Content
About the statistics
Definitions
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Name and topic
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Name: National child welfare and family counselling
Topic: Social conditions, welfare and crime
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Responsible division
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Division for Income and social welfare statistics
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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Child welfare
Gross operating expenditures for the regions, child welfare
Gross operating expenditures for the national regional child welfare include salary and fee expenses including social costs, costs related to premises, machines, office fittings and maintenance, other operating expenditures for goods and services, transmissions and contributions. Salary reimbursements from the National Insurance Scheme for sick leave, birth and adoption contributions and employment measures are excluded from the operating expenditures. Refunds for employee board and refunds for solitary under-age fugitives and asylum seekers are also subtracted.
Gross operating expenditures for the municipalities of Oslo and Trondheim, child welfare
Gross operating expenditures for the municipalities of Oslo and Trondheim are defined as in KOSTRA, and include total operating expenditures including transcriptions, less double accounting of expenses caused by the distribution of expenses, internal transactions etc.
Gross operating expenditures are defined as: Account class 1 _ the functions linked to the exact service _ cost units (010-480)+590-690-710-729-790.
For further information about the contents of the cost units, please contact the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development's (KRD) information service at http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/krd.html?id=504
Family counselling service
Gross operating expenditures, family counselling service
Gross operating expenditures for the national regional family counselling service include salary and fee expenses including social costs, costs related to premises, machines, office fittings and maintenance, other operating expenditures for goods and services and contributions. Salary reimbursements from the National Insurance Scheme for sick leave, birth and adoption contributions and employment measures are excluded from the operating expenditures.
Corrected gross operating expenditures, family counselling service
Corrected gross operating expenditures for the family counselling service include operating expenditures linked to proper service production less various refunds. The differences from the concept above are contributions. The corrected gross operating expenditures only include expenditures for public family counselling offices.
Thus, the corrected gross operating expenditures include salary and fee expenses including social costs, costs for premises, machines, office fittings and maintenance expenses and other operating expenditures for goods and services. Salary reimbursements from the National Insurance Scheme for sick leave, birth and adoption contributions and employment measures are excluded from the operating expenditures.
Salary expenses, family counselling service
The salary expenses include salary and fee expenses including social costs. Salary reimbursements from the National Insurance Scheme for sick leave, birth and adoption contributions and employment measures are excluded from the operating expenditures.
Definitions of the service variables can be found in "About the statistic" for the specific statistics areas.
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Standard classifications
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Not relevant
Administrative information
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Regional level
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Regional level (for the child welfare service and the main part of the family counselling service)
County level (for the mediation application part of the family counselling service)
The regions include the following counties:
Region North: Finnmark County, Troms County and Nordland County
Region Middle: Nord-Trøndelag County, Sør-Trøndelag County and Møre og Romsdal County
Region West: Sogn og Fjordane County, Hordaland County and Rogaland County
Region South: Vest-Agder County, Aust-Agder County, Telemark County, Vestfold County and Buskerud County
Region East: Oppland County, Hedmark County, Oslo County, Akershus County and Østfold County
In the child welfare statistics, the municipalities of Oslo and Trondheim are not included in Region East and Region Middle respectively. The two municipalities are published as separate units. The municipality of Oslo has the responsibility for national and municipal child welfare on a permanent basis. The municipality of Trondheim has the same responsibility, but on a provisional basis from 2004 to 2007.
The mediation application statistics are included in these statistics even responsibility for mediations lies with the county governors. The mediation application statistics are published at county level.
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Frequency and timeliness
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Annual.
Unrevised figures are published in the middle of April.
Revised figures are published in the early part of September.
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International reporting
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Not relevant
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Microdata
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The data are stored with the relevant division in Statistics Norway. The data are collected on behalf of the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs (BFD). The delivery of data beyond what is published is only possible by agreement between the ministry and the relevant division.
Background
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Background and purpose
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The family counselling service and parts of the child welfare service were the responsibility of the counties until 31 December 2003. The statistics were reported and published through KOSTRA (Municipality-State-Reporting). As of 1 January 2004 the responsibility was taken over by the central government. The Ministry of Children and Family Affairs (BFD) requested that the statistics be continued.
The purpose of the statistics is to measure the use of resources, coverage and target objectives within the national regional child welfare and family counselling service statistics.
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Users and applications
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The most frequent users are the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs (BFD), the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir), the national administration, research institutions, the media and students. The statistics can be used as administrative information in public planning, education and societal debate.
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Coherence with other statistics
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Prospective coherence between preliminary and final figures.
The statistics are parts of the central government fiscal accounts.
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Legal authority
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Statistics Act of 16 June 1989, § 2-3
Child Welfare Services Act of 17 July 1992, § 2-3
Family Counselling Office Act of 19 June 1997, § 8
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EEA reference
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Not relevant
Production
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Population
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Child welfare
The child welfare service statistics are reported from the five regions and from the municipalities of Oslo and Trondheim.
Family counselling service
The family counselling service's individual statistics are made up of individual cases from the family counselling offices. The statistics cover the most central persons linked to the registered cases in the current year.
The personnel statistics record the number of employees in the family counselling service. This information is submitted annually on a separate form. The reference date for the personnel statistics is 31 December. Information about the service's external activities is reported in the same form.
In addition, the statistics include registered mediation applications at family counselling offices and at external mediation offices. The mediation application statistics are supplied from the county governors and published at county level. However, the mediation statistics are covered by the national regional child welfare and family counselling service statistics, since the family counselling offices handles the majority of the mediation applications.
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Data sources and sampling
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The service reports are submitted electronically. Moreover, for the family counselling service statistics files are extracted from the client systems. Accounting statistics from the five regions are reported as file extracts from the regions' accounting systems. The municipality of Oslo reports their accounts as previously, through KOSTRA. The municipality of Trondheim reports separate accounts for child welfare in addition to the KOSTRA report.
The statistics are based on a full census.
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Collection of data, editing and estimations
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Child welfare
The statistics are produced based on reports from the child welfare offices in each region. The reports contain information about every specific case that the offices have registered, pursuant to the Child Welfare Services Act. The data are reported electronically on an annual basis. The municipalities of Oslo and Trondheim report their service statistics through KOSTRA.
Family counselling service
The statistics are produced based on reports from the family counselling offices in each region. The reports contain information about each case that the offices have registered, pursuant to the Family Counselling Office Act. In addition, the reports contain information on employees and the service's external activities. The data are reported electronically on an annual basis.
The mediation application statistics are produced based on reports from the county governors in each county. The reports contain information about every mediation application handled by the family counselling offices and the external mediation offices. The data are reported electronically on an annual basis.
The final date for submission is 15 February for unrevised figures. For revised figures the deadline is 15 May (for Oslo 15 April if there are alterations in the report that goes to KOSTRA).
The data are checked based on controls built into the electronic forms and a control system for file extracts before they are submitted. The accounts reports are also checked against the central government fiscal accounts when received by Statistics Norway.
The data are published on two levels, as basis data and as indicators. The basis data consist mostly of units, either added up over the year, or at a given point in time (31 December). These figures are reported as absolute figures, whilst the indicators are ratios.
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Confidentiality
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Data will be shown as dots (.) if the underlying data consists of three or less units.
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Comparability over time and space
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The former county administrated child welfare service and family counselling service were taken over by the state from 1 January 2004. Because the reporting of data now takes place at regional level instead of county level, there will be a break in the time series from 2004. Figures at county level prior to 2004 are still available in KOSTRA. The first publishing year for the new statistics (2004) will also include service figures for 2003 summarised into regional level. When it comes to Region Middle, this comparison will be misleading for the child welfare service, as the municipality of Trondheim is not included in the region. According to accounting figures, there will also be a break in the time series because of discrepancies in the central government accounting principles and the municipal accounting principles. In addition, the accounting concepts used in the regional child welfare service are not entirely identical with the accounting concepts used in KOSTRA. This may result in misleading or incorrect results when comparing the regional and municipal indicators.
Accuracy and reliability
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Sources of error and uncertainty
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The controls which are built into the electronic forms, in the converting programs and on receipt in Statistic Norway provide automatic and rapid feedback to the respondent.
The unrevised figures published in the middle of April may be incomplete because of missing or insufficient reports from the offices or regions.
No sampling errors because of full census