Decisions and Justifications in Child Protection Services(CPS)

The project is divided into seven work packages in which the project participants will investigate how practices and decisions are justified: How is the principle of user participation in the decision on taking into care and family counsels interpreted and applied in County Social Welfare Boards and decisions and work with minority families? How do CPS support and follow up youth's education? What concepts of knowledge and norms for justification are reflected in interpretations of the Best Interest of the Child principle? What different interpretations of the Best Interest of the Child principle and other values can be identified in different cultures? In the book Values in child welfare (2020), researchers participating in the project discuss how the child welfare work is value-laden, and characterized by societal values, cultural values and personal values. This is done to show how frameworks, ideologies and moral perceptions can and should characterize the child welfare service's work with vulnerable children and young people. By finding answers to these questions, it is an overarching goal to help strengthen child welfare education and improve child welfare justification practices.

The research project focuses on how decisions and interventions in Norway's Child Protection Services (CPS) are to be understood as justificatory practices that express interpretations of the principle of the Best Interest of the Child (BIC). Seven work packages (WPs) adhere to this main objective. WP1 focuses on how BIC and related values influence norms of justification in Norwegian CPS with decisions made in relevant similar services in other countries. WP2 explores how decisions on BIC regarding minority families reflect cultural differences and values related to ethnic background and social and economic factors. WP3 looks at justifications of care orders made by the County Social Welfare Boards. WP4 focuses on the CPSs work with parents and other welfare organizations in families where the parents have serious psychological or addiction problems. WP5 studies family council conferences, an alternative model for decisions in CPS compared to more traditional proceedings. WP6 scrutinizes justifications for CPS-interventions separating new-borns from parents. WP7 analyses justifications of decisions and interpretations of BIC found in WP1-6, in light of critical philosophy and criteria for sound justification. The project uses qualitative methods: individual and group interviews, observations, document analysis and in-depth literature studies. The research aspires to implement methodological principles in which participation is considered a method in itself. The project is tailored to strengthen research-based education, service-improvement, innovation and user-participation. Users of services, students, collaborating academics, agencies and professionals from the the practice field will be involved throughout the research. The results will be shared in the Norwegian community of teachers and researchers in the field and provide a novel knowlegde base applicable to a range of educational programs and academic institutions in Norway and comparable countries.