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Professor compares Norwegian Child Welfare Services with other countries: "The Norwegian system is good"

“but there are areas for improvement,” says marit skivenes..

Skivenes is a professor of political science at the University of Bergen (UiB). She presented new research at the seminar "Does the Child Welfare Services have an undeserved bad reputation?" at Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet) in mid-March.

Norwegian Child Welfare Services have been criticized for taking children away from their parents too frequently.

But we’re not the worst in the class here, say researchers at the Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism at UiB, which Skivenes heads.

Several countries are at the same level as Norway, the researchers say.

At the top of the Nordic countries are Finland and Sweden, while many of the Eastern European countries are even higher.

Good processes for transferring care

In one of their studies, the researchers looked at child welfare services when it came to transferring care in eight different countries: Norway, Finland, Ireland, England, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany and the USA.

“This study shows us that the Norwegian system has a good decision-making process compared to other countries,” Skivenes said.

Norway’s decisions are based on thorough information and include all stakeholders. Parents are given legal aid and they have the opportunity to present their arguments. There’s also time for reflection and questions.

There is also openness in the form of written statements about the decisions, and some percentage of the decisions are publicly available in an anonymous form, the researchers say.

Few are adopted in Norway

The researchers have also studied adoptions in several European countries: Norway, Finland, Austria, Germany, Spain, Ireland and Estonia.

In Norway, children who are placed in long-term care are most often placed in foster homes. Foster parents are only occasionally given the opportunity to adopt these children. Only 50 children are adopted under the Child Welfare Act each year.

Norway is still doing well here, compared to the other countries, the research shows.

Norway does have legal proceedings through county councils and the right to a full appeal to district courts. Some of the decisions are published in Lovdata, a foundation that publishes judicial information from Norway, and thus are publicly available.

Enormously closed processes

But the researchers' conclusion is nonetheless disappointing.

“These are enormously closed decision-making processes. This applies to all the countries, including Norway,” says Skivenes.

There is a lack of information about the cases and a lack of openness. The systems operate largely in isolation. Only a few external parties have access to and knowledge of what happens internally in the process.

The researchers say it’s worrisome that there is so little ability for external parties to scrutinize the process. That means it’s not possible to say anything about the quality of the decisions being made, the researchers said.

Why are they so angry with us?

Although researchers find that Norway comes out at the top of the class in many areas when it comes to child welfare, the criticism of Norwegian child welfare services can be massive at times, both inside the country and from other countries, especially countries in Eastern Europe.

Parents are quoted in Polish media about how the Norwegian Child Welfare Services "steals" children.

Researcher Jørn Holm-Hansen from OsloMet attended the seminar and talked about the resistance in eastern Europe to the Norwegian Child Welfare Services.

Holm-Hansen doesn’t specifically work with child welfare, but does study political developments in countries such as Russia and Poland.

He believes that the fierce protests against the Norwegian Child Welfare Services in countries like Poland are not about how the Norwegian system works, as such.

“This antagonism is part of a national conservative and right-wing populist mobilization,” he says.

Protests mount against Norwegian Child Welfare Service

A culture war.

It’s a culture war, Holm-Hansen says.

These groups frame child welfare as a narrative of moral decay. About the dissolution of norms. The weakened position of the family. They experience this as pressure coming from outside, from a decaying Europe.

The Norwegian Child Welfare Services is just one of many themes used by national conservatives in their stories, he says.

“It’s not the Norwegian Child Welfare Services itself, but the principle that children have individual rights that they believe is wrong. They are strong supporters of a hierarchy where God is at the top and the authorities just below. Then comes the man, then the woman and then the child — whose moral development is not complete and who needs discipline,” he said.

These groups believe that when a child is given individual rights, it threatens the social order, he says.

Be self-critical

However, Holm-Hansen believes that we must take the experiences of migrant workers with the utmost seriousness.

“Many migrant workers live in poor living conditions. They have extreme job insecurity and miserable living conditions. The question is whether we, in our eagerness to psychologize, have paid enough attention to the real physical conditions under which they live,” he said.

Holm-Hansen's view is that the Norwegian Child Welfare Services must be tough in the culture war with national conservative right-wing populists.

He believes that the child welfare system must not be intimidated. But there is reason to be self-critical when it comes to how the Norwegian Child Welfare Services works with Polish labour migrants, he says.

“These are people who often have problems that can be helped by using the right approach,” he says.

Surprisingly similar attitudes

In an ongoing study, Skivenes and her colleagues looked at the attitudes of a representative sample from the populations of different countries.

They posed the same question to people in Poland, Romania, England and Norway.

“A child's well-being suffers from a parent’s problems with alcohol. Is it acceptable in such a situation for the authorities to move the child from the parents’ care to other caregivers because it is in the best interests of the child? ”

“We received surprisingly similar values in the four countries. In Norway, 93 per cent agreed. In England, 87 per cent agreed, while that number was 86 per cent in Romania and 79 per cent in Poland,” Skivenes said.

Translated by: Nancy Bazilchuk

Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no

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Rune Halvorsen

Sociology Professor at the Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, and co-director of CEDIC and the Norwegian Research School on Digitalisation, Culture and Society

Halvorsen’s main interests are European and comparative welfare policy, social citizenship, EU social policy, and citizenship movements. His central concern is to contribute new knowledge for the future social Europe. He has contributed to theorisation of changes in social citizenship, welfare governance and structure/agency dynamics in mature welfare states. Read more >>

Marit Haldar

Sociology Professor at the Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, and the Norwegian Research School on Digitalization, Culture and Society (DIGIT)

Important themes in Haldar’s research are childhood, the elderly, gender, family, social inequality, social isolation, and tele-presence. Equality and vulnerable subjects in the welfare state and health care system are primary concerns of her research. Haldar has developed a novel methodological approach to qualitative research which is acclaimed in international methodology literature. Read more >>

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Adviser at the Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, and coordinator for CEDIC and the Norwegian Research School on Digitalization, Culture and Society (DIGIT)

Svingerud is the administrative coordinator for CEDIC Research Center and DIGIT Research School. She holds a PhD in molecular biology and has prior research experience in immunology, cancer research, and bacteriology. Since 2019, she has been working in administrative roles and project coordination and facilitation. R ead more >>

Research Group Leaders & Affiliated Researchers

Nan Zou Bakkeli

Postdoctoral Fellow at CEDIC and senior researcher at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO), OsloMet

Bakkeli’s research fields are social inequality, medical sociology, social epidemiology, health studies, comparative welfare studies and statistics. Her postdoctor research project at CEDIC is about exploring digital gaps and its consequences on socioeconomic inequalities at both individual and household level. Read more >>

Arne Dulsrud

Research Professor at the Centre for Welfare and Labour Research (SVA), OsloMet, and leader of research group The Platform Economy and Sustainable welfare

Dulsrud has a PhD in sociology. His research areas include marketing, food consumption, and consumer markets. Read more >>

Tore Gulden

Professor at the Faculty of Technology, Art and Design, and leader of the research group Digitalization and Everyday Life

Gulden is a professor in industrial design with a main interest in game dynamics and systemic design. His research areas include game theory, design methodology, and sustainable design. Read more >>

Julia Köhler-Olsen

Professor of Law at the Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, and Leader of research group Digitalization, Law, and Governance

Köhler-Olsen is head of the research project «Trustworthy Welfare Administration». The project explores legal and organizational questions related to the digitalization of public administration of welfare benefits and services according to the National Insurance Act by the Norwegian Work and Welfare Administration (NAV). Read more >>

Gemma Hughes

Professor at the University of Leicester

Hughes is a social scientist concerned with the intersections between organisational practices, health and social care policy and people’s experiences. In her research, she seeks to brings social theory to bear on complex health and social care questions, such as why integrated care does not always work, how technologies are adopted in health and social settings and how decision-making is shaped by clinical and organisational contexts.  Read more >>

Henry Nsaidzeka Mainsah

Research Professor at the Centre for Welfare and Labour Research (SVA), OsloMet, and leader of the research group Digitalization and Everyday Life

Mainsah holds a PhD in Media and Communication. His research covers topics such as digitization, digital literacy, youth culture, smart living, creative research methods, and participatory design. Read more >>

Jaqueline O’Reilly

Professor at the University of Sussex

O’Reilly’s research interests are in the field of economic sociology and the digital transformation of work. Her research focuses on international comparisons of gender and labour market transitions across the life cycle for youth, parents and older workers using qualitative and quantitative methods. Read more > >

Mi Ah Schøyen

Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Social Research (NOVA) center, OsloMet

Schøyen holds a PhD in political and social sciences. Her interests include the welfare mix, the politics and social consequences of welfare state reforms, intergenerational solidarity and the interplay between climate and social policy. Read more >>

Gunn Astrid Baugerud

Associate professor at at the Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy

Baugerud is an associate professor at the Department of Social Work, Child Welfare, and Social Policy. Read more >>

Cathrine Egeland

Research Professor the Centre for Welfare and Labour Research (SVA), OsloMet, and leader of research group Digitalization, Law, and Governance

Egeland has a PhD in philosophy and gender studies. Her research areas include theory of science, feminist theory, and working life. Read more >>

Erika Gubrium

Professor at the Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, OsloMet

Gubrium’s work is interdisciplinary across the fields of social work, sociology, social policy, history, geography, and psychology, and employs qualitative methodologies. Her recent work has focused on the social-psychological impact of anti-poverty welfare measures on welfare system claimants, the socio-historical analysis of social welfare movements, as well as embodied place-attachment (including through digital “spaces”), mobility and belonging amongst adult immigrants to Norway. Read more >>

Lars E. F. Johannessen

Associate Professor at the Centre for the Study of Professions, OsloMet, and leader of research group Digitalization, Innovation, and Implementation

Johannessen’s main areas of research are cultural sociology, medical sociology, digital culture and science and technology studies. He received his PhD from Oslo Metropolitan University in 2018 and has published articles in journals such as New Media & Society, Sociology of Health & Illness, Symbolic Interaction, Social Science & Medicine, and European Societies. Read more >>

Tereza Østbø Kuldova

Research Professor at the Centre for Welfare and Labour Research (SVA), OsloMet

Kuldova leads and participates in several FRIPRO projects funded by The Research Council of Norway which critically investigate the intersection of algorithmic governance and society: from a comparative qualitative research on predictive policing, intelligence and national security, via research on ‘regulatory technologies’ and their role in anti-corruption, crime-fighting and global and transnational governance of crime, explorations of the impact of digitalization on the world of work and labour relations, to investigations into questions of ethics and morality in contemporary capitalism refracted through the lens of digitalization and the rise of AI. Read more >>

Alejandro Miranda Nieto

Postdoctoral Fellow at CEDIC

Nieto is a sociologist. His current research deals with homemaking, dwelling and migration among IT professionals living in Oslo, and has written about mobilities, home, migration, music and ethnography. He often uses theories of practice, and is interested in developing comparative approaches that draw from different disciplines, such as geography, anthropology, sociology and social policy. Read more > >

Erik B. Rasmussen

Researcher and leader of the research group Digitalization, Innovation, and Implementation

Rasmussen explores the development, implementation and uses of social technologies and so-called ‘welfare technologies’ more broadly, and on the conditions for public-private collaboration in innovation in municipal health and social care. Read more >>

Dag Slettemeås

Researcher at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO), OsloMet

Slettemås has more than 20 years of research experience in fields such as digitalisation, consumption, and new media technologies. Topics of research relate to digital innovation, Internet of things, digital competence, children and commercial exposure, social media, surveillance economy and the sharing economy. Read more >>

Alban Davesne

Researcher at the Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy

Davesne’s research focuses on European integration, Nordic co-operation, and Europeanization of health policies in a comparative perspective. His field of interests includes the incorporation of e-health in cross-border projects. With the project HARBOR, he launched the first comparative study of cross-border interactions and their impact on access to healthcare in rural and disadvantaged border areas in Europe. R ead more >>

Joakim Finne

Senior researcher at the Work Research Institute (AFI), OsloMet

Finne focuses on the development of evidence-based interventions within the health and welfare field through the use of randomized controlled studies. Lately, he has been researching digitalization within NAV. Read more >>

Jo Erskine Hannay

Research Professor/Chief Scientist at Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering AS (SimulaMet), and leader of the research group The Digitalization Process and AI Adoption in the Public Sector

Hannay’s research interests includes digitalization from a system lifecycle perspective with a focus on benefits and disbenefits. He also researches simulation-based training for healthcare collaboration under suboptimal conditions, machine reasoning, and machine learning. Hannay is connected to the Center for Effective Digitalization of the Public Sector at SimulaMet. Read more >>

Yuri Kasahara

Senior researcher, leader of the Digital Social Sciences group at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR), OsloMet, and leader of the research group Data Science Methods in Social Research

Kasahara’s main research areas are the analysis of policy development and implementation, as well its political consequences. Lately he has been exploring the potential applications of data science and machine learning for social science research. Read more >>

Mikko Laamanen

Senior Researcher at the Centre for Welfare and Labour Research (SVA), OsloMet

Senior Researcher with the Technology and Sustainability research group at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). Laamanen’s research programme is situated at the intersection of sociologies of consumption, organization and social movements. He is expert in the everyday politics of technology, inclusion and social change. Read more >>

Maja Nordtug

Postdoctoral Fellow at CEDIC and Media and Technology Researcher

Nordtug has a PhD in media studies from University of Southern Denmark. She has published research on topics such as media engagement in relation to vaccines, digital consultations including e-mail consultations and video consultations, and methodological approaches. Nordtug is currently studying the telepresence technology AV1 at Oslo Metropolitan University, and is also affiliated with University of Oslo where she researches platformed families. Read more >>

Michael Riegler

Research Professor at Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering AS (SimulaMet) and leader of the research group The Digitalization Process and AI Adoption in the Public Sector

Riegler’s research interests includes artificial intelligence, machine learning, and medical multimedia. Read more >>

Ardis Storm-Mathisen

Professor at the Department of Early Childhood Education and leader of the research group Digitization and Everyday Life

Storm-Mathisen’s research areas include new media, gender, emerging technologies, and digital vulnerabilities. Read more >>

Roger Andre Søraa

Associate Professor at NTNU

Søraa is Associate professor at the  Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture (KULT)  in Studies of Technology and Society (STS). His research focus is on automation, robotization, and the digitalization of society – how humans and technology relate to each other. Dr. Søraa is especially interested in the  social domestication  of technology, see e.g. his research on hospital robots and gerontechnologies of the home. Read more >>

Kristian Tronstad

Head of research at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR), OsloMet

Tronstad has background from political science and organisational theory. His research area includes migration, mobility, and active labour market. Read more >>

Randi Wærdahl

Professor of sociology at the Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy

Wærdahl teaches on topics related to family, gender, generation, health, and social policy as well as research methodologies. Her research has an everyday perspective on transitions and trajectories in childhood and of families, in times of social and economic change, and in changing contexts due to migration and transnationality. She is currently supervising students and conducting her studies under the umbrella of Digital Family Practices. Read more >>

PhD Candidates and Researchers

Sehrish Akhtar

PhD candidate at CEDIC and the Faculty of Social Sciences, OsloMet. Her research focuses on the use of technology to facilitate communication and reduce social isolation among older nursing home residents.

Clemet Askheim

PhD candidate at CEDIC and the Faculty of Social Sciences, OsloMet. Askheim is currently writing his phd about the concept of sustainability. His educational background is in philosophy and his project is affiliated with the NFR project «Virtual Presence».

Siri Frisli

MPhil in sociology from the University of Oslo and PhD candidate at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR), OsloMet. Her research is about information dissemination on social media, and the spread of misinformation. Her interest lies particulary in the use of machine learning/AI for text analysis.

PhD candidate at the Johan Skytte Institute, University of Tartu

Biao He contributes to the research team ECePS ERA Chair in e-Governance and Digital Public Services funded by the EU Horizon 2020. His research interests include e-government, digital accessibility, Chinese local governance, disability policy, public administration and governance. His PhD dissertation discusses how Chinese municipal governments create and provide accessible and age-friendly e-service website portals following the national policy requirements, and what mechanisms facilitate the implementation process and outcome.

Elian Eve Jentoft

PhD candidate at the Faculty of Education and International Studies and CEDIC. In recent years several nations have developed loneliness reduction policy. Elian studies this new policy field engaging in a cross-cultural exploration of loneliness policy from Norway and the United Kingdom. Their work places a particular focus on how technology and modernity are problematized in relation to loneliness and public health.

Karolin Elisabeth Moberg

PhD candidate in social sciences at CEDIC. Her ongoing PhD project explores the potential of computer games as an inclusive arena in youth, within the framework of Norwegian youth clubs.

Belma Sehic

PhD candidate in Social Sciences at CEDIC. Her ongoing PhD-project explores how digitalization and different ICTs are affecting direct social work practice in the Norwegian Welfare and Labour Administration (NAV).

Eia Elena Skjønsberg

PhD candidate at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Helene Maria Fiane Teigen

PhD candidate at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO) and CEDIC. Her ongoing PhD project explores everyday life with internet-connected household appliances, such as smart assistants, light bulbs, heaters, vacuums, and so on. Her research interests include human-technology relations, digital vulnerability, privacy, and digital literacy and competencies.

Ingelin Mari Åmo

PhD candidate in social sustainability and systemic design at Faculty of Technology, Art and Design. Åmo’ research focuses on exploring the phenomenon of outsiderness in the context of work life, particularly within the framework of systemic design.

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Social Work in a Changing Scandinavian Welfare State: Norway

• First Online: 24 October 2020

Cite this chapter

• Anne-Margrethe Sønneland 5  

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In this chapter, I will explore how recent changes in the welfare state matter for social work in Norway. Central to my argument will be that changes in ideology and values, apparent in the ‘work line’ in social policies, has led to a partial shift in responsibility for welfare from the state to the individual. In this text, I will explore some ways in which such changes in social policy influence and change social work.

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Sønneland, AM. (2020). Social Work in a Changing Scandinavian Welfare State: Norway. In: S.M., S., Baikady, R., Sheng-Li, C., Sakaguchi, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Work Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39966-5_14

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Norwegian Social Work and Child Welfare Students' Attitudes Toward Research-Supported Treatments

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• 1 Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway.
• PMID: 33393451
• DOI: 10.1080/26408066.2020.1865227

Purpose : Evidence-based practice (EBP) has increasingly become a part of social work education, but there is a lack of knowledge about students' attitudes toward it. This study evaluated Norwegian social work students' attitudes toward research-supported treatments (RSTs). Method : Attitudes were measured with the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale-36 (EBPAS-36), a validated measure including 12 subscales. Results : The findings suggest that master's students are more positive toward RSTs compared to bachelor's students. Having less educational training in EBP was associated with more skepticism toward the concept, suggesting that educational training in EBP contributes to facilitating a positive attitude toward RSTs. Discussion : These findings indicate a need to emphasize EBP in social work education. To enable EBP engagement in practice, we argue that emphasis should be put on teaching students to critically appraise research.

Keywords: EBPAS; Evidence-based practice; research-supported treatments; social work; social work education.

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