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Pathways to permanence in England and Norway: a critical analysis of documents and data
- Authors:
- SKIVENES Marit, THOBURN June
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 67, 2016, pp.152-160.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
The English language term ‘permanence’ is increasingly used in high income countries as a ‘short-hand’ translation for a complex set of aims around providing stability and family membership for children who need child welfare services and out-of-home care. From a scrutiny of legislative provisions, court judgements, government documents and a public opinion survey on child placement options, the paper draws out similarities and differences in understandings of the place of ‘permanence’ within the child welfare discourse in Norway and England. The main differences are that in England the components of permanence are explicitly set out in legislation, statutory guidance and advisory documents whilst in Norway the terms ‘stability’ and ‘continuity’ are used in a more limited number of policy documents in the context of a wide array of services available for children and families. The paper then draws on these sources, and on administrative data on children in care, to tease out possible explanations for the similarities and differences identified. The authors hypothesise that both long-standing policies and recent changes can be explained by differences in public and political understandings of child welfare and the balance between universal services and those targeted on parents and children identified as vulnerable and in need of specialist services. (Edited publisher abstract)
Systemic differences in views on risk: a comparative case vignette study of risk assessment in England, Norway and the United States (California)
- Authors:
- KRIZ Katrin, SKIVENES Marit
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 35(11), 2013, pp.1862-1870.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Using a case vignette method, this article examines how 299 child welfare workers from England, Norway and California (U.S.) assess risk to a child in the context of different risk assessment tools, child welfare systems and welfare regimes. The case vignette describes the case of ‘Beatrice’, a nine year-old girl of Black African descent who was born with an organic heart disease and a cleft palate. The study found that respondents from California assessed the risk to be the lowest, followed by respondents from England and Norway. The risk factors that respondents highlighted as important for their assessment also varied significantly between countries, displaying different perceptions of elements in a case constituting risk. Respondents from Norway, who, comparatively, practice within the context of the least regulated assessment platform, identified the most homogenous assessments and types of reasoning, whereas both the assessment of risk levels and identifications of risk factors were more heterogeneous among workers in England and California. The authors argue that the different risk assessment tools only partly influence what workers identify as risk factors in a case, and that type of welfare states and child welfare systems is also an influence. This study thus supports existing scholarship on the distinctions between child welfare systems which have suggested differences between child protection-oriented child welfare systems such as England and the U.S., and family service-oriented child welfare systems such as Norway. However, significant differences were also found in perceptions of risk factors between England and the United States. (Edited publisher abstract)
Adoption in the child welfare system – a cross-country analysis of child welfare workers' recommendations for or against adoption
- Authors:
- SKIVENES Marit, TEFRE Øyvind Samnøy
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 34(11), November 2012, pp.2220-2228.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
This paper examines how child welfare workers in 3 countries, Norway, England and the United States (California), decide whether to recommend forced adoption. Ninety seven workers from the US, 99 from England, and 103 from Norway were presented with the same vignette about foster parents wishing to adopt their foster child. The 3-year old boy had lived with his foster parents since the age of 5 months. His biological parents were substance abusers and had never visited the boy. Legislation and policy recommendations for the termination of parental rights and adoption vary among the 3 countries, but they all regard permanency for the child as the overarching goal for children in care. The findings show that a majority of the workers suggest forced adoption, and their main justifications were related to parental behaviour and their failure to fulfil visitation arrangements, followed by arguments about how adoption would provide both permanency and solid attachment for the child. Out of the 3 countries, it was primarily the Norwegian workers (41%) that decided against forced adoption. Their main objections were the lack of parental consent and the fact that forced adoption is uncommon in Norway. The findings of this study show that the reasoning of child welfare workers clearly reflects the policies and guidelines of their respective countries. The workers' reasoning also reflects their knowledge of the basic premises for promoting adoption and permanency for children in care.
Dimensions of high quality foster care: parenting plus
- Authors:
- BERRICK Jill Duerr, SKIVENES Marit
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 34(9), September 2012, pp.1956-1965.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
This article explores the parenting practices of foster carers. The characteristics of good parenting found in typical parents may be necessary but may also be insufficient for foster carers. The aim of this study was to compare the characteristics of high quality caregivers in the U.S. and Norway. The study comprised in-depth interviews held with 87 U.S. and 54 Norwegian foster parents who had been selected for providing high quality care to children. The interview aimed to identify whether effective caregiving mirrors strong parenting among typical parents or whether a set of additional skills is required to parent foster children responsively. These additional skills are referred to as ‘Parenting +’. The findings show that effective foster parents in the U.S. and Norway share similar characteristics relating to their care giving. In addition to using strategies recommended in the parenting literature, effective foster parents use additional ‘Parenting +’ strategies. These strategies are described particularly in the domains of family integration, relationships with biological parents, and support for children's special needs. Findings from the study have implications for foster parent recruitment, training, and support.
How child welfare workers perceive their work with undocumented immigrant families: an explorative study of challenges and coping strategies?
- Authors:
- KRIŽA Katrin, SKIVENES Marit
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 34(4), April 2012, pp.790-797.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
This explorative study explores how child welfare workers perceive their work with undocumented immigrant families. Interviews were held with 39 interviews with child welfare workers in 2 public child welfare agencies in California. As part of these interviews, the workers were asked if they experience challenges in putting services in place for undocumented immigrants and how they deal with these challenges. A total of 31 of the workers reported having experience working with undocumented immigrants. Of these workers, one third did not experience any challenges working with this population, while two thirds (20 workers) did. This group reported challenges with regard to the child welfare system, the welfare system overall, and problems in the private sphere of service users. The findings highlight the need for further research to investigate whether and in what ways the situation for undocumented families differs from other marginalised service users.
How child welfare workers view their work with racial and ethnic minority families: the United States in contrast to England and Norway
- Authors:
- KRIŽ Katrin, SKIVENES Marit
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 33(10), October 2011, pp.1866-1874.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
This paper explores how child welfare workers employed by public child welfare agencies in the United States, England and Norway experience working with racial and ethnic minority families. This study builds on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 50 child welfare workers in the United States, 28 child welfare workers in Norway, and 25 child welfare workers in England. Almost all the workers reported experiencing differences in working with racial and ethnic minority families in contrast to White service users. The findings in the U.S. differed markedly from the findings in England and Norway. In the U.S., workers regarded cultural pluralism as a given and considered it an inherent feature of their work, regardless of the racial or ethnic background of the family. Further, they identified poverty, racism, and lack of feelings of entitlement as dimensions to practicing with minority families. A few mentioned language as an issue. The workers in both England and Norway thought that communication challenges constituted a major problem, and that minority clients' lack of language proficiency and knowledge about society and social systems made it difficult for workers to understand families' meaning and intent. The article discusses how caseworkers' perceptions may influence their decision making, and analyses what factors may account for these cross-country differences.