“It Is Possible to Call More People Mum”—Contact Between Children in Foster Care and Their Birth Parents

Abstract

Contact arrangements in child protection can often create conflicts and distress. This is an area the Norwegian Child Welfare Services (CWSs) have paid greater attention to in recent years, to a large degree due to several recent decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the early 2020s and Norway’s Supreme Court in March 2020, as well as subsequent case law, all highlighting the importance of post-care contact. In the article, we focus on conditions that contribute to successful contact arrangements. We also discuss how CWSs can organise such arrangements in ways that lead to cooperative relationships around the children. The article analyses data from two cases where all those participating in the contact arrangements agreed that they worked well. In addition, we draw on supplementary data from a survey of caseworkers in the CWS about their experiences and assessment of contact arrangements in 525 cases. The analyses show that flexibility, openness, recognition, dialogue, and participation are particularly significant. It is essential to look at contact arrangements as ongoing processes, incorporating changes occurring in the child’s situation, the parents or the foster parents.