The child's well-being and safety are primarily the responsibility of the child's parents. Sometimes, however, due to the family's difficult situation, external support is needed. A child has an absolute right to a life free of violence, and professional help is available to make it happen.
Child welfare is regulated by law, the purpose of which is "to secure the child's right to a safe growing environment, balanced and well-rounded development and special protection" (Child Welfare Act § 1). Child welfare supports parents in their task of upbringing and caring for the child. The principle that guides the work is the best interest of the child.
When considering options to help the child, the aim is to secure e.g. child's:
balanced development and well-being as well as close and continuing human relationships
the opportunity to receive understanding and affection, as well as supervision and care according to child’s age and level of development
a safe growth environment and physical and mental integrity.
Child welfare can be either preventive child welfare or child and family-specific child welfare.
Preventive child welfare includes services that support children's well-being organised by the municipality and the wellbeing services county, the receipt of which does not require child welfare clientship. Preventive child welfare organised by the municipality can be, for example, support or special support given in education or early childhood education. In turn, the wellbeing services county is responsible for promoting preventive child welfare in social and health care services, such as the prenatal and child health clinics.
Receiving child and family-specific child welfare requires child welfare clientship. Working measures include child welfare support measures in open care, emergency placements, taking into care, substitute care and after-care. The wellbeing services county is responsible for organising child and family-specific child welfare.
Support measures in open care are the primary support measures of child welfare and their utilisation is voluntary. These can include, for example, support for solving the problem situation of the child and the family, support for the child's schooling and hobbies, support for maintaining close relationships, care and therapy services that support the child's rehabilitation, enhanced family work given at home, or voluntary family rehabilitation in an institution together with the parent. If the child's best interests require it, in certain situations, the child can be placed alone as a support measure in open care for a short time, but this requires the consent of the parent and the child who has reached the age of 12. If the need for child welfare involves essentially insufficient livelihood or lack of housing, the wellbeing services county is obliged to support the family financially and in other ways in order to organize livelihood and housing. Open care support services for child welfare can also be arranged, for example, in early childhood education or student welfare.
If the child is assessed to be in immediate danger either due to insufficient care or growth conditions that threaten health and development, or due to their own behavior (such as substance abuse or delinquency), they can be urgently placed outside the home.
Emergency placement of the child is carried out based on the decision of the office holder (social worker) for a maximum of 30 days, and if it is necessary to extend the placement, based on the decision of another office holder for a maximum of 30 days. A child's exposure to violence at home, either as an experiencer of violence or as a witness to it, can be grounds for emergency placement. Emergency placement ends with returning home, if there are prerequisites for that, or taking the child into care, if the immediate danger at home persists.
Taking the child into care and arranging substitute care will only be undertaken if the child cannot be assisted with child welfare open care support measures or if they prove to be insufficient. In substitute care, the care and education of the child is organized somewhere other than at home, such as a foster family, a professional family home, a child welfare institution or a relative's family.
When choosing a place of substitute care, the child's opportunity to communicate with his/her loved ones is taken into account. The goal of family reunification is maintained even during substitute care. Taking into care and arranging substitute care can be concluded in cooperation between the child welfare social worker and the family/guardian. Sometimes, however, the guardian and/or the child who has reached the age of 12 objects to being taken into care, in which case the matter is decided by the administrative court.
Custody is valid until further notice. According to the law, the social worker in charge of the child's affairs must assess the conditions for continuing custody in connection with the review of the child's client plan (at least annually), when the child or the guardian applies for the termination of custody, or when it otherwise proves necessary. Custody ends when the child turns 18 at the latest.
The child welfare notification is an important tool for identifying and helping children and young people in need of child welfare. You can file a child welfare notification by using the appropriate form, which can be found on the wellbeing services county's website, or by contacting the local child welfare unit. Anyone can file the notification about a child they think is in need of child welfare. If you are unsure about the necessity of a notification, you can ask your local child welfare office for advice. You can also file the notification anonymously so that, for example, the threat of violence does not prevent you from reporting.
According to the Child Welfare Act, professionals working in certain positions are obliged to file a child welfare notification if, in the course of their duties, they have learned about a child whose need for treatment and care, circumstances that endanger development, or their own behavior require the investigation of a possible need for child welfare. Such professionals are e.g. employees of social and health care services, day care, education and youth services, police, parish and emergency services.
So if, for example, when visiting social or health care services, you tell an employee about intimate partner violence and it turns out that the violence is directed at a child or the child is a witness to violence between parents, the employee is obliged to file a child welfare notification about the child so that he or she can be protected from violence. A professional who is required to report can also report a child based on his or her own assessment: for example, a daycare worker may suspect domestic violence based on the child's behavior or unexplained injuries visible in the child, and file a child welfare notification of the child.
Once the notification has been made, child welfare services will contact the guardian of the child who is the subject of the notification, and the assessment of the need for child welfare can be started together. It is good to understand that child welfare has means to support your child and you in a situation where intimate partner violence is present in the family. Child welfare workers can also direct you to other services appropriate for your situation and help you and your child stay safe.
Being a client of child welfare services
A child welfare case is initiated upon an application or when a child welfare employee has received information about a child in need of protection, for example after receiving a child welfare notification.
First, child welfare assesses the child's possible urgent need for help, for example the need for emergency placement in a situation where the child is in immediate danger at home.
After that, the child welfare social worker starts a service need assessment, the aim of which is to determine what kind of services and support measures are appropriate for the child's situation.
During the assessment, the social worker assesses the child's growing conditions and the parents' ability to take care of the child's care and upbringing. The actual child welfare clientship begins if, according to the assessment, the child's growing conditions endanger or do not secure the child's health or development, or the child is a danger to himself or herself, and the child is seen to need child welfare support measures. Clientship can start even before the evaluation of the need for services is completed, if urgent measures to protect the child have already been taken, or the child or family has already been given child welfare services or other support.
The plan is made in cooperation with the guardian, if there are prerequisites for it. The customer plan records, among other things, the circumstances and matters to which the aim is to influence by working, the child's and his/her family's need for support, services and other support measures aimed at meeting the need for support, and the estimated time during which the goals are to be achieved. The customer plan is reviewed if necessary, but at least once a year. The plan for a child taken into care records how the child's contact with loved ones can be implemented, and how the goal of family reunification is taken into account.
Open care support measures are the primary means of helping. When there is intimate partner violence in the family, an obstacle to seeking help may be that the person experiencing violence is afraid of losing custody of the children. It is good to remember that child welfare professionals can offer several different forms of support, and taking children into care is not the only or primary working measure of child welfare services.
The principle that guides the work of child welfare services is the child's best interest. The child's safety is guaranteed by means that support his/her well-being in the best possible way and interfere as little as possible in the family's life. Child welfare also provides valuable help to those who have experienced intimate partner violence to resolve the family's situation. Child welfare workers can guide the survivor to safety if he or she needs it, and inform about services that help the survivor find support for breaking away from a violent relationship (e.g. conversational therapy, financial support, legal aid). Help is also available for the perpetrator of violence.