BVV3040 Children with two homes - the role of the child welfare in complex social matters Course description

This course builds on interdisciplinary perspectives from the fields of law, psychology and child welfare. It addresses issues related to the child welfare service’s practices in the grey area between the Child Welfare Act and the Children Act. The course builds on previous courses related to legal methodology /sources of law, The Children's Act and child protection, and goes deeper into these issues.

The course encompasses parental conflict cases, i.e. cases involving concern about a child’s care situation where the concern is also related to ongoing conflict between the parents about the child’s place of residence, parental responsibility and contact following a breakup. These cases cut across the child welfare service, family counselling service, the police and the courts of law when it comes to their organisation. They can be about concerns about violence, abuse or other neglect on the part of one or both parents, a long-term high level of conflict, substance abuse or other factors that affect the child’s health and development.

The student must have completed and passed the second year of the Bachelor Programme in Child Care and Welfare Work or Bachelor's Programme in Social Work.

Knowledge

The student:

• has broad knowledge of which challenges and dilemmas staff in the child welfare service can encounter while working on parental conflict cases
• has broad knowledge of the child welfare service’s legal scope of action in such cases 
• has broad knowledge of the child's right to participate and be heard in their own case 
• has broad knowledge of the child welfare service’s partners and their roles and tasks in parental conflict cases
• has broad knowledge of the rules for cooperation: the duty of confidentiality, duty of disclosure and right of disclosure, and the duty to avert a criminal offence 
• has knowledge of the consequences of ongoing parental conflicts, violence and neglect can affect on children’s health and development 
• has knowledge of parenting after separation, including how violence can affect post-separation parenthood

 Skills

The student:

• can apply legal methods to clarify the child welfare service’s legal scope of action in parental conflict cases
• can apply relevant knowledge to assess the child’s care situation, and discuss and assess the child welfare service’s possibility of assisting the child and parents in all phases of the child welfare case
• can apply relevant knowledge about the child’s right to be heard
• can guide parents and children about the child welfare service’s and other agencies’ duties and responsibilities, and the Children Act’s rules concerning place of residence, access and parental responsibility
• can apply the regulatory framework about cooperation with other services and bodies
• can reflect on the concept of conflict and conflict resolution

General competence

The student:

• can reflect based on a multidisciplinary position to ensure that the child and parents are given appropriate assistance in the grey area between the Child Welfare Act and the Children's Act
• can ethically and critically reflect on the child welfare service’s and other agencies’ power of definition

The course is taught through lectures and seminars in addition to self-study.

No coursework requirements/compulsory activities.

An individual oral exam with a time frame of approx. 25 minutes.

Candidates who fail or who were absent from the ordinary exam for a valid reason can take a resit/rescheduled exam.

Publicly approved law collections with notations according to more detailed guidelines are permitted during the exam.

Grade scale A-F.

All exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner.