The Norwegian Institute for Social Research is project partner. See OsloMet's project page or The Research Council of Norway for more information.
Through insights extracted from a select variety of potentially preventive social policies, UPSTREAM will stimulate new policy thinking on how to best protect children and promote social equality.
The project is motivated by the poor life course outcomes of previous child welfare service clients and the scant international literature on the effects of redistributive social policies and services that may prevent child maltreatment through action on household economy, social integration and participation, and human capital (e.g. coping skills, knowledge and health).
The Norwegian social policy reforms we study cover both cash transfers and services. The cash service reforms include Cash-for-Care benefits to all parents not using public childcare; the application of workfare principles for single parent benefit recipients; and a substantial increase in means-tested social assistance.
Service reforms include universal childcare expansion; free half-day childcare for residents in disadvantaged city districts; and the launch of a strict activation / education programme for newly arrived refugees. This will generate knowledge on the effect on child maltreatment of different social policy designs (e.g. cash/services, universal/targeted, conditional/unconditional), what works for different target groups and on the key mechanisms involved.
UPSTREAM is made possible by the interdisciplinary competencies of the project group and our access to unique administrative data covering all resident children born between 1980 and 2024 and their families. The data allow the study of both short-term and long-term effects and identification of various subgroups and alternative outcomes, including medical diagnoses, criminal charges and fine-grained information from the Child Welfare Services.
