Lack of national standards, inadequate training and supervision

I know that I am not the only victim and have decided - despite the risk of further harassment - to speak out against these injustices.

The social workers say they don’t know when I will get the kids back and that I need to cooperate with the system.

Rights audits: Lack of national standards, inadequate training and supervision

According to a THL report released in December last year, nearly 18,000 children nationwide had been placed in alternative care in 2014, while another 90,000 were clients of the system in open care. Moreover in 2014 citizens had lodged more than 63,000 child protection reports with the authorities.

Organisations such as the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Human Rights Committee have expressed concern over the high number of children placed in care.

In its fourth periodic report on Finland’s implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Committee on the Rights of the Child specifically raised the issue of children placed in alternative care.

"…the Committee is concerned that, in practice, the number of children placed in institutions, including successive placements, is increasing, that the number of foster family care placements is insufficient and that there is no unified nationwide standards establishing criteria for placements in alternative care, care planning and regular review of placement decisions, and that there is insufficient supervision and monitoring of alternative care facilities."

Those findings were communicated in 2011, and the UN CROC will provide its next assessment by July 2017.

Even Finland’s Parliamentary Ombudsman has highlighted shortcomings in the system. In a 2014 review of the state of democracy and human rights in Finland, Parliamentary Ombudsman Petri Jääskeläinen also flagged his own concerns about the system, including inadequate education of social workers and insufficient supervision of foster care (lack of resources for monitoring and inspection).

YLE 8.3.2016 Finnish child welfare: Child protection or "for profit" foster care?