufficient practices regarding children’s participation in child welfare cases. This article is based on document analysis of 216 child welfare records from four Norwegian Child Welfare Services. Our study aims to investigate whether varying degrees and forms of participation are found in different phases of child welfare work: investigation, supportive measures, and in care. With whom the child talks, the topic, and the phase of the process are crucial for whether participation is documented. Individual conversations with the child welfare worker regarding child welfare topics enhance the probability of the child’s views being documented in their records.

Acting on Emotions: Designing with the relational dramas in welfare systems

As welfare systems worldwide face increasing pressures, there is a growing need for actionable approaches to transform them into more adaptable and sustainable forms. Service design is suggested to support such transformations. While early service design focussed on experiences, it has recently adopted systemic perspectives to address the complex interrelations among actors in service systems. However, this shift has neglected how these relations are experienced emotionally by the actors involved. Since emotions are integral to how actors understand, navigate and form agency, overlooking them can hinder service design’s ability to support welfare systems transform into more adaptable forms. This research aimed to integrate experiential and systemic perspectives in service design to support actors in transforming complex welfare systems. To explore this, a transdisciplinary research-by-design study was conducted. Drawing on recent service design research and relational sociology, the study was informed by the concept of emotional reflexivity and a service ecosystem design framework. Situated within the Norwegian child welfare system, this research involved over 100 system actors. Systems oriented design and theatre practices were used to facilitate emotional reflexivity among system actors about the complex, and sometimes difficult, relational dynamics they were embedded within. The four-month collaboration culminated in an interactive theatre event involving 800 participants, followed by facilitated conversations among system actors. By focussing on diverse emotional experiences within the child welfare system, three pairs of propositions for incorporating emotions into systemic approaches to service design were developed: 1) adopting a systemic view of emotions, 2) mirroring emotions to support reflexivity, and 3) facilitating conversations about emotional tensions. We discuss the implications of these propositions for practice and theory and how they can advance systemic approaches to service design within complex welfare systems.

Children’s experiences of collaborative relationship with child welfare and protection professionals in Norway: a state-of-the-art review

ABSTRACT This literature review evaluates extant research on children’s experiences of collaborative relationship with Norwegian child welfare and protection professionals. Sixteen qualitative research publications from January 2011 to February 2023 were analysed using thematic analysis. The review identified research gaps in understanding children’s perspectives, particularly those aged 0–12, on participation and collaboration with NCWP. This underscores the need to use direct and indirect approaches, such as interviews and observational studies, to better comprehend and support all children involved in NCWP. The findings highlight the significance of trust-building with NCWP professionals, enabling children’s participation and providing emotional support. Children stress the importance of being informed and included in child welfare and protection proceedings through dialogical communication. However, their voices are often unheard, leading to exclusion from decision-making. Additionally, contact with CWP negatively affects children’s self-perception and often causes self-blame. This article suggests that a collaborative relationship characterized by trust-building, dialogical communication, and emotional connection can address these issues.

If digitalization is the answer – what is the problem? An analysis of policy documents related to the digitalization of Norwegian child welfare services

ABSTRACT In this article, we have analysed policy documents related to the digitalization of the Norwegian child welfare services. The project ‘DigiBarnevern’ is a national initiative intended to develop and improve the digital tools in child welfare services. In our article, we explore which arguments for digitalizing child welfare are used in Norwegian policy documents. The analysis is inspired by Carol Bacchi’s analytical approach of ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ This approach starts with the premise that policy documents are produced and implemented as answers to specific problems. Our analysis shows how the problems represented are inefficient services, a lack of systematization, arbitrary practices, and the lack of a quality system. Thus, digitalization seems to be the answer to comprehensive problems in child welfare services. By drawing on the literature of street-level bureaucracy and professional discretion, we discuss features of digital systems such as their potential to measure quality and how they can serve as tools to meet the aim of regulating frontline workers` room for discretion. Policy documents are not neutral tools. Instead, they are instruments and carriers of values that affect service provision and ultimately the clients.

The Janus face of supervision – quality control or learning? A study of supervision of employees in the Norwegian Child welfare service

ABSTRACT Supervision of employees in child welfare services (CWS) has many functions. Developments in recent years show that the function of supervision as an instrument for quality control has been strengthened. This can weaken the function of supervision as a source of learning and development. It appears that there is relatively little research on how managers and employees in the CWS perceive the balance between supervision as quality control, and supervision as a means of developing the CWS into a service that can continuously improve its practice, and become a learning organization. In our research we focus on in what way can supervision of employees in the CWS contribute to quality development and learning? We have interviewed both Child Welfare Managers and employees in Norwegian CWS. Both parts agree that case supervision is important for quality control, but this must be balanced against the need for a critical voice in supervision, and learning from each other in collective learning processes, where process supervision can play a very important role. In the Norwegian CWS, the employees in particular believe that process supervision must be better safeguarded than what they experience in current practice.

‘It's not like we use the word emotional abuse’. A study on Norwegian child welfare workers understanding of emotional abuse

BackgroundDespite the recognition of emotional abuse (EA) as the most pervasive and harmful of all forms of child maltreatment, it is argued to be less understood than other forms of child maltreatment. EA is regarded as a standalone form for maltreatment and an essential factor embedded in all other forms of maltreatment of children, such as physical and sexual abuse. Thus, it is crucial for child welfare workers to understand EA, as one of their core mandates is to prevent and protect children from all forms of maltreatment. ObjectiveThis study aims to explore how child welfare workers in Norway describe and understand EA. Participants and settingThe study included 24 child welfare workers in 6 child welfare offices in Norway. MethodsThe data were obtained from focus group interviews and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. ResultsOverall, the findings reveal that EA was unfamiliar to the child welfare workers, and that there is a low degree of awareness on EA among the study participants. Further, EA is closely connected to whether parents provide sufficient emotional care for their children and is understood as part of the complex situation surrounding the child. ConclusionsThis article concludes with the need for reflective and sensitive discussions regarding understanding and awareness of EA in child welfare work. This has the potential to lead to greater insights into how EA is understood by child welfare workers as well as to enhance child welfare workers' abilities to describe, communicate about, and document EA.

The decision-making ecology of child welfare emergency placements

Child welfare decisions are often made amid uncertainty, in which child welfare workers must consider a range of complex factors. Especially in emergency cases, the decision process is often challenging due to limited time and information. Based on individual interviews with child welfare workers from Norwegian child welfare services (n = 19) and emergency services (n = 7), this article examines what affects decisions being made in emergency cases. Interviews were thematically analysed. As a framework, the decision-making ecology is used as an inspiration. Results show that case factors influencing decisions were specifically the topic of concern; parents’ attitudes; family network, and the child’s wishes. One decision-maker factor was CW workers’ experience, and for organizational factors, the participants emphasized clear routines for what to do in emergency cases, working as a team, and considering family networks. For external factors, other agencies’ assessments of the case; guidelines, and available alternative measures were found to influence the decisions. These various factors seem to have a dynamic and, at times, competing influence in several cases.To facilitate better decision-making in emergency cases, child welfare leaders should foster an organizational culture that emphasizes reflection on and awareness of how different factors and their dynamics influence decisions. This could also serve as the foundation for policy changes related to external factors affecting these decisions.

‘Good parenting’ among middle-class families: a narrative positioning analysis of Norwegian child welfare workers’ stories

ABSTRACT This article investigates norms of parenting in the context of the Norwegian child welfare service (CWS). Research from both international and Norwegian contexts shows that current parenting ideals are built on middle-class values that are often taken for granted. However, there is limited knowledge about the interaction between the CWS and middle-class families. Through narrative positioning analysis, we explore how child welfare workers (CWWs) construct the identities of two middle-class families in contact with the service and how the CWWs’ ideals about parenting are expressed through these stories. Both families are positioned as well-off, and the CWWs provide classed and gendered descriptions of the parents that coincide with dominant narratives of intensive mothering. As clients, the parents are constructed as active adaptive agents and active expert agents. The CWWs relationally construct themselves as a catalyst for change and as a support. The analysis provides insight into how the middle-class ideal is almost unnoticeably being solidified as a standard, and we metaphorically see the interaction between the parents and the CWS as ‘status maintenance ceremonies’. We argue that a narrative positioning analytical framework can be further developed and used to increase reflection on social work practice and education.

Immigrant Parents’ Experiences of Child Welfare Assessment Processes in Child Maltreatment Cases: Implications for Trust

The purpose of this article is to contribute to an in-depth understanding of how immigrant parents’ experiences of the child welfare assessment process shape their trust in the Norwegian child welfare services (CWS). The study is based on qualitative data generated through semi-structured interviews with six immigrant parents who have previous or ongoing contact with the CWS. The study finds that the parents’ experiences of the child welfare assessment process influence their trust in the CWS in a variety of ways, with the central themes being: (1) interactions with child welfare workers; (2) transparency and (un)predictability of the process and outcome; and (3) the risk-oriented, problem-focused and adversarial nature of the assessments. Whilst the parents’ positive experiences of the assessment process are associated with trust, their ambivalent and negative experiences are related to mistrust and distrust in the services respectively.

Family Partner: study protocol for a pilot randomised study of a home-visitation intervention in Norway.

Every year, about 5% of children in Norway experience severe child maltreatment and need support from the child welfare services. However, research-supported interventions for this group are lacking. The current study piloted an intensive home-visitation intervention, Family Partner, which aims to reduce child maltreatment among at-risk parents by improving parental skills, agency and trust in the welfare services, and children's well-being. The randomised controlled trial piloted in this study examines the acceptability of the Family Partner intervention for staff and families and evaluates its feasibility for a full-scale randomised controlled trial. This protocol outlines a prospective, parallel, pilot randomised trial of the Family Partner intervention in three Norwegian municipal child welfare services. The participants are families with children under 12 years of age, where the parents are identified as having challenges. Families in the treatment group receive the Family Partner intervention, while families in the control group receive ordinary child welfare services. Data are collected at baseline, and at 3, 6, 12 and 18 months after recruitment. The pilot study monitor retention and adherence to inform the feasibility of a future full-scale randomised study. To assess the acceptability of the trial and intervention, a subsample of the participating families, as well as the family partners and representatives of the child welfare services in each municipality, are invited to complete qualitative interviews. The results will guide the design of a fully powered randomised controlled trial of the Family Partner intervention compared with ordinary child welfare services. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04957394; Pilot Trial of Family Partner: a Child Maltreatment Prevention Intervention (FAMPART); registered on 12 July 2021.