CONSULTATION
The Child Welfare Service is responsible for coordination in cases about harmful sexual behaviour, and will hold a Consultation. The Consultation is held shortly after the behaviour has occurred, so that all parties gain a common understanding of what is to happen next. Suitable agencies to include – excluding the school (contact teacher, guidance counsellor, principal) – are PPT, family protection services, BUP, the Police, Statens Barnehus, general psychologist, Bufetat. Guardians are allowed in during the last part of the meeting.
The purpose of this meeting is to create a plan for the immediate future with everyone involved.
Illustrasjon: Jens A. Larsen Aas
Listen to a read-aloud version of the text on this page
Listen to a read-aloud version of the reflection
In this recording you will hear Helle Kleive, psychology specialist at Resource unit V27/Betanien Bergen, speak on the origin of the Consultation.
V27 is a clinical resource unit for the BUP units in Helse Vest. It is connected to BUP at Betanien hospital. The target group of V27 is children and adolescents who display problematic or harmful sexual behaviour toward other children. The unit also offers training and guidance to professionals, authorities and agencies.
Read a transcript of the audio recording
Consultations were invented by me and a now retired colleague from E27, after half a year of working on the format. We were in Sweden in 2008, and they said: “we never start working a case like this without first calling a consultation”. There was an established routine where every authority was gathered, and then came up with a plan together. We didn’t have this in Norway, we had chaos, so me and my colleague based our idea on interprofessional team meetings, but changed it up a little. People were always talking over each other in those meetings, so we added a rigid structure and a clearly defined end product.
This is how we made the Consultation, which is still in use today, I assume because of its effectiveness. The structure should work for more than just children and young people who have committed sexual violations, which is another reason I think it’s stuck around; it has a clearly defined structure, making it ideal for any number of situations.