Norwegian Child Welfare Services

The Norwegian Child Welfare Services (Norwegian: Barnevernet, literally "child protection") is the public agency responsible for child welfare in Norway. They consist of services in each municipality, which are aided and supervised by different governmental bodies at the state as well as the county level.

The Child Welfare Services’ statutory obligation is "to ensure that children and youth who live in conditions that may be detrimental to their health and development receive the necessary assistance and care at the right time."^[1] Roughly 3% of all children in Norway receive some sort of measure from the Child Welfare Services, most of them in the form of relief measures to the child and its parents (such as counselling, advice, external support contacts, access to day care etc.).^[2] In about one quarter of the cases, the children are placed outside their homes (mainly in foster families or institutions) after care orders.