Children and young persons with preventive measures

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Welfare and Health, Social Statistics
Anne Morsing
+45 39 17 39 70

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Children and young persons with preventive measures 2022

The purpose of these statistics is to highlight the number of preventive measures granted by the 98 municipalities in Denmark to children and young people, in accordance with the legislation on special support for this age group. Since the 1st of July 1998, the services have been granted pursuant to specific sections of the Consolidation Act on Social Services. Since the 1st of January 2020, the statistics also contain collected data on services granted pursuant to the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Act. In their current form, the statistics are comparable from the year 2007 and onwards.

Statistical presentation

The statistics on preventive measures are published annually and updated every year. The statistics provide information on relief measures granted to children, youth, and families in need of special support, in accordance with specific sections of the Consolidation Act on Social Services and the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Act. The statistics contain data on the number of measures and the number of recipients. The data are distributed by age, sex, and type of measure. The data are also distributed by provinces and municipalities. The statistics are published in StatBank Denmark and in the publication “Nyt fra Danmarks Statistik”.

Statistical processing

Data for these statistics are collected from the 98 municipalities in Denmark. Data is collected from municipal IT systems, or via a web–based register system, provided by Statistics Denmark. The data, collected from the municipalities, are then linked with active measures, already found in the Register of Statistics Denmark. Each child or young person in the registry is updated with data that have been reported during the course of the relevant year. All of the data are subsequently gathered in a register, containing all persons, who, at some point during their first 23 years of life, have received support pursuant to the Consolidation Act on Social Services and the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Act. The reported data is validated in close collaboration with the municipalities and are subsequently aggregated and supplemented with data from Statistics Denmark's population statistics.

Relevance

The statistics are used by citizens, researchers, municipalities, government authorities and organizations, which use the data for analysis, research, public debate etc. The statistics, development and methods are also presented yearly to Statistics Denmark's user committee.

Accuracy and reliability

As the municipalities use different digital systems for data reporting and transmission, the data regarding preventive measures are not registered systematically and uniformly. Municipalities can register the same case/measure on different sections and subsections of the legislation. The extent of such practice is not known.

Data regarding Sections 57a, 57b and 57c of the Consolidation Act on Social Services are underestimated as these are not reported directly in all of the digital systems, used by the municipalities. Data on §54 of the Act on Social Services, presented in StatBank Denmark, are slightly underestimated, compared to the data, contained in the registry. This is due to issues in registration practice in connection to preventive measures granted to expectant mothers/parents.

Timeliness and punctuality

The statistics are published approximately 6 months after the end of the reference period. The statistics are published without delay according to the scheduled publish date.

Comparability

The statistics have been published since 1977, but due to large changes in legislation in 1985, 1993 and 2006, the statistics are not directly comparable throughout the whole period.

Accessibility and clarity

These statistics are published yearly in a press release on support to the children and young at risk: Nyt fra Danmarks Statistik om Støtte til udsatte børn og unge. At the same time the statistical tables are updated in StatBank Denmark: Children and youth at risk. For further information, see subject page.