Family counselling service, 2010

The family counselling offices dealt with close to 30 500 cases in 2010; about the same level as the year before. In Region South and Region West there was an increase, and in Region East, Region Middle and Region North there was a decrease in the number of cases. These changes had no major impact on the share-related distribution of cases per region, which thus remained virtually unchanged from 2009. Region North still has most cases in relation to number of inhabitants, i.e. 7.6 per 1 000 inhabitants. As in previous years, Region West has the lowest number of family counselling cases; 5.1 per 1 000 inhabitants.

More unmarried made contact and most are women

As in 2009, seven out of ten of those who made contact with a family office were woman. There was an increase of three per cent in unmarried people making contact with a family counselling office in 2010. 45 per cent of the 93 500 sessions in 2010 included a partner. Former partners took part in 13 per cent of the sessions, and children under 18 years of age took part in 4 per cent.

In 2010, there were 24 400 new cases. In 30 per cent of these cases, the primary client reported that strengthening the relationship was the main reason for the enquiry. About 27 per cent of the clients contacted a family counselling office to get help to strengthen collaboration on child/children with a former partner, and 11 per cent needed help to clarify whether the relationship should continue or not.

Information, advice and counselling was the reason for inquiry for 10 per cent of the clients, strengthening parental knowledge for 6 per cent, and for 4 per cent of the clients the primary reason for inquiry was to move on after the end of a relationship.

The average waiting time per case increased by two days, to 31 days in 2010. The average treatment time after the first session was 137 days for the cases that were closed in 2010, compared with 132 days the previous year.

Man-years

In 2010, the number of man-years in the family counselling service was 422; a decrease of 11 man-years from 2009. The reduction is mainly for psychologists and social workers due to mergers of offices in 2010. With regard to the number of man-years per 10 000 inhabitants, there are almost no changes from 2009.

The family counselling offices also work with information, courses and guidance, and the total number of man-hours spent on this was less than 17 500 hours; a decrease of 5 per cent from 2009.

The national child welfare and family counselling service spent almost NOK 325 million on family counselling in 2010; an increase of more than 5 per cent from the previous year.

The family counselling offices are the core unit in the Norwegian mediation service, and mediation is a major task in the family counselling service. Statistics on mediations for parents in 2010 are published here .

Tables:

• Table 1 New cases in the Family counselling services, by the primary clients sex and reason for inquiry. Total and Region. 2010
• Table 2 Family counselling services, new cases, by period of waiting, region and county. 2010
• Table 3 Family counselling services, closed cases, by duration, region and county. 2010
• Table 4 Family counselling services, counselling sessions, by region and county. 2010
• Table 5 Family counselling services, by status per 31 December 2010, region and county. 2010
• Table 6 Family counselling services, by main actions in the counselling, region and county. 2010
• Table 7 Family counselling services, by man-hours spent on counselling sessions, region and county. 2010
• Table 8 Family counselling services, by primary client's age, gender, marital status and employment status. Total and region. 2010
• Table 9 Family counselling services, and topics in all cases. Total. Region. 2010
• Table 10 Key figures family counselling service. Figures for 2010 and 2009
• Table 11 Figures family counselling service. Figures for 2010