Families and children
Topic
The Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion endeavours to ensure that children and young people get a good upbringing and that families can feel secure, both financially and socially.
Child Welfare
The primary duty of the child welfare services is to ensure that children and young people living under conditions that may harm their health and development will receive the necessary assistance when they need it, and to contribute to giving children and young people safe conditions for growing up.
Adoption
An adoption order may only be made when it can be assumed that the adoption will be in the best interests of the child. The basic condition of the child's best interests applies to all forms of adoption.
Parental benefit, child benefit and cash benefit
Each year, large amounts of money are transferred from the public purse to families with children: parental benefit, child benefit and cash benefits for the parents of infants.
Related topics
Current
1996 Hague Convention enters into force
Norway’s ratification of the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention will strengthen our cooperation with other states when parental conflicts and child welfare cases arise that involve more than one country. The Convention will enter into force on 1 July 2016.
Amendments to the Adoption Act
The task of investigating prospective adoptive parents will be transferred from the municipalities to the regions in the Norwegian Children, Youth and Family Affairs Service on 1 February 2015.
Parenthood
The Children Act regulates the determination of the mother and father. The woman who gives birth to the baby is the child's mother and, if the parents are married, the man to whom the mother is married is counted as the child's father.
Documents
The most important documents are bills (propositions), white papers, hearing documents and Official Norwegian Reports (NOUs). These documents are primarily available in Norwegian.
Contact
Department of Childhood, Youth and Family Affairs
E-mail: postmottak@bld.dep.no
Phone: +47 22 24 25 19
Address: Postboks 8036 Dep, 0030 Oslo
Visitor address: Akersgata 59, Oslo