Displaying 1 - 10 of 105
This study addresses children’s right to family life when placed in public care and questions how the Child Welfare Service and the Child Welfare Tribunal understand and facilitate this right within a Norwegian context.
Based on a thematic analysis of 18 interviews, factors that have the potential to contribute to and challenge the strengthening and development of ties are presented.
The implications of these factors for practice are discussed in light of the value of family life, the double role of foster parents, and the use of discretion when balancing children’s right to family life…
Norwegian youth in out-of-home care move three times as frequently as their peers. Such placement instability is linked to negative outcomes in terms of social attachment, well-being, educational achievements, health, and future opportunities. Norway implemented a new child welfare service reform in 2022 that increased the municipalities responsibilities for out-of-home care. The “incentive package” and “Barneløftet” were measures implemented to prepare the municipalities for these changes.
This study evaluates how the implemented measures affect the number of moves within out-of-home care…
This article explores how the monitoring of foster homes in Norway is experienced by children and youths who have been exposed to what they consider abusive behaviour by foster parents. Using a thematic narrative theoretical framework, the article shows that a common narrative in the youths’ accounts is a story of mistrust towards social workers and monitoring officers, which relates to a general mistrust towards the child welfare service.
The young individuals are reluctant to tell monitoring officers about how they truly experience their situation in their foster home. At the same time,…
This article aims to build knowledge, from a life-course perspective, of foster carers’ views of the transition from care to adulthood for young people with mental health problems by interviewing carers from foster homes in Norway and Sweden. The following research questions were addressed: How do mental health problems affect the care-leaving process and the linked lives between young people and foster carers? What impacts do young people’s mental health problems have on the timing of lives and social age when they leave a placement in care? The authors…
This is chapter 10 in the book "Child Welfare and the Value of Family Privacy".
Abstract:
Privacy is a central characteristic of the family, and while there are reasons to value family privacy, it is also regarded as an obstacle to justice in the family ethics literature. Because family life is protected from intervention by external agencies, parents’ resources and caregiving practices may have a profound impact on the child’s rights and opportunities. Given these considerations, the family may be an obstacle to equality of opportunity and the protection of children’s rights.…
This chapter in the book "Child Welfare and the Value of Family Privacy" addresses aims and challenges in the processes of including children and youth in foster families and suggests a solution inspired by anthropological literature. The author argues that the ‘best interests of the child’ are closely tied to staying in a stable foster home, which emerged in interviews with children in the Norwegian Child Welfare Services (CWS) and foster parents.
The author introduces anthropological approaches to kinship to discuss how successful foster care may be challenged by the cultural…
This Toolkit builds on the outcomes of an international thematic workshop on addressing the needs of migrant children at borders, consolidated with IOM best practices and additional research inputs. Various relevant stakeholders from selected countries participated in the workshop and included law enforcement authorities, border management officials, front-line workers, migrant reception operators, social workers, legal guardians, human rights agencies, international organizations and civil society organizations, among others.
Produced under the framework of the MiRAC-funded project, “…
Abstract:
Under national and international legislation, when choosing a foster home, continuity of upbringing and connection to the child’s cultural, religious, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds is desirable. However, research shows that such considerations are only taken into account to a small extent and that children from minority backgrounds are often settled in majority foster homes. The Norwegian Child Welfare Service has been criticised for this.
In this article, the focus is on youth with minority backgrounds living in majority foster homes and their views on cultural…
For centuries, residential child and youth care systems worldwide have provided homes for vulnerable children and adolescents. The implementation of children's rights, especially the right of participation, is assessed as an important base for promoting the best interests of the child in an out-of-home care environment.
Featuring contributions from distinguished international authors, this volume offers an in-depth understanding of crucial participation processes and underlying power structures when involving young people in decision-making about their care and everyday life in different…
In arrangements for children’s participation in child welfare systems, professionals’ interpretations of children’s views on family and their own constructions of family will impact children’s conditions for expressing feelings and moral agency. This article analyses the accounts of children’s spokespersons in Norway, whose mandate is to speak with and forward children’s views in care proceedings.
The analyses show how constructions of loyalty, family interdependence, and individualism may inform spokespersons’ interpretations of children’s views, and thereby their exploratory practices in…