Deliberative Decision-Making on the Norwegian County Social Welfare Board: The Experiences of Expert and Lay Members

Abstract

This article examine the entire population of expert and lay decision-makers on the Norwegian County Social Welfare Board, with 57% responding (n = 1598), asked whether they experience being fully informed about the facts in the case; are equal partners in the decision-making team, and if their arguments are taken seriously. Findings show they were highly satisfied with the proceeding and their role in it, and they positively highlighted the judge's role in the decision-making process. However, expert and lay persons are not provided with documents in a timely manner, and some lay members felt subordinate to the other decision-makers.

Keywords::

• Argumentation
• care order proceedings
• deliberative decision-making
• Norwegian County board
• quality of proceedings

Acknowledgment

Thanks go to the court decision-makers of the Norwegian County social welfare boards who took the time the share their perceptions on decision-making processes at their workplace. Furthermore, thanks to our colleagues at the research group for fruitful comments as well to the participant commenting at the conference “Legitimacy and fallibility in child welfare decisions”, October 8, 2015.

Notes

^1. Full Norwegian title: Kvalitetssikring av saksbehandlingen i Fylkesnemnda for barnevern og sosiale saker. English title: Quality assurance of case handling in the County Social Welfare Board. Unless otherwise stated, all translations from Norwegian to English are undertaken by the author Milfrid Tonheim.

^2. Today, the selection is done mechanically through the use of boards' electronic case-handling software.

^3. The data tool Zigne can be found in English and Norwegian at http://www.aardal.info/dataprog.html

Additional information

Funding

Norwegian Research Council has funded this research.

Notes on contributors

Marit Skivenes

Marit Skivenes is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Administration & Organization Theory at the University of Bergen, Norway. 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. Her latest edited book is Child Welfare Removals (2016), published at Oxford University Press.

Milfrid Tonheim

Milfrid Tonheim is a researcher the Department of Administration & Organization Theory at the University of Bergen, Norway. Tonheim's research focuses primarily on child protection and social reintegration of former child soldiers. Tonheim is co-editor of a book entitled La route cahoteuse de la réin.