Child welfare officer

A child’s custodian makes decisions on matters concerning the child, such as care, upbringing and place of residence. A custodian has the right to obtain information concerning the child from various authorities. In addition, a custodian represents the child and manages the child’s financial affairs.

If the parents live separately, they must decide with which parent the child’s official place of residence is. A child may be officially registered at only one address, even if the child resides an equal amount of time with each parent.

If the parents live separately, the child has the right to keep in touch with and meet the parent who lives separate from them. Both parents have the responsibility to ensure the child’s visitation rights are realized.

Child custody

The purpose of child custody is to safeguard the child’s balanced development and wellbeing in accordance with the child’s individual needs and wishes. Custody must secure positive and close relationships, especially between the child and the child’s parents. 

Joint custody

When parents have joint custody, they make the decisions concerning the child together. They also act as the child’s guardians in matters relating to the child’s banking affairs and assets. Under joint custody, the custodians decide together on matters such as the child’s name, place of residence, upbringing, education, health care and hobbies. Joint custody requires the parents to have sufficient ability to make decisions together and discuss matters concerning the child.

Sole custody

If only one parent is the child’s custodian, that parent has the right to make decisions concerning the child alone. Authorities (for example, day care, school, health care and social services) give out information about the child only to the custodian.

Parents may agree that a parent or another person who is not the child’s custodian has the right to receive information. An agreement or an order concerning a person’s right to receive information, entitles that person to obtain confidential information concerning the child from different authorities and private service providers. The right to receive information may be general, or the parents may limit it to certain matters or bodies (for example, health and medical care, day care, school).

When the parents do not live together, they must decide with which parent the child lives. The child may also live alternately with each parent. If the child has alternating residence, the parents must agree on which home will be recorded as the child’s official place of residence.

When considering the child’s place of residence, the parents must take into account the child’s age and level of development, as well as any special needs. Matters to consider include the parents’ ability to spend time with the child, the smooth organisation of day care or school, and the continuation of other important relationships and hobbies. The parents must also consider how the child’s daily care and any purchases for the child will be arranged.

When deciding on the child’s residence, the parents must take the child’s wishes into account, but responsibility for making the decision rests with the parents. Ascertaining the child’s opinion is important not only when making the decision about living arrangements, but also while the arrangement continues.

Alternating residence

Alternating residence means an arrangement where the child lives with each parent for at least 40 % of the calendar year, including holiday periods and public holidays.

The agreement records the more detailed terms of alternating residence and the information about the child’s official place of residence. The more detailed terms concerning alternating residence include, for example, the schedule for moving between the two homes and how the child’s residence is arranged during holidays and public holidays.

Despite having two homes, the child can have only one official place of residence, which may affect many benefits and services important to the daily life of the child and family, such as housing allowance, school transport or health care services.

When parents are considering alternating residence, the child’s age and personality must be taken into account. Alternating residence is a good option for some children because it allows them to form a close relationship with both parents. Others find living in two homes burdensome and regard living mainly in one home as a better option than alternating residence. The parents must find out the child’s opinion, taking the child’s level of development into account.

Duty to notify of an intention to move

A parent must notify the child’s other parent of their intention to move if the move would affect the implementation of alternating residence or visitation rights.  The notification must be given well in advance. If possible, it should be given three months before the intended move. The notification may be omitted if this is necessary to prevent an immediate and serious threat to the life, health or liberty of the child or of the person changing their place of residence.

The purpose of visitation rights is to safeguard the child’s right to build and maintain a positive and close relationship with the parent with whom the child does not live. Visitation rights mean that the child may periodically stay with that parent, meet the parent elsewhere or keep in touch with them in some other way.

Both parents are responsible for safeguarding the child’s visitation rights. Both parents must contribute to realizing the child’s visitation rights. The child has the right to meet their parent regardless of whether that parent is their custodian.

When agreeing on visitation rights, the child’s best interests are the starting point. The parents’ ability to meet the child’s needs must be taken into account in addition to any special needs the child may have, and the distance between the parents’ homes. The child’s views must be taken into account if this is possible given the child’s age and level of development. Responsibility for decision-making, however, rests with the parents, not the child.

When parents draw up a written agreement on the child’s contact arrangements, a child welfare officer confirms the agreement if the parents agree on its content. In addition to the normal weekly routine, it is advisable that the agreement includes arrangements for contact during holidays and public holidays. The agreement may also contain information about other forms of contact and arrangements for transporting the child to visits.

Supervised and supported visits 

A meeting between a child and a parent who live separately may, for justified reasons, be agreed on to be supervised or supported.

Parents may agree on supervised or supported visits for example for the following reasons:

• there is concern that the visiting parent is unable to care for the child during visits
• the visiting parent has substance abuse or mental health problems
• a long time has passed since the child and the visiting parent last met

During a supported visit, the supervisor does not need to remain within sight and hearing distance during the entire visit, but they are available to the child and the visiting parent throughout the visit.

Visits may be supervised only if supported visits or supervised exchanges are not sufficient to safeguard the child’s best interests. During a supervised visit, the supervisor remains within sight and hearing distance of the child and the visiting parent throughout the visit. The supervisor is obligated to interrupt the visit if it is unsafe for the child, for example if the parent behaves aggressively or arrives intoxicated.

Supervised exchange

Parents may agree on having the exchange of the child from one parent to the other to be supervised. A supervised exchange may be arranged when there are serious conflicts between the parents, and they are unable to interact appropriately. The supervisor makes the exchange calmer, so that the child moves safely from one parent to the other and is not caught up in the parents’ conflict.

Supervised visits, supervised exchanges or supported visits may be arranged by court decision or under a contact agreement that has been confirmed by a child welfare officer. Meetings between the child and the parent are free of charge for the clients. The service is provided at meeting places which Soite has put out to tender.

Access to the service

1. Court decision:
   If there is a court decision concerning supervised or supported visits or supervised exchanges, the parents must provide child welfare officer services with a copy of the decision and the contact information of both parents.
2. An agreement confirmed by a child welfare officer:
   The parents book an appointment with a child welfare officer, who arranges a joint meeting for them. At the meeting, the parents may agree on supervised or supported visits between the child and the parent or on supervised exchanges.

Both parents have a duty to maintain their minor child. 

If the child no longer lives permanently with a parent, or if a parent does not otherwise provide for the child’s maintenance, child support may be confirmed for the child. The parents may agree between themselves, or in the presence of a child welfare officer, on child support and its amount. An agreement just between the parents is not enforceable, and if the amount remains below the Social Insurance Institution of Finland Kela’s child maintenance allowance it does not entitle the family to Kela’s allowance, even if the parent liable for maintenance has insufficient means. 

A child welfare officer may confirm an agreement concerning the child’s maintenance if the parents agree on its content and the agreement is in the child’s best interests. Before confirming the agreement, the child welfare officer must consider whether it is reasonable: does it secure adequate maintenance for the child and does it correspond to the parents’ ability to provide maintenance?

If the parents cannot reach an agreement on child support, the matter may be brought before the District Court for determination.

As a rule, a child’s right to receive maintenance from their parents ends when they turn eighteen. 

The parents’ responsibility for maintenance also continues during the child’s placement in care. When a child is placed in care outside the home, the child is represented in maintenance agreement matters by a substitute guardian/guardian appointed by the District Court. Child support/child maintenance allowance accumulates as funds for promoting independence for a child placed outside the home.

Child support in situations with alternating residence

Even where the child has alternating residence, one parent may be obliged to pay child support. Child support is determined according to the child’s maintenance needs and the parents’ ability to provide maintenance. When a child has alternating residence, the maintenance obligation may be confirmed for either parent. In this situation, the child’s official place of residence is not of relevance.

Statutory adjustment of child support in line with index

The amount of child support is adjusted annually in line with the cost-of-living index. In December each year, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health announces the percentage change in the index for the following year.

If the parents wish this, the maintenance agreement may be submitted to the child welfare officers’ office to get the index change recorded on the agreement. If the request is made by post, the request must include the requester’s telephone number and the address to which the agreement should be returned.

In the event of a separation, a family may receive support from Kela. Kela may pay child maintenance allowance if the child does not receive maintenance from the parent liable to provide it, or if the confirmed fixed amount of child support is lower than the child maintenance allowance. Child maintenance allowance may also be paid if there is no parent liable to provide maintenance.

Child maintenance allowance – kela.fi