Terra Incognita? Efforts in „charting" the size of child maltreatment in Europe (Symposium): 3) Investigative Work in Child Welfare: From Concern to Decision

One of the primary tasks of child welfare services is to clarify information and conduct inquiries and inspections. There is uncertainty about the quality of the work that is carried out by child welfare services in... [ view full abstract ]

One of the primary tasks of child welfare services is to clarify information and conduct inquiries and inspections. There is uncertainty about the quality of the work that is carried out by child welfare services in Norway.  

In the summer of 2015 the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs announced a research project with the title, «Investigative Work in Child Welfare: From Concern to Decision». The project is led by the Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare – North, part of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Arctic University of Norway. The results will be used to develop new guidelines for social work services in Norway.

The project examines the vocational practices and authority of child welfare services in meeting the needs of children and families. Five sub-projects are being conducted and reported on consecutively during the project period (2016-2019).

 The five sub-projects are as follows:

Sub-project 1: Knowledge status on the referral management and investigative work of child welfare services. This is a literature review. 

Sub-project 2: Child welfare work with referrals. This is an analysis and comparison of characteristics of  reports dismissed without investigation at first intake with cases that are investigated further (N=1400) 

Sub-project 3: Child welfare work in the investigative phase. This is an analysis of how cases are investigated and of factors that determine the outcome of a substantiation decision/decision to provide services (N=1400). 

Sub-project 4: The contribution of children and parents. 

Sub-project 5: Evaluation of assessment frameworks used in Norway.  This is a comparison of assessment frameworks used in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.