What is an anticipatory child welfare notification?
An anticipatory child welfare notification is submitted before the child is born. An anticipatory child welfare notification can be submitted by anyone, but certain parties have a duty to submit it. The purpose of an advance child welfare notification is to already secure sufficient support measures for the expecting parent and the child’s future family during pregnancy and as soon as the child is born.
An anticipatory notification creates an obligation for the wellbeing services county to act even before the child is born. Support work during pregnancy may safeguard the child’s health, the attachment relationship between the parent and the child, and the family’s engagement in services. At best, close work during pregnancy prevents or shortens the child’s client relationship in child welfare.
Under section 25 of the Child Welfare Act, the parties with notification duty are the same as those with the duty to make the actual child welfare notification:
- health and social services and children's daycare
- providers of health and social services
- education services
- youth services
- education or training providers
- police services
- Prison and Probation Service
- fire and rescue services
- parishes
- other religious communities
- reception centres
- units engaged in emergency response centre activities
- units engaged in morning and afternoon activities for schoolchildren
- Finnish Customs
- Finnish Boarder Guard
- enforcement authorities
- Social Insurance Institution of Finland.
You have a duty to submit a child welfare notification if you
work permanently, for a fixed term or as a substitute for one of the above-mentioned parties
- are in a position of trust in one of the parties
- work as a self-employed person with one of the parties
- are in a principal-contractor relationship with one of the parties
- are a family advisor
- are a healthcare professional.
You must submit the notification without delay. The obligation to remain silent does not prevent you from submitting an anticipatory child welfare notification.
When is an anticipatory child welfare notification submitted?
An anticipatory child welfare notification must be make in situations where the notifier has well-founded information on, for example, a substance use problem, severe mental disorder, domestic violence or custodial sentence of the pregnant person or one of the future parents. Suspected substance use alone is not sufficient justification for submitting an anticipatory notification.
It is important to submit the anticipatory child welfare notification as early as possible. This way, the family can be supported and sufficient services can already be arranged during pregnancy. A professional cannot refrain from their notification duty, delegate it to another party or postpone it to later weeks of the pregnancy.
Anticipatory child welfare notification or contacting social welfare?
For example, professionals from healthcare or education services may, with the client’s consent, contact social services for an assessment the person’s need for services. If the person declines this and it is evident that the child to be born will need child welfare support measures immediately after birth, the professional must submit an anticipatory child welfare notification.
(Social Welfare Act, section 35)
(Child Welfare Act, section 25c)
The work done during pregnancy is multidisciplinary cooperation
After the anticipatory child welfare notification, the wellbeing services county must:
- assess the need for urgent help for the person expecting the child
- organise the necessary services related to housing, income or supporting life without substances, for example.
After this, an assessment of the client’s need for services is usually initiated, which as such is an intervention in the life of the expectant person. If the expectant person is in need of special support, the assessment of the need for services is carried out by a social worker. The assessment of the need for services must be carried out without undue delay.
During the assessment, multidisciplinary cooperation should be initiated quickly, especially with healthcare services, as pregnancy services consist of services from both healthcare and adult social work or social work for families with children. It is important to carry out a sufficiently extensive assessment of the need for services during pregnancy by taking into account the needs of the entire family. In addition to the person expecting the child, the other future parent must be taken into account and a client relationship with social services must be initiated for them, if necessary. A home visit should be carried out during the assessment.
When assessing the need for services, a stand is taken on the risk factors that weaken the baby’s growth conditions and justify the services and the baby’s possible need for protection. The process assesses the principal risks, such as substance use, mental health challenges and the risk of domestic violence, even if the anticipatory child welfare notification did not concern these issues. At the same time, it is advisable to take a stand on factors that protect the baby’s growth and development in the family.
If necessary, it is possible to work very closely with the family during the pregnancy. The services received by the client before pregnancy, the role of the maternity clinic and all essential social welfare and health care services are considered in the work. During the pregnancy, it is important to agree who will coordinate the services as a whole and to avoid overlapping work. If the client so wishes, the network of people close to the client is included.
During the pregnancy, the employee works openly and systematically with the client with the aim of planning the services for the family for the duration of both the pregnancy and the child’s infancy. The goal is confidential relationship and work in which it is possible to make a change. As the support measures during pregnancy are voluntary, it is important for the employee to support the client so that she engages in the services. It is the employee’s responsibility to support the client’s process even if it is difficult for the client. The client should be told openly about the process and its different stages.
It is often essential to provide the future parents with support for parenthood and early interaction with the child. For example, early interaction support helps in rehabilitation from a substance use problem. Wellbeing services counties ensure that support, treatment and rehabilitation are available in these special situations.
A pregnant person has the right to immediately receive sufficient social services that support a lifestyle free of substances. This is a so-called subjective right. It is important to organise the services quickly, starting from early pregnancy, and the client must be supported in engaging in the necessary services. The services must be organised in cooperation between the social welfare and healthcare authorities, which means close network-based work during pregnancy, if necessary.
(Social Welfare Act, section 24, subsection 3)
(Health Care Act, section 70, subsection 1)
When can the client relationship in child welfare services begin?
If there is reason to suspect that the child to be born will require child welfare support measures when born, it is important to inform the wellbeing services county of the child sufficiently early. This way, it will be possible to plan the necessary services in advance and together with the future parents.
The actual child welfare client relationship will not begin until after the child has been born. The time limits referred to in the Child Welfare Act and calculated from the initiation of the client relationship begin to run when a social worker or other child welfare worker has been informed of the birth of a child in need of child welfare. Social work in child welfare services begins when the child has been born and it has been established that the criteria for a client relationship in child welfare are met.
The social services required immediately after the child has been born can be assessed and planned in cooperation with the child welfare social worker. Well-functioning cooperation practices should be created in wellbeing services counties to manage these situations and to ensure the flow of information. If it is clear that the child will need child welfare services after birth, a good practice is to involve the child’s future child welfare social worker in the work carried out during late pregnancy. This makes the assessment and implementation of services easier and faster when the child has been born.
A child welfare client relationship cannot be opened before the child is born, i.e. the entries concerning the parents are therefore made elsewhere in the social services information system as part of the entries concerning the parents.