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This article addresses comparative research on what has come to be called, in (British) English, ‘child protection’ or, rather differently, in Finnish ‘ lastensuojelu’. In developing a cross-national research project on lastensuojelu/child protection practices in England and Finland, we found it necessary to go back a few steps, to address what might usually be considered as ‘background issues’. This article discusses the welfare state traditions in both countries, especially with respect to families and children, in order to contextualise the focus of ongoing qualitative research on micro comparisons. When comparing the mundane practices of child protection and the ways problems and clienthoods are constructed, as in this study, historical, social, cultural and linguistic issues matter. Indeed, very basic concepts such as ‘child protection’ and ‘child protection case’ become problematic in the comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the opinions of 116 Finnish children (mainly aged under 12 years), who were child welfare clients in 2021 regarding how their voices and needs should be heard and met by employees of this system. An abductive thematic analysis revealed that the nature of their participation is connected to Amartya Sen's capability approach. Children considered their rights and capabilities, the possibility to make choices and being safeguarded as important. We found that encounters with employees introduced young children to how society views them and how they can impact the course of their own lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to identify factors supporting young people's resilience during out‐of‐home care (OOHC) in Finland, despite challenges in their lives. In our qualitative study, we applied a social‐ecological framework to understand the experiences and perspectives of young people on what helped them and the help they would have needed during OOHC. The findings indicate (1) individual characteristics and interests (positive attitude, understanding own acts and their consequences and meaningful activities), (2) relationships (good relationships with close ones, ability to meet and keep contact with close ones, good relationships with professionals and relationships between parents and professionals) and (3) institutions (place of OOHC, youth‐centered practices, needs‐based services and support for the family) all supported the resilience of young people in OOHC. Further, to receive support from a particular medium, such as professionals (relationship level), a young person must already have some self‐understanding (individual level) of things. Essentially, youth resilience is supported through all these levels as a process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In mid‐18th‐century Sweden, the newly enhanced census records revealed higher‐than‐expected infant mortality rates in certain regions of the kingdom. This convinced contemporary elite men of common women deliberately refusing to breastfeed out of vanity and lack of care. One of the worst regions in terms of infant mortality was the province of Ostrobothnia, located in the area of what is now Finland. To explore the allegations, we measured the carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope ratios in the collagen of incremental crown dentin segments of the permanent first molars (M1) of six individuals excavated from the early modern churchyard of the town of Oulu, Ostrobothnia. The results do not directly support the worries over the lack of breastfeeding but imply a variety of related practices in Oulu at the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vague programme descriptions are known to impede implementation and evaluation. Yet social work change programmes often fail to describe in detail how they aim to provide better outcomes for children and families. This study focused on the Systemic Practice Model (SPM), which is a Finnish adaptation of Reclaiming Social Work, a practice model developed in England. The SPM aims to deliver systemic practice in children's social care and has recently been widely disseminated across Finland. However, research has found both considerable variation in its delivery and a lack of clarity about what it is. This study, applying realist evaluation, aimed to formulate a programme theory based on the perceptions of key informants (n = 12) involved in the national development and dissemination of the SPM during the period 2017–2019. The analysis yielded three core components (a systemic team, systemic weekly meetings, and systemic practice) and two context‐mechanism‐outcome (CMO) configurations, which represent causal chains of the SPM. The findings should enable its quality implementation and meaningful outcome and process evaluation. The findings will also aid organizations and practitioners both to identify changes required in their service provision and prevent adverse effects. This programme theory should be tested and refined with empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to assess parents' satisfaction and perceived usefulness of the Incredible Years® (IY®) parenting programme in the Child Protection Services (CPS) context, where children's behaviour problems are common. Evidence‐based programmes are rarely offered in CPS, and little is known about how they are perceived by parents. We compared parents (N = 62) with (N = 43) and without (N = 19) CPS contact regarding their satisfaction with the IY® parenting programme, with information gathered from weekly and final evaluation forms. The attendance rate of parents to the weekly sessions (max 19) was also calculated. Comparisons between CPS and non‐CPS clients were analysed using multilevel models. Satisfaction scores ranged between 5.8 and 6.2 (max 7) for all studied domains. Mean attendance rate to the group sessions was 11.5 (SD 5.9), and 74% of participants attended at least nine out of 19 sessions. No group differences emerged in satisfaction or attendance between CPS and non‐CPS parents. Parents in CPS committed well to the programme and found it as useful as parents without CPS contact. IY® appears to be acceptable to parents involved in CPS, and their engagement to the programme can be considered as reasonably good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper presents a qualitative analysis of front‐line practices regarding emergency removals in Finnish and Irish child protection. It examines how the responses to children's immediate danger are framed by legislation and how front‐line practitioners assess the child's situation and make emergency placement decisions. The data consist of interviews with 16 Irish and 33 Finnish social workers. These child welfare protection systems respond differently to a task that appears to be similar. The Irish team‐based practice rests on the social workers' shared assessment of the child's needs, and the formal decision is made by the courts (or police officers at night‐time); and the Finnish practice involves only one single social worker who makes both the assessment and the removal decision. The Irish system is tightly time regulated, whereas the Finnish system provides a more flexible time frame. Both approaches put a lot of stress on social workers' practice, which also includes creative workarounds (e.g., "planned emergency removals" in Finland). Future research will need to explore these features from the point of view of a child's right to protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within Northern Europe, gendered roles and responsibilities within the family have been challenged through an emergence of different family forms, increasing cultural diversity, and progressive developments in welfare policies. To varying degrees, welfare policies in different countries support a dual‐earner model and encourage men to be more active as fathers by reinforcing statutory rights and responsibilities. In child welfare practice, there has traditionally been a strong emphasis on the mother as primary carer for the child; the father has been less visible. This paper explores, in four national welfare contexts, how child welfare social workers include fathers in practice decisions. Data were collected using focus group interviews with social workers from England, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden. Similarities and differences emerge in relation to services and the focus of social work assessments. However, overall, the research suggests that despite gains in policy and legislation that promote gender equality, fathers remain largely absent in child welfare practice decisions about the parenting of their children. From the research, we raise questions for social work practice and the development of welfare policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses practices of parental support in the maternity healthcare provided by the welfare state. Drawing on ethnographic material from clinics in Finland, I discuss maternity healthcare practices and processes as the specific contexts of subjectification to parenthood in the Nordic welfare state. The analysis shows that in both nurses' (work) experience-based knowledge and population-statistical knowledge, parental competence is achieved largely through the 'natural' process of experiencing pregnant life. Care practices can be seen as enabling parenthood through respect for this process. Clinics encourage parents-to-be to self-reflect and be self-reliant. Emphasis on self-reflection and self-reliance has previously been interpreted as the state adoption of therapy culture, and as a response to market demands for the welfare state to offer to and require of its citizens more autonomy and choice. I argue, however, that the parental subject emerging from the practices of this welfare service cannot be reduced to a neoliberal reflexive individual for whom parenthood is an individual project and who is to blame for individual shortcomings. Equally, they are no mere disciplined product of governmentality being pushed to conform to an idealised parent figure derived from collective ideas of good parenthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matching describes the process of selecting the substitute home for a child who needs to be placed away from the care of his/her birth parents. However, very little theorizing is done about matching and there is also a lack of systematic investigation into models of practice currently in use. Most importantly, very little is known about front‐line matching practices in different socio‐historical child welfare contexts. This paper aims to explore the concept of matching by addressing it theoretically and empirically as a decision‐making practice in social work. Based on the analysis of phone interviews (49) and focus group interviews (five groups with 18 child welfare practitioners) in Finland, we claim that matching includes a high degree of navigation: decision‐making balances between professional discretion, legal norms and principles, subjective views of the children and their parents as well as the economic and bureaucratic conditions of the service provision administration in the municipality. Navigation is shadowed by uncertainty and compromises. The analysis suggests that the notion of matching needs further analysis as it plays an important role in child welfare decision‐making. The interplay between front‐line practice and the socio‐historical context needs to be further addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined moral distress among Finnish social workers and the role of perceived resource insufficiencies in explaining it. The aim was to shed light on this understudied phenomenon in the field of social welfare. The study focused on work-related moral distress, defined as impaired wellbeing that is connected to the continual inability to implement actions that one considers morally appropriate. The survey data were collected with an electronic questionnaire between the years 2011 and 2012. The respondents ( n = 817) were social workers in the public social welfare services and the overall response rate was 46.5 per cent. Nearly 11 per cent of the respondents reported experiencing moral distress and perceived resource insufficiencies strongly explained this experience. Moreover, social workers with moral distress reported that they were less willing to continue in their post, were more frequently on sick leave and had positive work-related experiences less often than their colleagues who did not experience moral distress. Key Practitioner Message: ● The concept of moral distress is useful in describing the experiences of social welfare workers when they are unable to practise their profession according to their moral code and the emotional burden related to this inability; ● Perceived resource insufficiencies are strongly associated with experiences of moral distress among frontline social workers; ● Social workers experiencing moral distress are less willing to continue in their work, take sick leave more often and less frequently have positive experiences related to their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child welfare practice is temporally structured and includes a variety of follow-up activities. Practice-based follow-up has not, however, been much explored when studying children's paths in the child welfare system. This paper is based on a study of children (103) who were taken into care in 2006 in 10 Finnish municipalities and their paths in care until 2011. The social workers' institutional knowledge of their 'own' clients comprises the core of the research design. The paper reflects on the nature of this data from the point of view of the notions of temporality. The analysis highlights four temporal trajectories used in retrospective analysis of children's paths in care: the linear time trajectory of the decisions and changes in the institutional positions, the temporally fragmentary trajectory of childhood and youth, the circular time trajectory of professional understanding of the child's path and the silent time trajectory. Each one documents the children's paths differently; the linear one tends to be the 'natural' and most easily available trajectory and consequently, the children's paths are documented via decisions and institutional positions. The analysis suggests that more attention should be given to the complexity of time and temporality when studying children's paths in child welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores what goes into one particular child indicator - children placed outside their home - and how it makes its object of description knowable and governable. This indicator is widely used in the making of social policy as a follow-up and performance indicator and is applied also in social research, including cross-national comparisons, to recognize problems and their scope, especially with reference to child welfare. The indicator is analyzed as an instance of commensuration. Commensuration produces depersonalized, public forms of knowledge that are often deemed superior to private, particularistic forms of knowledge. The work demonstrates how the category of out-of-home placement comes into being in a process wherein the particular knowledge of social workers in child welfare agencies is transformed into the macro-social knowledge embodied in the national register and, eventually, incorporated into the indicator. Hence this commensurative process renders differences as magnitude. The empirical case examined is the Finnish child indicator. The commensuration of children placed outside the home has several consequences, which shape both child protection as a social phenomenon and the understanding that the policy measures appear to require. In addition, some suggestions are made for the concrete development of the indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Social workers' interventions in support of children and their families have often proved a minefield of sort, filled up with conflicting demands, expectations and tasks. This paper sets the resulting debate in the context of both social policy orientations and social work cultures. It argues that partnerships between families and practitioners have to be understood as the result of a complex set of factors. Data from a qualitative study of social work professional cultures suggest that among practitioners, policy orientations intertwine with different styles of conceiving social work; accordingly, professional cultures play an important part in connecting, or failing to connect, child protection and family support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines violence experienced by children in substitute care and at home based on the survey results of the Finnish Child Victim Survey carried out in schools in 2008. The focus is on physical and psychological violence in conflict situations. Of the 13 459 respondents, pupils between 12 and 16 years of age, 233 children reported living in care or having lived in care. Children living in care were asked the same questions as children living at home about violence experienced by their care-taking adults. The analysis compares the answers between those two groups and examines them in relation to information about children's psychosocial problems and measures of emotional wellbeing. According to the study, children report more physical and psychological violence by adults in their homes than children do in residential homes or foster homes. Substitute care is not, however, free of violence. Children with psychosocial problems experienced more violence at home than in substitute care. The article suggests a more thorough conceptual and methodological analysis of abuse in care. The conceptual and methodological tools employed should be sensitive to the particular nature of abuse in care and the studies should pay attention to a variety of forms and practices of violence. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an index of articles, authors and subjects in the Volume 13, Numbers 1, 2 and 3, 2004 issue of the "International Journal of Social Welfare". "Patterns of social assistance receipt in Sweden"; "Partnership models within a Maori social-service provider"; "The socio-cultural context of child marriage in a Bangladeshi village".

To examine the intergenerational transmission of abuse, the study compared 25 mothers whose child had been under the supervision of the child protection services (CPS) with 25 mothers who had had no contact with the CPS. The groups were compared with respect to their own self-reported childhood abuse, their abuse of their own child and punitiveness. The data were gathered using interviews and files. There were no significant differences between the groups in self-reported childhood physical abuse, but the CPS mothers had experienced more childhood psychological abuse, especially rejection, accusations, terrorizing and corrupting. The groups did not differ in the self-reported physical or psychological abuse inflicted upon one's own child. In the total sample of 50 mothers, hierarchical regression analyses showed, however, that the mothers' childhood abuse experiences predicted their abuse of their own child. Punitiveness was best predicted by maternal childhood psychological abuse. The results thus provide evidence for the cycle of abuse model. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]