National child welfare – StatRes (discontinued), 2007

The regions include the following counties:

Region North : Finmark, Troms and Nordland

Region Middle : Nord-Trøndelag, Sør-Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal

Region West : Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland and Rogaland

Region South : Vest-Agder, Aust-Agder, Telemark, Vestfold and Buskerud

Region East : Oppland County, Hedmark County, Akershus County and Østfold County

In the child welfare statistics, the municipalities of Oslo and Trondheim are not included in Region East and Region Middle respectively, but are instead published as separate units. Oslo municipality is responsible for national and municipal child welfare on a permanent basis. Trondheim municipality has the same responsibility, but on a provisional basis from 2004 to 2007.

The mediation application statistics are included in these statistics even though the responsibility for mediation lies with the county governors. The mediation application statistics are published at county level.

Annual publication of indicators for the state-run child welfare service in StatRes

Not relevant.

The data are stored with the relevant division in Statistics Norway. The data are collected on behalf of the Ministry of Children and Equality. The delivery of data beyond what is published is only possible by agreement between the Ministry and the relevant division in Statistics Norway.

The county child welfare service is included in StatRes (government resource use and outcomes). The purpose of StatRes is to show the level of resources that the state uses, what this input provides in terms of activities and services in the various government activities, and what outcomes can be seen from the input. The aim is to provide the general public and the authorities with more knowledge of state-run activities.

The StatRes project was initiated in 2005, with the first publication in October 2007. StatRes has been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform, which also finances parts of the work.

Until the reporting year 2003, the child welfare service was under the county authorities and was reported and published in KOSTRA (Municipal-State-Reporting). The state took over responsibility for the child welfare service from the county authorities on 1 January 2004.

The target group for StatRes is statistics users with a knowledge of and an interest in state activities, as well as those who for various reasons are interested in or have a requirement for information on the level of resources that the state uses, what the input provides in terms of activities and services in the different state-run activities, and what outcomes can be seen from the input. Examples of such users include interested voters and taxpayers, the media, politicians, school pupils and students. One of the goals of StatRes is to provide the authorities with information that complements the information used in the daily governing of the various state activities.

Statistics Norway also publishes other statistics on child welfare, which are individual statistics collected from the municipal child welfare services. The clients with a need for measures under the state are found in the summary statistics of the state-run child welfare service. The individual-based statistics from the municipalities provide more detailed statistics and in addition to the state-run child welfare service also include statistics on the municipal child welfare service. In StatRes, the population is limited to central government, and statistics and indicators are presented in a uniform system whose purpose is to show the level of resources that the state uses, how these resources are used in different activities and services; and what can be seen from the outcome of the resource use. It is this way of limiting, linking, organising and presenting data and statistics on the state that distinguishes StatRes from other official statistics on the state and state-run activities. The accounting figures that are published here are also included in Statistics Norway's ordinary publication of the general government's revenues and expenditures.

Statistics Act of 16 June 1989, no. 54, § 2-2 and 3-2. Child Welfare Services Act of 17 July 1992 no. 100, § 2-3. The Statistics Act of 16 June 1989 no. 54 §§ 2-2 and 3.2. Act relating to child welfare services (Child Welfare Act) of 17 July 1992 no. 100 §§ 2-3 The functions and authority of the central government child welfare authorities and 2-3a Special provisions for Oslo Municipality.

Not relevant.

The child welfare service statistics are reported from the five regions and from the municipalities of Oslo and Trondheim.

The population is defined as covering:

- All organisations in the national child welfare authorities with the exception of family counselling. The regional administration is included.

- The part of the organisation at the Agency for Child and Family Welfare Services in Oslo Municipality that is responsible for the national child welfare authority’s duties and authority. The administration in the Agency for Child and Family Welfare Services is included. To be clarified with Statistics Norway for each new year.

The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs is not included.

The service reports are submitted electronically. Accounting statistics from the five regions are reported as file extracts from the regions' accounting systems. The municipality of Oslo reports their accounts as previously, through KOSTRA. The municipality of Trondheim reports separate accounts for child welfare in addition to the KOSTRA report.

Personnel:

As from the statistics year 2008, the source for data on personnel is register-based personnel statistics.

Statistics Norway’s register-based personnel statistics are based on individual-based register data from several registers. Information on employment is taken from the Register of Employees (NAV) and the Register of Wages and Deductions (Directorate of Taxes), as well as the Register of Wages. The Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities and the Register of Business Enterprises provide details of industries and sectors for enterprises and underlying businesses. In addition, NAV’s registers also cover persons on labour market initiatives, recipients of maternity pay and recipients of cash support for young children, and Statistics Norway’s register of doctor-certified sick leave. The data basis is therefore based on a number of different sources, and a system has been developed in Statistics Norway for collective use of these.

The statistics are based on reporting from the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufetat) in the individual regions. The reporting contains summarised information on how many clients, residences and length of residences are registered for different categories of initiatives by the national child welfare offices (Bufetat). Data is collected through annual distribution of an electronic form. Oslo and Trondheim municipalities also report their service data on electronic forms sent via KOSTRA.

Personnel:

Figures are extracted from a number of registers (see point 3.2 Data sources).

The statistics are produced based on reports from the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir) in each region. The reports contain information about every case that the offices have registered, pursuant to the Child Welfare Services Act. The data are reported electronically on an annual basis. The municipalities of Oslo and Trondheim report their service statistics electronically through KOSTRA.

Personnel:

The three most central registers that Statistics Norway's personnel statistics are based on are controlled and revised as follows: NAV carries out an extensive annual control of its Register of Employees. A selection of employers with manual reporting are sent lists of all persons they have reported with active employment. Errors are reported to NAV. Statistics Norway checks that enterprises with more than one business have separate numbers for each business. NAV and Statistics Norway check that the employees are associated with the right business. Statistics Norway checks the Register of Employees against the Register of Wages and Deductions, the ARENA register, etc. Some types of errors are corrected directly in the data basis for the personnel statistics. In connection with StatRes-Child Welfare, the delimitation of the population and distribution of regions (see points 1.4 and 3.1) must be controlled for each new year. The data are checked by means of controls built into the electronic forms and a control system for file extracts before they are submitted. The accounts reports are also checked against the central government budgetary accounts when received by Statistics Norway.

Personnel:

Contracted man-years excluding long absences are calculated by Statistics Norway as the sum of the number of full-time jobs and part-time jobs converted into full-time equivalents, excluding man-years lost due to doctor-certified sick leave and leave of absence to care for a child. Man-years are calculated as a percentage of a standard full-time position (37.5 hours per week). This is done based on the working hours at the reference date, which is the third week in November in the statistics year, and is regarded as representative for the whole year. The number of contracted man-years excluding long absences will not be identical to the actual man-years carried out, since the statistics do not cover overtime work, self-certified sick leave, holidays or other deviations from the contracted working hours outside of doctor-certified sick leave and leave of absence to care for a child. The data are published on two levels, as basis data and as indicators. The basis data consist mostly of units, either added up over the year, or at a given point in time (31 December). These figures are reported as absolute figures, whilst the indicators are ratios.

SSB presents unit costs for the different measures in the National child service. For the measures National child welfare, Assistance to children living at home and Foster homes SSB present expenditures per bed-day independent of weather the service is provided by the state or procured from the private sector. Unit costs for these three measures are calculated by the method:

Own production + transfers to private sector, divided by bed-days.

For the measure Children’s institutions SSB present unit costs for both public children’s institutions and when the bed-days are procured from private institutions. The calculations for these indicators are as followed:

* Expenditures per bed-day in public children’s institutions

Own production / bed-days public children’s institutions

* Expenditures per bed-day when procured from private children’s institutions

Transfers, private sector / bed-days private children’s institutions

Not relevant

The former county administered child welfare service and family counselling service were taken over by the state on 1 January 2004. Because the reporting of data now takes place at regional level instead of county level, there will be a break in the time series from 2004. Figures at county level prior to 2004 are still available in KOSTRA. The first publishing year for the new statistics (2004) will also include service figures for 2003 summarised into regional level. With regard to Region Middle, this comparison will be misleading for the child welfare service as the municipality of Trondheim is not included in the region. According to accounting figures, there will also be a break in the time series because of discrepancies in the central government accounting principles and the municipal accounting principles. In addition, the accounting concepts used in the regional child welfare service are not completely identical to the accounting concepts used in KOSTRA. This may result in misleading or incorrect results when comparing the regional and municipal indicators.