Family group conference is a model used in child welfare services that emphasises user participation from relatives and social networks.
The model is based on the ideal of equalising the power relationship between participating families and the child welfare service itself.
– I have challenged this ideal by studying what happens in family group conferences through an alternative understanding of power, compared to the way the concept is usually perceived, writes Lene Nygaard Solli to inn.no.
Typically, power is understood as oppression or control. It is a form of power that is clearly visible.
– What is less visible are actions that are gentle, supportive and appealing. Precisely because such actions are not commonly associated with power, they can be very effective, explains Lene.
Nygaard Solli’s research questions the belief that power is removed from the relationship simply by facilitating user participation.
– When users are given more freedom, staff need to find new ways to effect change. Power then takes on new, creative and subtle forms, according to the PhD candidate at the University of Inland Norway.
A growing number of researchers have explored this form of power within health care, education and social services.
Nygaard Solli argues that since this more covert form of power may be more widespread in today’s society than the more traditional, 'visible form', it is essential to shed light on it – both within the field and in public discussions about power.
Lene Nygaard Solli completed her PhD as part of the programme Child and Youth Participation and Competence Development.
Her dissertation is titled: 'Familieråd som mildt maktuttrykk. En Foucault-inspirert studie av samhandling mellom familier og ansatte i barnevernet' (English translation: 'A Foucault-Inspired Study of Interaction Between Families and Child Welfare Professionals').
Main findings of the doctoral work:
- When adopting an alternative perspective on power that does not focus on restriction or control but on what is created, it becomes evident that child welfare workers and FGC coordinators succeed in fostering collaboration, trust, and the involvement of relatives and social networks, even though there was some resistance from the participants.
- The professionals' ability to be friendly and sensitive to participants' needs is crucial for their success. Similarly, their choice of language, which downplays power, helps make the family group conferences less intimidating.
- The procedures of the family group conference model, such as the use of 'private time' and the family group conference coordinator, can be interpreted in the same light. These effectively contribute to creating the impression that the conferences are the family's project.
- The professionals succeeded in facilitating an intervention within the child’s extended family and network – a private sphere that child welfare services often struggle to access – without their actions being perceived as external control.
- While these actions appear desirable for achieving collaboration and the involvement of relatives and networks, they are difficult to recognise as exercises of power. This calls for critically examining the actions and openly subjecting them to discussion.
- If one adheres to a traditional understanding of power as negative and oppressive, it becomes challenging to see how gentle and friendly actions can also be powerful.
Contact information:
- lene.solli@inn.no
- Phone
- +47 61 28 83 26