Tarja Pösö

Child protection systems within the Danish, Finnish and Norwegian welfare states—time for a child centric approach?

This article explores the relationship between the child protection systems and the Nordic welfare state in Denmark, Finland and Norway. Despite an ideological focus on prevention and provision of a fair amount of universal services and in-home child protection services for families and children, there is, nevertheless, a relatively high number of children in the child protection system, even children placed out of their home. The outcome of child protection seems to be relatively poor. One of the problems in the present child protection systems is related to questionable service provision within the system. Other problems are about the normative foundation for the system, for example, family orientation and the least intrusive principle. Such principles are closely related to the logic of universal services, and may as such ignore the diversity of needs, rights, risks and ages of children needing protection and related services. Consequently, many principles of the present child protection systems are – and will remain – challenged by a child-centric orientation, in which valuing childrens needs, rights and voice in situ are central.

Focus groups and the study of violence

The article examines the focus group method as a tool to study violence in youth residential care based on an empirical study of 38 young people in two Finnish reform schools. The key issue here is to reflect upon the processes of knowledge production as we trace the ways in which the institutional and situational context and the very form of focus groups affect the ways of talking about violence. Special attention is given to strong and weak themes in the focus group interviews.

The formalized framework for decision-making in child protection care orders: A cross-country analysis

Care orders within the child protection system are some of the most invasive interventions a state can make. This article examines the discretionary space governments set out for child protection workers when they prepare care orders. We analyse the formalized framework for these decisions in England, Finland, Norway and the United States. We focus on knowledge, timelines, how children and parents are involved and accountability. We find that Norway and Finland have highly de-regulated systems with wide discretionary space, whereas England and the United States are highly regulated systems with narrow discretionary space. The United States differentiates itself with relatively little parent and/or child involvement in decision-making. England and Finland do not have defined deadlines for terminating the process, and Norway has few directives on what information to collect. Such differences will influence the quality of decisions as well as the principles of the rule of law.

Sensitive Issues in Vulnerable Conditions: Studying Violence in Youth Residential Care

This article discusses the experiences of the ethical dilemmas encountered in a research project on teenage reformatory school residents’ understanding of violence.The study is based on group interviews of teenage youth (15 interview sessions) in two Finnish reformatory schools.The agenda for the interviews dealt with the adolescents’views on violence, experiences of it in different contexts such as home, school and residential care, as well as their moral judgement of it. The study has been motivated by the growing body of knowledge and concerns about youth violence, linking the experiences of violence, seen as traumatic, with behavioural and psychosocial problems. We would like to contribute to that debate by saying something about violence as defined by young people. Confidentiality and voluntary participation are some of the basic principles guiding the research process.The ethical issues are, however, more complicated.The actual act of asking young people to speak about violence can be (re)traumatizing. On the other hand, it is important to give them a chance to speak. The dilemma of misusing the young people’s participation in the research and the option of giving space for voices to be heard is one of the ethical dilemmas confronted in this paper.

Messages to Social Work Education: What Makes Social Workers Continue and Cope in Child Welfare?

This article examines the positive elements which make social workers continue their career with a focus on statutory child welfare. Such analysis is needed, as existing research tends to highlight stress, exhaustion and career break-up issues. The empirical data consist of focus groups of 28 social workers and a questionnaire addressed to 56 professionals in child welfare in two Finnish urban municipalities. The focus groups were targeted at novice, expert and veteran social workers. The analysis presents organisational, person-related and client-work-related positive elements from the point of view of social workers. The results highlight that social work in child welfare may be experienced as being rewarding and professionally challenging. The positive elements vary among novice, expert and veteran social workers, with the latter especially viewing their work as independent expert work with major opportunities to make a change in childrens lives. Commitment to care of children is one of the key motivating factors. The study suggests that social work education should recognise that the subjective motivation to do social work may change during ones career and that social work may be simultaneously both stressful and rewarding. Students should learn how to balance these aspects of their work.

On the margin? Residential child care in Scotland and Finland

Situated on the margins of Europe, Scotland and Finland are small countries which share similar demographic and economic profiles. In many European countries, residential child care can also be considered to be ‘on the margin’ of child care provision; there is ambivalence about residential care and a view that it should be used as a last resort. This paper examines systems and practices of residential care in Scotland and Finland, locating these in the context of wider child welfare policy in both countries. The underpinning principles of child welfare provision in both countries are similar—based on childrens rights and primarily family-focused. In both countries there are also similar concerns about the fragmentation of child care provision and the cost of residential services. However, there are also important differences relating to child welfare provision and the use of residential care. In Finland, overall numbers of children in residential care are much greater than in Scotland; the age profile of these children and young people is very different; and the two countries vary markedly in the use of secure accommodation and custody. This comparative analysis suggests new ways of understanding the similarities and difference in the use of residential care in the two countries. It highlights the continuing challenge to develop residential care as a positive and integral part of a continuum of care services.

Children Residing in Prison With Their Parents: An Example of Institutional Invisibility

This article presents the results of a study carried out in Finland on the position of children who accompany their parent to prison. The study consists of document analyses and staff and inmate interviews in the two Finnish prisons with special units for children. The results highlight the lack of information on children residing in prisons as well as the lack of guidelines for practice illustrated by the term “institutional invisibility.” The term “institutional invisibility” informs about the vagueness of the prison practices in relation to children and their parents.

Locking Up for the Best Interests of the Child — Some Preliminary Remarks on ‘Special Care’:

The article studies the practice of one special form of closed accommodation: special care. The term suggests that this is a welfare-oriented response to norm-breaking behaviour of young people. The empirical example comes from Finland, where special care is defined as restrictive activity under the Child Welfare Act and aimed at, among other things, interrupting a vicious circle of crime in young people for the best interests of the child. A contradictory picture is drawn of special care. The article suggests that the contradictions should be understood — but not necessarily accepted — within the social context in which the institutional placements take place.

Hesitation as a System Response to Children Exposed to Violence

The article aims to explore how certain social welfare, health and education institutions and the police respond to children exposed to violence. In particular, it focuses on how the institutions interact with each other in terms of informing one another about violence targeted at children or the suspicion of it, as suggested by present Finnish legislation. Based on interviews with 33 practitioners, the analysis highlights hesitation as a common response, especially in cases of mild violence and uncontested “evidence”. Hesitation is against the present legal norms and reflects some lack of knowledge of professional duties. However, the rationalities for hesitation relate, especially, to the agency and profession-based understanding of the principle of the best interests of the child, and they may include some practice-based understanding of the system. Thus, hesitation as a system response should not be ignored but explored in more detail.

Translation as a knowledge transformation practice—the ambiguous case of presenting Finnish child welfare in English

This article addresses the process of translation, necessary in the present social work academic and practice communities, as a form of transformation of knowledge. It is argued that knowledge is transformed in the translation process on the terms set by the language into which it is translated. As the English language is the lingua franca of the present academic and other international communities, it is the English language that sets the criteria for translation. In social work, which is conventionally seen as context-bound, the translation process includes some loss of the original particularities. The Finnish child welfare system is used as an example. It is demonstrated how complicated, if not even absurd, the translations may be. The English terms, related to a different child welfare ideology and history, do not meet the essence of the Finnish welfare-focused child welfare system. Instead of fluent translation, robust translations are suggested as the way forward. The robust, foreign-sounding translations would recognise the context-bound particularities. Yet, the challenge is how to find a communicative balance between fluent and robust translation.