From Superintendence to Transition and Self-determination. Historic View on Policies and Practice towards Norwegian Care-leavers

Abstract

Leaving care services have been a feature of Norwegian child welfare legislation for more than a 100 years. This article traces the legislation and presents a discussion of these services. Three distinct periods can be identified, each with a dominant debate and policy orientation: the State’s need for control over the young people; the modern welfare state’s view that each child should be provided with services designed in the child’s best interest; and the more recent pressure for the promotion of the young people’s legal rights. Thus, ‘care versus control’ is a central theme. The article concludes by proposing both more international research, and locally developed practice.

Keywords:

• leaving care
• young people
• transition
• child welfare

Notes

¹ All translations are the author’s responsibility. The language in citations from material before 1960 has to some extent been modernised.

² The Child Welfare Meeting was arranged every two years by the Norwegian Child Welfare Association (NBS), which was established in 1923. The initiative came from the Ministry of Church and Education. 26 voluntary organisations were brought together by NBS. These organisations owned and ran almost 90% of the children’s homes (Hagen 2001). Many of the organisations were Christian. One was an association of heads of residential school leaders. They took an active part in discussions. The meetings functioned both as a point of contact with the state authorities, and as a forum for developing the ideas and practice of child welfare.