Case

The future of child welfare services in Norway

Case

The future of child welfare services in Norway

In response to increasing complexity and the need for efficiency in child welfare services, Norway has taken a significant step forward by introducing Modulus Barn, a comprehensive, GDPR-compliant digital solution and a central part of the DigiBarnevern project. Based on Netcompany’s AMPLIO, Modulus Barn represents a groundbreaking solution to longstanding challenges, setting a new standard for supporting and protecting our most vulnerable.

The challenge

Norway’s child welfare services have long struggled with fragmented systems, lack of coordination between municipalities, and a growing administrative burden. This has diverted resources from direct work with children and families and hampered the services’ ability to respond effectively and provide the necessary support.

One central obstacle has been a lack of IT support. Employees and leaders have expressed frustration over systems failing to support the delivery of high-quality child welfare services, highlighting among other things a lack of efficient reporting and management options as major obstacles.

Benefits with Modulus Barn

Enhanced collaboration

Modulus Barn ensures the effective distribution of information across child welfare services and with its collaborators, including seamless integration with national portals and registers, and citizen services.

Flexibility

Modulus Barn is a flexible solution that can seamlessly scale and adapt to future needs.

More time with children

Case workers spend less time on administrative tasks and more time delivering timely, equal and fair services to children and families across the country.

Quality and Compliance

The solution instils a new level of quality in the child welfare services’ case management and is fully GDPR-compliant.

The solution

To address these challenges and enhance the quality of child welfare services in Norway, The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs, the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities, and eight of Norway’s largest municipalities initiated the DigiBarnevern project in 2016. By 2021, Modulus Barn emerged as a part of this project.

Based on Netcompany’s AMPLIO platform, Modulus Barn is a comprehensive, GDPR-compliant digital solution that connects child welfare services across the country. It ensures efficient data flows, improves collaboration, standardises processes, and offers intuitive tools that reduce the administrative burden on case workers. This frees up time for what truly matters – direct work with children and families.

With the new Child Welfare Professional Quality System (BFK), case workers have access to essential professional and legal support throughout all phases of a child welfare case. Integration with the National Portal for Concern Reports and the National Child Welfare Register ensures seamless information flow. As digital citizen services gradually roll out, children and families will experience more transparent and inclusive support. Lastly, the modular nature of the solution ensures ease of further development.

»The municipalities collectively decide the direction for further development of Modulus Barn«, says Kristin Brørs, Principal at Netcompany.

With Modulus Barn, the Child Welfare Services get a state-of-the-art, GDPR-compliant platform, combining user-friendly functionality with effective reporting and streamlined case management

With Modulus Barn, case workers spend less time on IT and more time on what matters - human contact.

Results

Successfully implemented in 20 municipalities, and expanding to 63 more by the end of 2024, Modulus Barn is on track to becoming a national standard for child welfare services in Norway. Modulus Barn’s functionality will continuously develop to meet future needs, such as integrating citizen services.

»Starting as an initiative by the largest municipalities, DigiBarnevern is now transitioning to a national quality improvement for both large and small municipalities across Norway. It’s incredibly exciting to be a part of this digital transformation, and I look forward to what’s next«, says Kristin Brørs, Principal at Netcompany.

Modulus Barn represents a new era for child welfare services in Norway, where technology and collaboration are central to providing better support for children and families in vulnerable situations. With a solid foundation and a clear path forward, the DigiBarnevern project shows how innovation can transform public services for the better.

This collaborative model is not only effective within child welfare services but also provides a robust framework for scaling digital transformation in other municipal tasks, paving the way for increased efficiency and improved services across the public sector.