Norwegian child welfare authorities take over the custody of more than thousand children each year. Often, the decision leans heavily on reports from commissioned independent experts. In 2010, the government established the Commission for child welfare experts to ensure the quality of these reports. Before courts can use them as basis for decisions, the reports must be reviewed by the commission. By now, the commission has archived around 8000 expert reports. There has been almost no research on these data.
This project seeks to undertake research in several areas directly linked to expert reports and their application. One work package in the project focuses on the content of 300 filed reports. A codebook has been developed to be able to quantify what characterises the reports, explore kinds of knowledge and norms experts adhere to, the types of assessment methods they use and the conclusions they reach. Two studies have been published from this work package. One explored the use of attachment theory and attachment related methods in expert reports. Experts were mandated to assess the child's attachment quality to the caregiver in one third of the reports. In almost two thirds of the reports, experts weighted the child's attachment quality to the caregiver in their concluding evaluation. Few expert assessments included the employment of attachment measures. The second study found that experts were rarely instructed to employ a cultural perspective but did so more frequently in reports concerning immigrant children than non-immigrant children. A third article, describing the development of the codebook, has been accepted for publication. Of two articles in review, one has explored how mentalisation is weighted among other variables in expert conclusions, while the other explore children’s participation in expert assessment. Both manuscripts are submitted to peer reviewed journals.
The other work package explores child welfare services, who commission and utilize reports, use of these reports and to which degree they are regarded as useful to child welfare services assessments. We have adopted a comparative perspective and explore how professionals within the Norwegian, Swedish, and English child welfare services perceived the role and function of expert assessments in child welfare cases. The Norwegian study reveals that child welfare services view expert reports as providing an external perspective on the case and simplifying the complexity of cases. However, they also had some experience working with experts whose work was of poor quality.
Through interviews with Swedish child welfare professionals, we found that the child welfare assessments rely on interpretations by the professionals within the child welfare system regarding information from other professionals involved with the family. As a result, the transfer of knowledge from other professionals to the child welfare system is not neutral. Thus, the process of knowledge integration affects the basis of social workers’ decision making. Results from the comparative study between Norway and England shows that that social workers in both countries experience an underdog status when compared to independent experts. In Norway, emphasis is placed on the differing degrees of influence and status of social workers and psychological experts. In England, the courtroom environment is described as challenging. The social work stories from these two contexts can contribute to raising key questions about the use of experts in child protection cases independent of these two contexts.
Additionally, we have conducted individual interviews with expert psychologists to explore how they perceive their roles and functions. One study published in a Norwegian, found that the Commission enhanced the quality of the experts’ work by having a sharpening support function. However, the expert raised concern that the Commission cannot evaluate their professional or substantial quality. Another study explored the expert’s experiences of children’s participation during the assessment. The study has been published in an international journal. We have also analysed decisions made by the Child Welfare and Health Board, sourced from Legal Data, to investigate how the board prioritizes the assessments provided by experts in decisions concerning the removal of custody. Results from this study has been submitted to a Norwegian journal.
With their significant impact for the futures of the children and families they concern, the filed reports represent a unique resource for the field of child welfare services. The project goal is to generate knowledge which can contribute to improvements and developments in child welfare services practice in the use of expert reports in their assessments, and in their decision making in cases where children may be removed. We have disseminated results from the project in education programs, and at national and international conferences.
Forskningsprosjektet har bidratt til å etablere forskning på barnesakkyndig arbeid som et tverrfaglig forskningsfelt i Norge. Gjennom prosjektet har forskere og stipendiater fra ulike fagfelt, særlig innen barnevern og psykologi, bidratt til økt forståelse av praksis og vurderingsmetoder i sakkyndige utredninger som inngår i barnevernets beslutninger.
Samarbeidet med referansegruppen og samarbeidspartnere har bidratt til at prosjektet har identifisert kompetansehull i barnesakkyndig arbeid knyttet til barnevernssaker. Prosjektresultater om vurderingsmetoder og fokus i barnesakkyndige rapporter gir ansatte bedre grunnlag for å forstå og bruke rapportene i sitt arbeid. Resultatene fra prosjektets arbeidspakker har identifisert viktige utfordringer og praksisforbedringsområder. For eksempel viser intervjustudien med barnesakkyndige psykologer hvilke vurderingsmetoder og fokusområder som brukes i deres arbeid. Dette kan gi verdifull innsikt for å styrke kvaliteten på sakkyndige utredninger.
Utviklingen av en reliabel kodebok for kvantitativ innholdsanalyse av barnesakkyndige rapporter er et sentralt bidrag til forskningsfeltet. Kodeboken gir en systematisk tilnærming til å analysere barnesakkyndige rapporter og kan brukes av forskere nasjonalt og internasjonalt. Publikasjonen om kodeboken (Mqginn et al., in print) inviterer til lignende forskning. Prosjektet har lagt grunnlag for videre utvikling av kompetanse innen forskningsområdet.
Intervjustudiene av ansatte i barnevernet i Norge og England har avdekket opplevelsen av å være nederst i profesjonshierarkiet sammenlignet med barnesakkyndige eksperter. Funnene gir grunnlag for å adressere strukturelle utfordringer i barnevernsfeltet og fremme bedre samarbeid mellom profesjoner.
Prosjektet har hatt innvirkning på utdanning og opplæring. En prosjektdeltaker satt i referansegruppen for evaluering av utdanningen av barnesakkyndige. Prosjektets resultater har vært grunnlag for å gi innspill til Bufdir om innhold og organisering av utdanningsløpet. Prosjektets funn er formidlet til Barnevernsutvalget og har dermed bidratt til å informere nasjonal politikkutforming.
De langsiktige effektene av prosjektet innebærer å styrke forskning og praksis innen barnesakkyndighet og barnevern. Av få prosjekter som kvantitativt utforsker innholdet i barnesakkyndige rapporter, har prosjektet etablert en plattform som muliggjør internasjonalt samarbeid og videre forskning. Norge har dermed blitt satt i en posisjon til å være i front innen dette forskningsfeltet.
Forskningsresultatene vil også kunne inngå i undervisning på relevante profesjonsutdanninger, og videreutdanninger. Resultatene fra prosjektet gir innsikt som kan anvendes direkte i praksis og i utviklingen av retningslinjer og standarder for barnesakkyndige rapporter. Samlet gir forskningsresultatene vesentlige bidrag til å identifisere kunnskapsbehov og styrke kunnskapsanvendelse når det gjelder beslutninger med vidtrekkende konsekvenser for barn og familier.
Annually, Norwegian child welfare authorities take over custody of about 1250 children which are in risk for lifetime health impairments. The decisions often lean on expert reports. From 2010, all expert reports are submitted to The Norwegian Commission on Child Welfare Experts, whose mandate is to assure their quality. By now, an archive of more than 7300 reports has accumulated. Despite their decisive impact on vulnerable children’s health and development, this internationally unique data material has never been subjected to systematic research. The research group has got clearance to access the data register, and has conducted a pilot study.
The objective is to investigate what characterizes expert reports and how they are used in child welfare decision-making processes, to promote sustainable services and reduce unwarranted variations in service provision for users of child welfare services.
The project is organized in two work packages. WP1 investigates the knowledge base, normative standards and the assessment methods of expert reports through qualitative and quantitative analyses. WP2 investigates how expert reports inform practices in child welfare services/-authorities, through qualitative data collection procedures and analyses. Through a cooperation with English and Swedish partners we will compare practices and learn from differences.
The project avoids challenges such as privacy related to health information. As a privacy requirement, exploring the expert reports take place at the premises of the registry. A challenging part will be the initial organising of the material into more fine-masked variables. To meet these challenges, a strength of the project lies in its broad representation from different research disciplines and user-groups. Other data will be managed in accordance with the Norwegian Personal Data Act, including General Data Protection Regulation and HVLs regulations. All personal data will be securely stored on HVLs research server.
