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Nearly 21,100 children received help in 1995. This is nearly 450 or two per cent more compared to the year before. The increase reflects a shift away from taking custody of children to more active use of preventive and supportive services.
The number of cases in which children are taken into care by child welfare authorities in Norway is declining. At the same time, more children are being placed in foster homes and child care institutions without loss of parental custody. Other forms of intervention have also increased. All in all, more children received help from child welfare services last year compared to the previous year.
At the end of 1995 child welfare services had taken 5,100 children into care. This is 250 or five per cent fewer than the year before. Of the 5,100 children taken into care by the authorities, nearly 4,200 were placed in foster homes, around 400 in children's and youth homes and nearly 450 in other care programmes.
Under the new Child Welfare Services Act children can now be placed outside the home without formal loss of parental custody. Since 1993, Norway has seen an increase in the number of children placed in foster homes as part of supportive services; from 300 in 1993 to nearly 750 in 1995. Similarly, there has been an increase of children placed in children's and youth homes as part of supportive services; from nearly 150 in 1993 to nearly 350 children in 1995. Despite the decline in the number of children taken into care in the last three years, there were 100 more children placed in foster homes and child care institutions at the end of 1995 compared to the year before.
Supportive services most common
Of the nearly 21,100 children that received help from child welfare services at the end of last year, 16,050 children received one or more forms of help. Three out of four children helped by child welfare services received only supportive services. The number of children receiving supportive services climbed from nearly 15,300 in 1994 to nearly 16,000 in 1995, a increase of five per cent. The number of children in care declined by all of five per cent, from 5,350 to 5,100 children, compared to the year before. The most common supportive services are still family support and respite homes, mentoring and day care.