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Nearly 21,500 children received one or more services from child welfare authorities at the end of 1996. This is 350 more children than the year before. The two per cent increase reflects a policy change on the part of the child welfare authorities in favour of providing supportive services instead of taking children into care.
More children received help from child welfare authorities in 1996. The number of cases in which children are taken into care is sinking, but the number of children who only receive supportive services continues to rise.
At the end of 1996 child welfare authorities had taken almost 4,850 children into care. This is 250 fewer and a decline of five per cent compared to the year before. Of the nearly 4,850 children in the care of child welfare authorities, nearly 4,000 were placed in foster homes, almost 400 in homes for children and youth, and around 450 in other care arrangements.
Under Norway's Child Welfare Services Act, which took effect 1 January 1993, a child can be placed outside the home without a formal decision by the authorities to take the child into care. In recent years this change has resulted in a substantial increase in the number of children placed in foster homes as a supportive service, rising from nearly 300 in 1993 to about 900 children in 1996. There has been a similar increase in the number of children placed in homes for children and youth as a supportive service, from nearly 150 in 1993 to about 400 children in 1996. The total number of children placed in foster homes and child care institutions at the end of 1996 was, however, somewhat lower than the year before.
Weekly Bulletin issue no. 35, 1997