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Aftenposten recently wrote about how two brothers could be on top of the ‘worst list’ of police for young gangsters in Oslo, at just 14 and 15 years old. For several years, concerns reported to the school’s child welfare service and the police. Still, no one could stop them. At one point, the neighborhood child welfare agency sent the siblings to their parents’ homeland, Iraq, as a child welfare measure.
– It’s a very serious matter. It may seem like too little has been done for too long, especially at first. The problems have turned into a big conflict with siblings and their families, on the one hand, and “systems” on the other, “says Inga Marte Thorkildsen (SV), executive director of Oslo’s child welfare services.
The matter is now being discussed at the first meeting of the Health and Social Committee, after Aina Stenersen (Frp), chair of the Health and Social Committee in Oslo, has put several questions to the city council.
– How would you characterize the collaboration between school and child welfare as it appears in this case? – Obviously it was very bad. If they had had a chance to start again after what we know now, I think many would have done it very differently, Thorkildsen says. She believes that it is obvious that many have felt helpless along the way and that the case illustrates why it is important to relocate child welfare workers into schools, as she has now instructed municipalities. Both to build trust and competence in all systems, and not least for children and young people. – What do you think the Child Welfare Service chose for many years to focus on parenting advice and guidance, while the problems only increased in scope? – We know that the assistance measures that we have available are insufficient. We often try too long with too little action. We need to delve into what are the problems in families. Inga Mars Thorkildsen points out that Oslo has worked long to make the child the protagonist in its own case, and that the child welfare team must cooperate safely with the child. – It takes time to develop the practice. I think the child welfare system and other systems are still so busy working with parents that important information is lost. In many cases, there are serious underlying problems that you cannot solve due to the way it works. – The 14-year-old younger brother sat in the Youth Cutter child welfare institution for 170 days in a closed unit, under custody conditions. What do you think about that? – I am very happy that the county governor sees it in your oversight case. In this case, it is obvious that the systems have felt completely powerless. You didn’t know what to do in the end. And then they’ve done things that they’re also critical of, because they haven’t seen any alternatives, Thorkildsen says. – What do you think about the decision to send the brothers to Iraq after the institution that was created for them failed? – I agree with the Ombudsman for Children that we should have expertly founded measures with the best evaluations of the best children. I hope that the decision to send them to Iraq, which also included the County Board, will be thoroughly reviewed by the county governor in the ongoing litigation. But it is very special. – You don’t mean anything more than that? – I don’t need to be a judge in this case. I am concerned that we will listen to the agencies that can do this and that will go in and evaluate what has been done well or badly.
– Obviously bad cooperation
I’m glad the county governor has opened a supervisory case
It will not be the “judge” of the fracture
