“Society’s last safety net must also catch the children”, it says The Norwegian Health Authority’s report from this summer, which shows the results of extensive inspections at the country’s Nav offices.
Nav is responsible for looking after children’s needs when their families apply for financial benefits. Out of 68 inspections carried out, offenses were reported in 58 of them.
The Nav offices have not carried out sufficient surveys, not carried out individual assessments of children’s needs, and rarely obtained children’s views.
It is very surprising that Nav cannot show any improvement from the previous inspection, 12 years ago. Alarm bells should be ringing at the Ministry of Labor and Inclusion. But for now, Minister Tonje Brenna (Ap) is silent.
When the mapping of a family is insufficient, the Nav offices do not get a complete picture of the needs of the family. The parents also do not get to know what rights they have.
There must be a requirement that Nav has investigated the child’s needs and living situation when working with families with children.
For the children, this may mean that they do not get equipment to participate in leisure activities, support for clothes or things they need for school trips, or that they do not know that they can ask for support to repair a broken bicycle.
Therefore, the children must be taken care of in cases of financial benefits. The Children’s Ombudsman’s supervisor for Nav employees is a good and important tool, but there needs to be stronger guidance in legislation and system changes. There must be a requirement that Nav has investigated the child’s needs and living situation when working with families with children.
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In addition, the best interests of the child and the right to be heard should be included in the purpose clause of the Social Services Act, the National Insurance Act and the Nav Act – and the competence of Nav should be strengthened with training measures.
The state must comply UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to ensure children’s right to good living conditions, also in families with poor means. The animal times we face today are the hardest on the most vulnerable families with children.
We challenge Tonje Brenna to take responsibility and ensure children’s rights in the Nav system.