Child welfare

Child welfare services support and advise families espe­cially in life’s crisis situ­ations.

All children have the right to

• a good and safe childhood
• to grow and go to school
• to play and parti­cipate
• to be protected and cared for.

Child welfare means supporting parent­hood or, at its extreme, replacing it.

Child welfare services under legis­la­tion include support measures in open care, emergency placement, taking a child into care, substi­tute care, and after-care.

Child welfare work is confid­en­tial and employees have a duty of confid­en­ti­ality.

Child welfare is always based on the best interests of the child

The primary aim is to enable the child or young person to live in their own home.

If required by the best interests of the child, it is the duty of child welfare to intervene in a situation. In other words, help is not always voluntary, but legis­la­tion stip­u­lates that the child welfare authority must sometimes take measures to protect a child.

Social workers’ task is to espe­cially guard chil­dren’s best interests. When assessing a child’s best interests, the child’s wishes and opinion must be taken into account when planning and imple­menting child welfare measures.

Child welfare noti­fic­a­tion

A child welfare noti­fic­a­tion can be made by anyone who is concerned about a child’s wellbeing.

A child welfare noti­fic­a­tion is made to the municipal social welfare office by telephone, in writing or by visiting the social welfare office in person. A person submit­ting a child welfare noti­fic­a­tion must provide

• the child’s personal inform­a­tion available to them
• the reason for the noti­fic­a­tion (grounds, reasons and events for submit­ting the noti­fic­a­tion)
• addi­tion­ally, the person can inform whether the child or their guardian has been informed that a noti­fic­a­tion will be submitted.