Less children received measures from the Child Welfare Services

The Child Welfare Services in Norway is statutory to help all children and youth under the age of 23. New figures from the statistics on Child Welfare Services show that although the overall number of children has decreased, the number of youths between 18-22 years receiving measures is rising.

Less immigrants received measures

5 per cent less immigrants received measures in 2019 compared to 2018. But measures are still most commonly used for immigrants, followed by Norwegian-born children to immigrant parents. Checked for the population numbers in different groups measures are least common among children without immigrant background.

Increasing measures among the oldest

Youths over 18 years can still receive measures from the child welfare services until they are 23. Since 2015 there has been an increase in the numbers receiving measures in this age group. The figure has risen from 6 800 in 2015 to 7 600 in 2019, almost a 12 per cent increase.

3 of 4 placement measures are in foster homes

In total 14 700 children, or about 39 per cent of the 37 900 children registered with measures at the end of 2019 were placed outside of their family home. This was implemented either as a care or an assistance measure. The number of children placed outside of their family home was almost 500 less in 2019 than in 2018. 3 out of 4, or 10 850 children, lived in foster homes.

The number of children under care was 8 600 by the end of 2019. That makes up almost 60 per cent of all children placed outside their home.

More notifications due to new registration routines

In 2019 the Child Welfare Services received a total of 58 000 notifications, an increase by 2 per cent from 2018. Considering the fact that all other key figures are decreasing from 2018 to 2019, there is reason to believe that this increase could have been caused by new administrative routines.

Less investigations

Furthermore the Child Welfare Services initiated 46 900 investigations during 2019, which is 1 per cent less than in 2018.

46 900 investigations were closed during 2019, which is 3 per cent less than in 2018. Only for 40 per cent of all closed investigations a decision was made on starting measures for the child. The rest of the cases were dismissed. Almost half of the investigations were dismissed after assessment by the Child Welfare Service, 9 per cent at the parties' request and 4 per cent due to relocation.