NEW ARTICLE: Bilal Hassan (Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen) published a new article on child protection systems in Norway and England in the prestigious Journal of Social Policy.
Mandated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, child protection systems (CPS) are tasked with safeguarding children’s rights and distributing social and economic benefits. Therefore, trust in CPS—citizens feelings that the child protection authorities would safeguard the interest of children and families—is vital for effective intervention in families and efficient distribution of resources.
From where does this trust/distrust come in? Bilal Hassan’s recent research conducted the University of Bergen in Norway investigates this issue from performance perspective in England and Norway—two societies where child protection authorities are object of severe criticism from the various sections of their societies. The two nations have different democratic systems and welfare programs. However, Hassan argues that performance makes more notable effect on trust in the Norwegian CPS, particularly due to its social welfare democracy and child-centric protection system.
Fairness and effectiveness among the most important factors for trust in CPS
The study asked 981 English and 1,140 Norwegian respondents in 2022 to evaluate the performance of their child protection authorities through distributive justice (authorities discriminate families based on race/ethnicity), procedural fairness (authorities apply rules consistently), and functional effectiveness (authorities have enough resources and competent staff).
The study offers some important insights. For one, Norwegian CPS is relatively more trust, and its child protections authorities perform better than their English counter parts, as perceived by the respondents. Then, the study finds that although fairness, effectiveness, and trust in CPS go hand in hand in the two nations. However, effect of fairness and effectiveness on trust in CPS is relatively higher in Norway than in England, while justice perceptions do not matter at all in the formation of trust in CPS feelings in the two nations. These findings remain robust regardless of the socioeconomic background of the respondents.
Together, these findings suggest that Norwegians perceive their CPS as more trustworthy, possibly due to the nation’s higher degree of social protection.
– The implications of these findings are substantial, suggesting that enhancing the quality of CPS can bolster institutional trust, notes the author.
This aligns with the core assumption that improving public services leads to increased satisfaction and trust among citizens. Therefore, the study also highlights the role of CPS within the broader welfare systems of Western democracies.
Findings can help in future policy-development
This study makes an important leap towards understanding how perceptions of performance amongst citizens could help improve trust in CPS, one of the key challenges faced by the politicians, policy makers, and public administrators. Without denying the objective performance of the authorities, it is crucial for social policy makers and administrators to make people feel and understand that their efforts regarding protecting children from harm, they indeed pay attention to listening to the families, treating them respect and taking care of their dignity and respect when the meet authorities.
There is also a dire need to communicate to and make people feel that the authorities have enough resources, and their staff is fully equipped with knowledge, resources, and skill personnel required to tackle child welfare issues. Moreover, the discrimination could itself be a big issue as there is little evidence that it engenders distrust in CPS. Despite the policy makers probably would have limited ability to counter negative perceptions, speaking this issue through poverty alleviation efforts in order to reduce its fingerprints on society.
This article underscores the importance of trust in CPS and its relationship with performance dimensions. By providing valuable insights into the unique contexts of England and Norway, it contributes to the broader understanding of trust in public institutions and welfare systems.
The article is part of the Discretion project and the Legitimacy Challenges project. It is open access and can be found here.