1.8. Child´s protection and child welfare

Child welfare

• Child welfare means that the child has a very special right to get protection, caretaking, and security.
• A Child welfare system in Finland is based the law of Child protection and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Finland has ratified this clarification.
• The law of child protection rules that every child has to get a good care and nurturing.

A good caretaking of the child includes the following issues:

• Healthy meals and food.
• Raising the child in a good way. This means that according to the law it is very strongly prohibited to use physical or emotional discipline as a punishment. (E.g circumcision of the child is prohibited in Finland if there is no medical reason for that. ),
• The child has to be treated in a respective way and no oppressive or subjugation is not allowed,
• The child has to be raised in understanding and protective way so that she/he gets a lot of tenderness and safety.

The parents are responsible for in a first place about the caretaking of their own child.

For this responsibility, they are allowed to get help and support from the society. This support is called child welfare.

• The family counseling, a support person or other help.
• substitute family home and care.
• Child welfare institutes, when there is a severe need for the child to live somewhere else than at home.
• The purpose of child welfare is to function according to child´s interest.
• Looking for the child´s interest means that every decision made by the child welfare are following the best interest of the child in a current circumstance.
• Different people may have different opinions about what is in the best interest of the child. Our opinions are culturally formed.
• Looking for the child´s interest does not mean that the decisions are made how the child him/herself or the parents want.
• The social worker will evaluate the interest of the child based on a law. Sometimes the worker has to make decisions, which the parents or the child don´t agree.
• The child´s opinion is very important to know. However, it is good to know that Child´s opinion and the best interest are not the same things.
• It is very important to protect the children’s relation to their close family and relatives.
• The official acts have to take into account the cultural characters, as religion, culture, and language of the child.
• The child protection law rules when the official decision has to be made and who is the authority to make it. There is also a mentioning in a law if there is a possibility to make a complaint against the decision.

Extra information about the child protection law is possible to find in different languages from the following pages: www.Lastensuojeluinfo.fi

 

Bullying between children

According to the recent studies, 10-20 % of the children face bullying at elementary school at first six school years. 5-10% of children face bullying in upper secondary school.

Preventing the bullying is one of the tasks at daycare centers and at schools.

Early prevention methods are strongly stressed.

Bullying means:

• When the same child faces constant and by mean caused harm and bad feelings.
• The bullies are someone against whom is very difficult to protect yourself (stronger). For instance, a new student can easily be bullied.
• Differences in opinions are not bullying. Those differences are fast over going and there are usually no harm meant to cause to anyone.

If the child is bullied at daycare or school, adults have the responsibility to intervene in that.

If your child tells that she/he has been bullied, bring the issue up with the teacher or other caretakers of the child.

The personnel at a daycare center or at school have the responsibility to examine what has happened. They will discuss the matter with the bully and if needed with their parents. They also havethe responsibility to follow the case so long that it will stop.

Kiva-School

Kiva-koulu (Nice school) is a national program which main aim is to make all schools safe for the children.

Many Finnish schools follow the program of KIVA-koulu. (Nice school program). It is developed in the University of Turku and it has been taking in a practice in several countries.

At Kiva-koulu program the following steps are taken:

• When a parent contact with a teacher with the issue of bullying or the child tells about bullying to the teacher the first thing to to find out if there is a question of systematic bullying or if the conflict is occasional. Is it a quarrel or misunderstanding, which leads to insult
• All cases, which fulfill the criteria of bullying are, informed the school team members. That team starts to clear it up, what has happened. They start discussions with the different parties.
• The team will discuss first with the child who has faced bullying. After that, the team will discuss individually with every child who has participated in the teasing.
• All children will be met as a group too
• When the agreement about how to change the behavior has been made the team will make a new appointment with these children (Follow up-meeting)
• The follow up meeting will be arranged with the child who has faced bullying as well with the children who have participated in the bullying to be sure that the bullying has stopped.
• Every parents will be informed about all the issues which have been discussed concerning a parent´s own child in a meeting. If necessary the parents are possible to invite to school to discuss the topic. Primarily, these discussions are between the adults at school and children.

If your child tells you that she/he has been faced bullying, please contact directly to the personnel at reception center and to the teacher of your child. They will help your child.