It has come to light that the police have sent child welfare notifications in Altinn (Norwegian digital platform for interaction between individuals, businesses, and public authorities) to the child welfare services, and many of these notifications have not been opened by the municipalities. In light of this, Nordland Police District has conducted a review of all unopened child welfare notifications sent by the police district.
The investigation, covering the period from 2018 up until July this year, reveals that Nordland Police District has transmitted 31 child welfare notifications in Altinn that have not been opened by the child welfare services. A closer examination of these 31 notifications shows that in 28 cases, the police have already been in contact with the child welfare services through other means, in addition to the notification in Altinn.
Thus, there are only three cases where the notification in Altinn was the sole point of contact. The police have thoroughly examined these three cases and found that even though the particular notification had not been opened, the reported concerns were already known to the child welfare services.
“We are fortunate to have a close cooperation between the police and the child welfare services in the municipalities within Nordland Police District. Even though we have formal channels for conveying child welfare notifications, the police are always in verbal communication with the child welfare services in serious cases,” says Police Chief Heidi Kløkstad. She emphasizes that this close collaboration and the manual review of cases lead the police to believe that no children have suffered as a result of the system’s failure.
The findings of the review are based on preliminary investigations in Nordland. They are still working on validating the accuracy of the numbers, so there might be changes as they gain more knowledge about the contents of the various notifications. Additionally, some notifications might have been sent to multiple districts, leading to adjustments that need to be made in that regard. The National Police Directorate will release a nationwide overview once information from all districts has been thoroughly cross-verified.