21 Jun Hestia at NORFACE the Welfare State Futures final conference
24-25 May the final conference of NORFACE the Welfare State futures took place. NORFACE (New Opportunities for Research Funding Agencies Cooperation in Europe) launched the WSF research programme in 2013 to ask, and answer, fundamental questions about the aims, functions and designs of welfare states in the 21st century. The fifteen research projects funded by NORFACE are researching topics ranging from health inequalities, globalisation, families, migration and social security rights, to citizens’ support for the welfare state. At the Final Conference, researchers from these projects will present their findings to the academic community and various stakeholders, including former Dutch Ministers Ab Klink and Jet Bussemaker, representatives from the European Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
German, English, and Dutch representatives of the Hestia team were present at this final event. Therefore, this event not only enabled us to present our research to European policy makers and researchers, but we were also able to discuss the future steps of our research project. Also the steering committee of the Hestia project (Prof. Doris Bühler-Niederberger, Prof. Fred Wulczyn, & Prof. Marit Skivenes) was invited to this conference to provide detailed feedback on our findings and future directions.
We organized the following presentations in which we focused on the findings or our project:
- The voice of the child in child protection decision-making. A cross country comparison of policy and practice (Mónica López López)
- Meaningful Participation for Children in the Dutch CPS: A Critical Analysis of Relevant Provisions in Policy Documents (Helen Bouma and Hans Grietens)
- Child protection across borders: comparing policy and systems (Nina Biehal)
- Differences in investigations in cases of suspected child maltreatment: characteristics of referrals and procedures (Laura Miehlbradt and Floor Middel)
- Decisions at the end of child protection investigations: varying thresholds for interventions and their relation to policy (Heinz Kindler)
- Child protection between rhetoric and reality (Sabine Walper)
- Comparing child protection systems across borders: Lessons from a three-country comparison (Hans Grietens)
