Notifications of concern for children and young people

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Welfare and Health, Social Statistics
Marko Malic

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Notifications of concern for children and young people 2023

The purpose of these statistics is to monitor notifications of concern received by the municipalities regarding children and youth in Denmark. The statistics are used in the preparation of governmental policies, public debate, and research. The statistics were initially started by The Danish Social Appeals Board (Ankestyrelsen). Statistics Denmark has been responsible for the statistics since the year 2016.

Statistical presentation

The statistics are an annual status of notifications of concern, which the Danish municipalities receive, regarding children and youth below the age of 18. The statistics include data about the number of notifications, the age and sex of a child or a young person, the date of the notification, the relation of the notifier to the child, or a young person ( i.e. who is notifying), the background for the notification (i.e. what caused the notification), and which municipality received the notification. The statistics are communicated through an NYT article (News from Statistics Denmark) and in StatBank Denmark.

Statistical processing

The municipalities transmit data regarding the notifications of concern to Statistics Denmark through different digital sources. Data are transmitted through different system-to-system software, or through a web-based platform, provided by Statistics Denmark. An overview of the received data from a given year is subsequently sent to the municipalities. In collaboration with Statistics Denmark, data are corrected for eventual errors and ultimately approved by the municipalities as being a true expression of the number of notifications of concern received in a given reference year. This process is called data validation.

Relevance

The statistics are relevant to researchers, journalists, social authorities (including ministries and municipalities) and others, who are interested in children and youth at risk.

Accuracy and reliability

The accuracy and reliability of these statistics is high.

The numbers are revised two years back in time. The revisions consist of minor corrections and thus do not change the overall picture of the statistics

Timeliness and punctuality

The statistics are published no later than 9 months after the end of reference period.

The statistics for 2023 were published according to the scheduled release date.

The statistics for 2022 were published according to the scheduled release date.

The statistics for 2021 were published according to the scheduled release date.

The statistics for 2020 were scheduled to be published on June 22, 2021, but were delayed until August 16, 2021.

Comparability

These statistics have been compiled since 2015 and are comparable throughout the whole period - when taking into account the reorganization of categories in 2017, and a generally higher quality of data, especially from 2016 to 2017. The reorganization consisted mainly of a reduction in the number of notifier and cause categories. The categories were also corrected back to earlier years to make the statistics more comparable.

New causes for notifications of concern were added in 2022. The addition of these can contribute to weaker comparability. But these additions are minor and do not overlap or replace previously reported data.

The statistics deal with notifications during the whole year. In comparison, the other two statistics on disadvantaged children and youth are status based.

The statistics are partly comparable internationally, for instance corresponding statistics in Sweden, Norway, and to some degree Finland.

Accessibility and clarity

These statistics are published annually in a Danish press release, Nyt fra Danmarks Statistik. At the same time, the tables are updated in StatBank Denmark. The numbers can be found in the StatBank as following tables:

For further information, see the subject page on disadvantaged children and young people.

Contact DST Consulting for access to micro-data.