Denmark - victim by so-called professionals?

This blog-entry was first published on our webpage January 13, 2011:

Right now the authorities are looking on every case where they have removed a child from their parents only to place them in foster care or at group homes.

Denmark are known for using over-priced solutions compared with the rest of the Nordic countries. In fact numbers from 2010 did show that most group homes cost about 25 percent more compared with group homes in Sweden and Norway.

But are they better?

No. The number of placements a child removed from the parents at an early age live to reside in is high. Some have been placed in more than 10 places before the reach the age of adulthood.

Also a steady number of scandals hit the entire business every. Cases of abuse, cases of the use of methods which every professional would question.

Denmark is known to be a country where quality is something which are perferred rather than quantity, but when it comes to the decision whether to remove a child from the parents, Denmark is using an old method which does not serve the child best.

Very often the largest department in city order a massive report called the Clause 50 report. Everybody involved in the life of a child (school, kindergarten, therapists, doctor, hospital etc.) are asked what kind of problems they believe a family have. Then it takes months while the case worker tries to incorporate negative wordings in the statement so the department of social service can justify the spendings.

Once the report is finished the case worker present the report to part-time politicians who often have no background or education which enables them to become experts in such cases.

Needless to say that the department of social services often is the both the lawyer and judge in such cases. You just have to ask yourself if you as a parttime politician would go against such a professional case worker, when it is question to serve the child involved in the case in the best possible way.

Of course not, so the case worker is mandated to call some of his or her friends who runs a group home or are qualified to be foster care parents. In Denmark all it take is to copy the mission statement of another group home before you are in business as a group home.

Denmark has been hit by the economy. Never has there been a reason for the politicians to order consultants to review the spendings of the department of social services as now. It would take some courage by the politicians, but it is needed to battle conditions which resembles corruption.

In order countries like the United States it is well known that educational consultants receive massive fees when they refer children to residential treatment options.

Denmark keeps the selection process a secret. It leaves the impression that there are something to hide. The only way to discover whether it is the case is to make a review of the spendings.

It cannot be done too soon. We are talking the lives of the children.

References:
Large fluctuations in youth placements (Videnskab.dk - google translated)

Welcome to this blog

This blog will deal with the issue of the rights of children in Denmark.

February 2011 the Danish government went against the recommendation of the Committee on the Rights of the Child when they stated that they would not create the office of an ombudsman for Children in Denmark.

We find that this decision is wrong and that Danish children need legal aid when their parents are in danger of losing custody.

Our human rights organization based in Sweden at the movement is called Minors in residential placement research center. We work together with other organizations the world over regarding better legal protection of children in our society.