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12 June 2023
The Norwegian child protection service Barnevernet – a service which renders help or wields power?
By Ingebjørg Jakobsen
Sørreisa municipality, Troms
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This article has previously been published in Norwegian on iFinnmarkdebatten on 24 March 2023, and on the present home page on 26 March 2023.
The English translation is published here with the author's kind consent.
Translation: Marianne Haslev Skånland
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Some of us have had difficult periods in the family. Disagreements may have slid out of control and then one cannot manage to put things right oneself. In a deadlock, you look around for help. Who can you approach, who is proficient in such matters? Barnevernet, the CPS – its official English title is the Norwegian Child Welfare Services – is recommended to you.
So you contact case workers in this system and hope for help. But your disappointment is likely to be great. My own experience is rather dismal. Most of what I am about to write in this article can be documented.
The experience one has of workers in CPS service is that they are vicious power machines, ably supported by the lawyers employed by their municipalities. Barnevernet's workers engage fully in destroying families. They manipulate the children to turn against their parents and the rest of their relations. They shut down telephones, so that parents and family can neither call nor send messages.
Think about it: What will be the position of these children once they are free? They hardly know who their relatives are, they are all strangers. Will they feel insecure? Paralysed with fear? Probably.
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In the European Court of Human Rights, Norway has in fifteen different cases been found guilty of violating the right to family life, and further cases are in the pipeline. This has something to tell us about Barnevernet's service and its men and women helpers. As public employees, Barnevernet's personnel are obliged to work according to the laws and regulations under their administration. Their failure to do so is great. They have opinions and preferences about everything, the decisions they make often resting on little or no real expertise. They are unable to cooperate with parents and show them respect. They impose decisions by force without any consultation or dialogue with parents. They render nothing like acceptable civil service.
Where is human integriy in all this?
If one of the parents is of foreign origin, then your chances are slim. You're heading for a considerable experience of being harassed, provoked (in order for you to react in a way which can give them an excuse to write something negative), stamped with psychiatric diagnoses. The case workers of Barnevernet have no professional basis and are not entitled to diagnose people. So with a good lawyer you can bring an action and may possibly win.
At every meeting with your child you must struggle under supervision. A kind of supervision given unlimited power, one that follows you around like a twin and almost sits on your lap to absorb all that is said and is not said. How can parents behave naturally in such a setting? All of it is very stressful. And you are given instructions that you are not allowed to give a loving hug to the children you miss so terribly, and whom you are only allowed to meet for four hours every other month.
Where is the human element in all this, and where are common sense and empathy? Completely absent. What kind of people work in this service? Maybe they should evaluate their own suitability for it or else someone else should.
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How has it come about that case workers in Barnevernet have gained such power in Norway? There must have been responsible people who have not kept up with what is happening? And why are they allowed to continue in this way? Destroyed families and traumatised children who, it can be foreseen, must struggle on with this when they are grown up. Power has built up, through lawyers, the Child Welfare Tribunals (formerly called 'Barneverns- og helsenemndene', the County Boards for Child Welfare), the County Governors, the court instances such as Tingretten (the District Courts).
I have had some experience of this, since I have been called as a witness three times in the Child Welfare Tribunals and twice in the District Court. It has been an experience I would gladly have been without: Anything more like a muppet show would be difficult to find. All these entities accept unquestioningly most of what Barnevernet's lawyers say.
But the worst helpers in the tribunals and courts are the expert psychologists. Their reports are taken as the basis on which to decide whether children are to be returned or not. They hold enormous power. I have seen it and I am shocked. After a few hours with parents and children they both plant diagnoses and put a stop to return of the children, on flimsy grounds. The members of the tribunals and the courts bow and say thank you, and pass judgment as recommended by the experts.
What a system.
If you commit a crime and you are sentenced, you serve your sentence and then it's finished. In this system of welfare for children, they pull out what happened x years ago and you are judged again and again. As I said, I have experience of this and can document it. In these cases the world never moves on, because that is not wanted. Revenge and lies have also turned up from the case workers in the Barnevern service.
There are probably Barnevern offices in Norway where the case workers really work for the family. They help families and avoid sending children to completely strange people. They make use of networks like family and kin. That, too, is what the law says should be done.
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I have worked in public service myself for over 30 years and I know something about how to work in accordance with the laws. Many parents in Norway experience great sorrow and deep longing for their children. Some of the parents are unable to stand in the continued fight and choose to leave this earth, or they die from heartbreak. I also think about the children placed in institutions where they are treated far from well. There have been sad tragedies there too but I will not go into them here.
The child protection system in Norway has become a large industry. A lot of money circulating – I do not wish to write about that any further either.
The Norwegian Child Welfare Services need total renovation. They cannot have two important functions, both give assistance and take children into care. They must be only a service giving help and they need schooling in this area. They have carried out far too many takings-into-care on shaky grounds. Many of them should never have been carried out and case workers and leaders should be placed on trial for them. My greatest wish is that politicians and other persons in responsible positions do something about this before even more families are destroyed. You have a responsibility to us and on behalf of all of us.
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See also
Majoran Vivekananthan:
The illusion that all is well in the end
MHS's home page, 5 May 2023
Olav Sylte:
After 12 months, 12 new serious miscarriages of justice
MHS's home page, 24 September 2018
Convictions of Norway in the European Court of Human Rihts (ECtHR) in cases concerning child protection (Barnevern)
Recorded by Marianne Haslev Skånland
MHS's home page, 12 March 2020 –, last update 27 March 2022
familien-er-samlet (the-family-is-together):
County boards with quality at an all-time low
MHS's home page, 25 November 2017
Alvheim's ten commandments to people in touch with Barnevernet
MHS's home page, 11 October 2022
The treatment of brothers and sisters by Barnevernet (Norwegian CPS)
Three articles
MHS's home page, 26 July 2021
Olav Terje Bergo:
What can elected politicians in Norway do about our child protection system Barnevernet?
MHS's home page, 13 October 2022
Marianne Haslev Skånland and familien-er-samlet (the-family-is-together):
The CPS Barnevernet is now to exercise 'professional love'
MHS's home page, 10 November 2018
Siv Westerberg:
Child prisons? In Sweden?
MHS's home page, 28 December 2018
– : Norway and Sweden – where inhuman rights prevail
MHS's home page, 11 November 2017
Jahn Otto Johansen:
Self-righteous Norway
MHS's home page, 30 April 2016
Hege Dahl:
Clammy double standards and a strong tendency to psychological denial
MHS's home page, 17 August 2018
Aage Simonsen:
Norwegian child protection hits immigrants hard
MHS's home page, 10 November 2017
Inger Elisabeth Baunedal:
Norwegian child protection Barnevernet – past expiry date?
MHS's home page, 2 January 2017
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