Apr 7, 2025
Emergency Measures in Child Welfare – Custody Transfers and Interim Decisions
In some cases, children find themselves in situations where there is a need for immediate help and protection from child welfare services. This can happen because the child is without care, or because there is a danger that the child will suffer significant harm if intervention is not taken. The Norwegian Child Welfare Act Chapter 4 regulates various forms of emergency measures that can be implemented in such situations.
The need for emergency measures
Emergency measures are necessary when the usual proceedings in child welfare will take too long. The regular processes of investigation, assessment, and decision-making by the child welfare and health board are not suitable when children need immediate help. At the same time, it is important that these emergency measures also safeguard the legal rights of the child and the family as far as possible.
Statistics show a significant decrease in the use of emergency decisions in recent years. From 2017 to 2021, there was a 44 percent reduction in the total number of emergency decisions. In 2021, 694 children were moved out of the home due to an urgent placement decision due to serious conditions at home—often related to the parents' substance abuse, mental illness, or suspicion of violence against the child. About half of the children who were placed urgently later returned home, often with some form of assistance measures.
Emergency decisions on assistance measures
The Child Welfare Act § 4-1 requires the child welfare service to immediately decide and implement necessary assistance measures if a child is without care. Being "without care" means that no one is taking care of the child. This may be due to:
The parents being absent from home
The child being separated from the parents
The parents being unable to care for the child due to illness or substance use, even though they are physically present
The death of the parents
The type of assistance measures that can be implemented depends on the situation. The key is that the measures must be necessary to remedy the fact that the child is without care. The principle of the least intrusive intervention suggests that the child, as much as possible, should be placed with family or other close persons they are comfortable with.
An important limitation is that these assistance measures cannot be maintained if the parents or children over 15 years old oppose them. If this happens, the child welfare service must consider whether there is a need for an emergency decision on care takeover.
Emergency decisions on care takeover
In more serious situations, emergency decisions on care takeover can be made under the Child Welfare Act § 4-2. This is a coercive emergency decision on placement outside the home that can be maintained against the parents' wishes.
Due to the intrusive nature of the measure, the competence to make such decisions is limited to the leader of the child welfare service, their deputy, or the prosecuting authority.
The condition for emergency care takeover is that there is a risk that the child will suffer "significant harm" if the decision is not implemented immediately. This is a strict requirement that emphasizes the measure should only be used when less intrusive measures are insufficient.
Emergency decisions on care takeover can also include infants, but particular emphasis should then be placed on the child's need for closeness to the parents after birth. Such care takeovers are described as one of the most intrusive measures in the Norwegian Child Welfare Act and should only be applied in extraordinary cases.
When a decision on emergency care takeover is made, a decision on visitation can also be made. The emergency decision must be followed up with an application to the child welfare and health board if further measures are needed, and the emergency decision lapses if such an application is not submitted within six weeks.
Temporary prohibition on relocation
A third type of emergency measure is a temporary prohibition on relocation under the Child Welfare Act § 4-3. This can be used when a child is living outside the home with the parents' consent, but it is likely that a return home would be harmful to the child.
The prohibition on relocation can apply for up to three months, and the child welfare service should use this period to prepare for a relocation that causes as little inconvenience as possible to the child. The purpose is thus not to prevent the relocation but to ensure that it happens in a considerate manner.
If the child welfare service assesses that the child should not be moved home, it must, within six weeks, send an application to the board for care takeover or another measure. The prohibition on relocation will then remain until the board has decided on the matter.
Emergency decisions on placement in institution
The Child Welfare Act also provides authorization for two types of emergency decisions on placement in an institution:
Placement due to severe behavioral issues (§ 4-4): This applies when the child has shown severe behavioral issues, and there is a risk that the child will suffer significant harm if such an emergency placement does not occur. The emergency placement must be promptly followed up with an application to the board, and it lapses if such an application is not submitted within two weeks.
Placement due to risk of human trafficking (§ 4-5): This can be done when it is likely that the child is being exploited for human trafficking, or when there is a nearby and serious risk of such exploitation. Here too, the emergency decision must be followed up with an application to the board within two weeks.
Conclusion
Emergency measures represent a balance between the need to provide rapid and effective help to children in crisis, and the considerations of legal security and family life. Although it is important to have such provisions, the positive development is that the use of emergency decisions has significantly decreased in recent years. This indicates that the child welfare system is increasingly able to detect concerning situations before they develop into acute crises that require immediate intervention.
