Beyond talking – children's participation in Norwegian care and protection cases

Abstract

The attempt to give children an effective voice in social work processes which can have substantial impact on their lives takes different forms in countries with varying professional cultures and legal frameworks. This paper reports on a study of children's participation in decision-making in care and protection services in Norway, which was carried out in conjunction with a project to support social work teams in enabling children to participate, using materials borrowed from England and Wales. The results showed that (a) taking an active part in decision-making did not correlate perfectly with (b) having an influence on the outcome. Cases were therefore classified as ‘participation’ or ‘non-participation’ using a combination of both the above criteria. Statistical analysis of the factors influencing children's participation enabled the proposition of a model which appeared to explain much of the variance. The results point to the inadequacy of equating social work conversation with children with effective participation in decision-making.

Fors⊘k på å fremme barns deltakelse og innflytelse i beslutninger som angår dem gj⊘res i flere land. Fremgangsmåte avhenger blant annet av fagkultur og lovverk. Denne artikkelen er basert på unders⊘kelse av barns deltakelse i beslutningsprosesser i Norske barnevernssaker. Studien ble gjennomf⊘rt i samband med utpr⊘ving og implementering av metoder for barns deltakelse som var utviklet i England og Wales. Unders⊘kelsen viste (a) at selv om barn tar del i beslutningsprosesser får ikke det n⊘dvendigvis (b) betydning for utfallet av saken. Sakene ble derfor klassifisert som ‘deltakelse’ eller ‘ikke-deltakelse’, basert på en kombinasjon av begge disse kriteriene. Ut i fra statistisk analyse av faktorer som har betydning for om barn blir deltakere, foreslås en modell for å forklare denne variasjonen. Resultatet viser at det ikke kan settes likhetstegn mellom å snakke med barn og det å gi barn reell deltakelse i beslutningsprosesser.

Keywords:

• child
• participation
• care
• protection
• decision-making

N⊘kkelord:

• barn
• deltakelse
• barnevern
• beslutninger

Notes

1. Fisher's exact test: p=0.004.

2. Student's t-test was used on continuous variables, and Chi-square test was performed on categorical variables. Due to the relatively low study sample Fisher's exact test was employed when the minimum cell count assumption for 2×2 Chi-square tests was violated. Associations between participation, case characteristics and case process were studied by multiple logistic regression analysis. The selection of variables was based upon the initial analysis and all variables with p<0.25 were included (Hosmer and Lemeshow 1989). The model was developed by elimination of variables based on stepwise added last tests of the likelihood ratio (Kleinbaum et al. 1998), using the ‘backward LR’ option in SPSS 13, with removal criterion set at p<0.1. Model diagnostics was carried out and colinearity was assessed with VIF values (Field 2005).

3. The difference represents an odds ratio (OR) of 3.02 in favour of the older children.

4. OR = 0.235; OR = 14.66.

5. t(40)= −1.46, p=0.152 (r=0.22).

6. t(41)= −2.148, p=0.038.

7. t(41)= −1.417, p=0.164.

8. r=0.22; r=0.32.

9. The package included a booklet in which seven ‘steps of problem-solving’ were illustrated with pictures and room for notes. Fisher exact test, p=0.092.

10. The remaining variables were removed in this order: step 2, problem-solving booklet; step 3, concern about parenting; step 4, sex of child; step 5, number of consultations; step 6, age of child; step 7, degree of seriousness.

11. This contradicts the finding in the bivariate analysis shown in Table 4, where eight out of nine cases referred for ‘other’ were participation cases. Due to the possibility of multiple referral reasons, the effect is mitigated when other child and case process variables are taken into consideration.