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Purpose Schools can be an arena for age appropriate and objective information about the support families can get from the child protection services (CPS). There is reason to believe that many children have misconceptions about the CPS and are afraid to talk to the social workers who investigates if there is reason to be concerned about a child’s well-being. The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of misconceptions about child protection services (CPS) among school children in Norway. Method A questionnaire containing 10 statements that measure children’s misconceptions and attitudes about the CPS was developed and distributed to 215 children aged 11–15 years old (M = 12.2 years). Results The results showed that 10.7% of the sample have a misconception about children being removed from their homes by CPS and that 17% of the sample had a negative perception of the CPS in general. Discussion The child might wrongfully get the impression that it is at risk of being removed from the parents. Participation in assessment and planning may be challenging for a child under such conditions. Therefore, it is important that adults who work with children are aware that these misconceptions are quite common, also among youth. Implications The prevalence of misconceptions about CPS among children in the general population as well as those in contact with CPS indicate a need for age-appropriate information. If such misconceptions are prevented it might be easier for children to reach out for help if they or somebody they know, are subject to abuse or neglect.

In this study, we look at the decision to provide services following a child protection investigation in Norway. More specifically, we want to look at variability at the case level and at the agency level in order to identify factors that may impact a decision to provide services.The study was designed as a cross-sectional archive study that was carried out retrospectively. Included predictors for service provision were presence of abuse, and risk factors related to child, parental and family function. Agency predictors were referral rate and metropolitan location. Variation in service provision was sectioned into case level (N = 883) variation and agency level (N = 16) variation. Five nested multilevel models were estimated. Service provision for families following a child protection investigation was on average 38.4% in the sample. Among the 16 agencies, it varied between 21.9 and 60.0%. This variation is mostly explained by case variables. The strongest were physical abuse (OR = 1.37) and neglect (OR = 1.18). There is evidence for agency differences with respect to the types of cases being referred. Differences in agency thresholds for service provision when controlling for the referral reason seem to be quite small.

This study aimed to compare the content of the Norwegian Kvello AF for child welfare investigations with similar frameworks from Sweden (BBIC) and Denmark (ICS). The comparison was based on detailed descriptions of each framework, retrieved from authorized websites, textbooks, manuals, course material, and, for the Kvello AF, also personal communication with the author. An ecological triangle model similar to the British AF was chosen as a guideline for the comparison, as all three frameworks referred to bio-ecological developmental theory. The content of the frameworks was thus compared along dimensions and categories related to 1) the child’s needs and development, 2) the parents’ capacity, and 3) environmental factors. The main finding was that the Kvello AF included many of the same elements for gathering information as the other frameworks, but there were some important differences. The Kvello AF seemed to have a narrower perspective on the children’s needs and welfare than the other frameworks, implying a stronger focus on the child–parent interaction and a less focus on environmental factors and the child’s functioning outside the family. publishedVersion

BackgroundParental mental health and substance abuse problems are found in reports of concern to child protection and welfare services. The aim of this study was first to investigate what characterized these reports and how they differed from reports with other types of concerns. Two hypotheses were tested. The first hypothesis was (i) if a report contains concerns about mental health and substance abuse problems, the likelihood of service provision was mediated by substantiation status. The second hypothesis was (ii) that the threshold for substantiation of such problems differed depending on child age, single parent status, and the presence of other child and parent related problems.MethodThe study was designed as a case file study which was carried out retrospectively (N = 883). A conceptual model was tested in two steps. First a mediation model with direct and indirect paths from reports of concerns through substantiation decision to service provision was tested. Then a second model was expanded to also include moderators for the indirect effects of reported concerns on substantiation decisions.ResultsA total of 33.1% of reports about substance abuse and 41.7% of reports about parental mental illness concerns were provided services. The first hypothesis was confirmed. There is a negative direct effect and a positive mediated effect of reported concern on service provision. The second hypothesis was not confirmed. We failed to identify any significant moderating effect of child age, single caregiver status, or number of child problems, upon the threshold for substantiation of mental health and drug abuse problems.ConclusionsThe total effect of reports about mental illness and substance abuse upon service provision was low. Service provision in cases with suspected substance abuse and/or mental illness is highly dependent upon substantiation of that specific problem. Substantiation threshold is not impacted by other case characteristics. This is surprising because there are good theoretical reasons to assume that parental drug abuse and or mental illness are potentially more detrimental to child health, development and safety if the child is younger, if the parent is a single caregiver, and there are many other parallel concerns.

Background - When a child welfare service agency receives a report of concern, there is an initial screening to decide whether an investigation needs to be initiated. In addition to the decision maker, case factors, external factors, and organizational factors have an impact on decision making in Child Welfare Services (CWS). Few recent studies have considered the impact of case factors on the initial screening. Objective - This study examined case factors that have an impact on the decision to investigate in the Norwegian CWS. Participants and setting - Participants included randomly drawn samples of case files from 16 agencies (N = 1365). Methods - The study was designed as a cross-sectional case file study. Researchers coded the data on site at the agencies. To examine the association between a decision to investigate and case specific variables, multilevel logistic regression (generalized linear mixed model) analysis was conducted to account for case clustering effects within agencies. Results - The rate of investigation was 82.3 %. Concerns of physical and sexual abuse (OR = 2.61***), parents' health and stressful events (OR = 2.20***), domestic violence or witnessing violence (OR = 2.52***), and concerns related to finances, housing, and employment (OR = 3.25**) lowered the threshold for investigation. Prior referrals were found to raise the threshold for investigation (OR = 0.88). (**p < .01, ***p < .001). Conclusion - Although large differences between agencies exist in decision-making processes in the Norwegian CWS, there are common case factors affecting the initial screening of referrals.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Lauritzen, C., Vis, S.A.M. & Fossum, S. (2018). Factors that determine decision making in child protection investigations: A review of the literature. Child & Family Social Work, 23(4), 743-756, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12446. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. The aim of the study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature on factors that determine decision making in child protection investigations. More specifically, to investigate the existing research on the 4 factors that are considered fundamental for child protection decision making: case characteristics, caseworker characteristics, organizational characteristics, and external factors. The results indicated that child welfare decisions to investigate a case and/or to implement services are influenced by characteristics of the case, the social worker, and the organization, in addition to external factors. These elements work together to determine the outcome of an investigation. There are some substantial differences between various countries connected to disparities in child welfare legislation, support apparatuses, culture, ideology, and socio‐economic factors. It is methodologically challenging to design studies that capture all possible variables associated with case factors, social workers, and organizational factors. However, multilevel analyses of the types of variables that are most significant to case outcome conclude that caseworker assessments corresponded to organizational factors. Furthermore, decisions are better explained by characteristics of the child welfare organization than by characteristics of the social worker.

In 2015, a new guidance was issued that sought to clarify the responsibilities and obligations for cooperation between child welfare and mental healthcare services in Norway. This study investigated if the guidance had any impact on the collaboration between services. An electronic survey was administered to employees in the child welfare services and in the child and adolescent mental health services. The response rate was 50.6% ( N = 267). The results show that about one-third of the respondents had never heard about the new guidance. Most of the participants who had heard about the guidance considered it useful, in particular the clarification of duties and responsibilities. Sometimes, however, issues that cannot be solved by regulatory guidance alone hinder cooperation. Chief among these issues are professional disagreements about children’s needs and resource restrictions. Such matters cannot be solved by merely a new guideline.»/>

Studies have shown relatively high rates of emotional and behavioural problems among children living in out-of-home care. This study reports the prevalence of social problems at an 8-year follow-up for a group of children/young adults. Predictors for prevalence and change in emotional and behavioural problems at the follow-up are examined. A prospective cohort design with 233 children who had been living in foster care was used. Forty-eight per cent (n = 111) of those interviewed at baseline were located and interviewed at follow-up. Mean age was 17.4 (standard deviation = 2.9) years. Mental health symptomatology was measured with Child Behaviour Checklist and Adult Self-Report. Linear and generalized mixed model analyses were used. Changes in internalizing and externalizing problems from baseline to follow-up was associated with gender. Boys showed more problems at a young age, whereas girls developed more problems later. Predictors for social problems at follow-up were mental health at baseline, kinship care and care placement away from the local community.

The purpose of this study was to explore factors related to placement disruption in long-term kinship and nonkinship foster care in a Nordic country. The study included 136 children aged 4–13 years in kinship and nonkinship foster care in Norway in the year 2000, with updates for the year 2008. Placement and demographic information and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) were collected from foster parents and youths. Generalized linear mixed model analysis was undertaken. A thorough literature review was done in order to study association between disruption and relevant variables. None of the predominant variables from previous literature were significantly associated with disruption for this sample of children in long-term foster care. Since long-term stable foster care (rather than adoption) is the preferred option in Nordic as well as some other European countries, there is a need to explore the processes of inclusion that give children a lifelong commitment to their foster families.

Children in residential care tend to be less content with the quality of care arrangements and participation opportunities compared to children in foster care. This study explored possible differences in social workers’ views about child participation and service quality. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test if any differences may be explained by collaboration between professionals’ and social workers’ work engagement. We found that social workers from residential care services seem more prudent in letting children participate in case planning compared to social workers planning for foster care. Social workers’ judgements of service quality were also highly affected by their organizational affiliation, but personal factors such as work engagement may also play a part. The differences we found regarding social workers’ attitudes towards participation and their rating of service quality are associated with organizational culture. Understanding how organizations shape social workers’ decisions to include or exclude children in care planning may help gain a more comprehensive understanding of what is needed to take the participation agenda forward.

Effective child participation in child protection proceedings has proved difficult to achieve in Norway. Although participation is in principle accepted as a human right and something of benefit to children, when children’s health is at stake there is a tendency to view participation in decision-making processes by children as potentially disruptive to their well-being. The purpose of this study is to review the research evidence for effects, positive or negative, of participation on health outcomes for children in care. A scoping review of major health and social work research databases was undertaken. Searches in five databases yielded 1830 studies of which 21 were finally included in this review. Studies were included if a relationship between health and participation was evident from the data presented, even if this was not the main objective in the study at hand. We conclude that when participation is successful, it may have beneficial side effects. Chief among these are that participation may improve children’s safety, increase the success of care arrangements and increase feelings of well-being for children involved. Evidence for long-term effects of successful or failed participation attempts on subsequent health outcomes is however largely absent.

The attempt to give children an effective voice in social work processes which can have substantial impact on their lives takes different forms in countries with varying professional cultures and legal frameworks. This paper reports on a study of children's participation in decision-making in care and protection services in Norway, which was carried out in conjunction with a project to support social work teams in enabling children to participate, using materials borrowed from England and Wales. The results showed that (a) taking an active part in decision-making did not correlate perfectly with (b) having an influence on the outcome. Cases were therefore classified as ‘participation’ or ‘non-participation’ using a combination of both the above criteria. Statistical analysis of the factors influencing children's participation enabled the proposition of a model which appeared to explain much of the variance. The results point to the inadequacy of equating social work conversation with children with effecti...