9 July 2012 Anne-Mari Jaakola 1 Assessment in the Finnish Child Protection Practice Anne-Mari Jaakola Doctoral student (M.Soc.Sc) University of Eastern Finland Department of Social Sciences ”Needs, processess and outcomes in child protection” research project Kuopio Finland 2012 Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development: Action and Impact 8-12 July Stockholm Sweden

Aim of the presentation Give you a short overview of the way how the Finnish social workers assess the child’s need for child welfare services – What social workers assess? – What kind of tools and methods they use? – How is the approach of assessment like? 9 July 2012 Anne-Mari Jaakola 2

Assessment in Child Protection Assessment is an ongoing process where the child’s need for child welfare services is viewed in the situation of an individual child and family (Horwath 2010) In Finland tradition of assessment has been more on the need based assessment than risk based assessment (Pösö 2012) – Focus has been on the child’s developmental needs and circumstances – Use of formal and standardised tools and methods has been low 9 July 2012 Anne-Mari Jaakola 3

4 In Finland approach of assessment has been more parent-centred and family-centred than child- centred (Kähkönen 1999; Hurtig 2003; Ervast&Tulensalo 2006) In recent years knowledge of the child-centred working models has become more common in child protection (New Child Welfare Act 471/2007)

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The 5 least assessed aspects concerning the child % (n=505) 9 July 2012 Anne-Mari Jaakola 6

Tools and methods 9 July 2012 Anne-Mari Jaakola 7

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”I feel that I have enough competence to confront the child in an assessment” (n=506) 9 July 2012 Anne-Mari Jaakola 11

Conclusion It seems that the approach of assessment has shiftted from parent-centred assessment to more child and family-centred assessment The aspects that social workers take into account in assessment are connected most to the child’s social relations Use of formal assessment tools are still quite rare Social workers trust more on their knowledge and experience of the in-depth and the professional assessment Important result is also that social workers trust their competence and skills about how to confront the child in an assessment 9 July 2012 Anne-Mari Jaakola 12

Thank you. 9 July 2012 Anne-Mari Jaakola 13