Child Welfare Removals by the State

A Cross-Country Analysis of Decision-Making Systems

Edited by Kenneth Burns, Tarja Pvsv, and Marit Skivenes

International Policy Exchange

Offers new insights on a topic on which limited preexisting research exists.
Provides cross-country research.
Challenges traditionally held views on the State, children, and families.

Child Welfare Removals by the State

A Cross-Country Analysis of Decision-Making Systems

Edited by Kenneth Burns, Tarja Pvsv, and Marit Skivenes

Description

Child Welfare Removals by the State addresses a most important (but little-researched) legal proceeding: when the State intervenes in the private family sphere to remove children at risk to a place of safety, adoption, or in other forms of out-of-home care. It is an intervention into the private family sphere that is intrusive, contested, and a last resort. States' interventions in the family are decided within legal and political orders and traditions that constitute a country's policies, welfare state model, child protection system, and children´s position in a society. However, we lack a cross-country analysis of the different models of decision-making in a European context.

This text aims to present new research at the intersection of social work, law, and social policy concerning child protection proceedings for children in need of alternative care. It explores the role of court-based and voluntary decision-making systems in child protection proceedings, its effects, dynamics, and meanings in seven European countries and the United States, and analyses the tensions and dilemmas between children, parents, and socio-legal professionals.

The book consists of eight country chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion chapters. The range of countries of countries represented in the book covers the social democratic Nordic countries (Finland, Norway, and Sweden), the conservative corporatist regimes (Germany and Switzerland), the neo-liberal (England, Ireland, and the United States), and related child welfare systems.

Child Welfare Removals by the State

A Cross-Country Analysis of Decision-Making Systems

Edited by Kenneth Burns, Tarja Pvsv, and Marit Skivenes

International Policy Exchange

Acknowledgements
Contributors
Chapter 1: Child Welfare Removals by the State — Complex and Controversial Decisions
Kenneth Burns, Tarja Pösö, and Marit Skivenes
Chapter 2: Removals of Children in Finland: A Mix of Voluntary and Involuntary Decisions
Tarja Pösö and Raija Huhtanen
Chapter 3: Norway: Child Welfare Decision-Making in Cases of Removals of Children
Marit Skivenes and Karl Harald Søvig
Chapter 4: Placing Children in State Care in Sweden: Decision-Making Bodies, Laypersons, and Legal Framework
Gustav Svensson and Staffan Höjer
Chapter 5: Removing Children from their Families due to Child Protection in Germany
Monika Haug and Theresia Höynck
Chapter 6: Child Removal Proceedings in Switzerland
Stefan Schnurr
Chapter 7: Child Removal Decision-Making Systems in Ireland: Law, Policy and Practice
Kenneth Burns, Conor O'Mahony, Caroline Shore, and Aisling Parkes
Chapter 8: State Intervention in Family Life in England: Safeguarding Children through Care Proceedings and Adoption
Karen Broadhurst
Chapter 9: How Children are Removed from Home in the United States
Katrin Kriz, Janese Free, and Grant Kuehl
Chapter 10: Removals of Children by the Child Welfare System — Variations and Differences Across Countries
Kenneth Burns, Tarja Pösö, and Marit Skivenes
Index

Child Welfare Removals by the State

A Cross-Country Analysis of Decision-Making Systems

Edited by Kenneth Burns, Tarja Pvsv, and Marit Skivenes

International Policy Exchange

Author Information

Edited by Kenneth Burns, Deputy Director, Master of Social Work Program, University Cork College,, Edited by Tarja Pvsv, Professor in Social Work, School of Social Sciences and Humanties, University of Tapere, and Edited by Marit Skivenes, Professor, University of Bergen

Kenneth Burns, PhD, is a college lecturer and Deputy Director of the Master of Social Work programme at University College Cork, Ireland and a research associate with ISS21 (UCC). He has worked as a social worker and social work team leader in child protection and welfare. Dr. Burns is the Principal Investigator of the inter-disciplinary Child Care Proceedings Research Group at UCC and has published widely on child protection and welfare, staff welfare and retention, social work and community-based participatory research. He is also a co-national lead for Campus Engage on Community-based research and part of a Horizon 2020 multi-country study on Responsible Research & Innovation called EnRRICH.

Tarja Pösö, PhD, is Professor in Social Work at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere, Finland. She has a long experience of more than 20 years in studying child welfare from different perspectives, with a keen interest in cross-cultural perspectives and exploring methods and ethics for child welfare studies. Her work has been published in national and international journals and books.

Marit Skivenes, PhD, is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Administration & Organization Theory at the University of Bergen, Norway. She also holds a professor II position at Bergen University College. Dr. Skivenes has extensive experience in comparative research on child welfare systems, and decision-making processes within these systems. Besides teaching and departmental obligations, she has managed and completed several large scale, cross-country research projects and established an internationally renowned child welfare research network. She has contributed to the field with several co-edited books, book chapters, reports and peer-reviewed journal articles, featuring both Norway-specific, and cross country comparisons of child welfare policies and practices.

Contributors:

Karen Broadhurst
Kenneth Burns
Janese Free
Monika Haug
Raija Huhtanen
Staffan Höjer
Theresia Höynck
Katrin Kriz
Grant Kuehl
Aisling Parkes
Conor O'Mahony
Tarja Pösö
Stefan Schnurr
Caroline Shore
Marit Skivenes
Karl Harald Søvig
Gustav Svensson