Social Innovation and Interprofessional Collaboration in Child–Family Reunification Services: The Family Group Conference

When children are separated from their birth family by Child Protection Services (CPS), there are diverse barriers to reuniting children with their families of origin and a crucial need for early involvement of both children and parents in the reunification process. This chapter explores social innovation and interprofessional collaboration in this process. It offers an adaptation of the Family Group Conference (FGC) model as an alternative socially innovative and collaborative intervention with utility in providing child and family-centred reunification processes. Family Group Conference encourages child and family-led decision-making, challenging traditional paradigms and empowering families to create solutions supported by professionals, acknowledging children’s rights to kinship and cultural connections. By presenting a case of Norway, we describe how adjusting the FGC has potential through all three (pre-during-past) phases of the reunification process. Furthermore, we explore the potential role of Norwegian family counselling services (familievernet) in facilitating reunification and Family Group Conferences through collaboration with child protection (barnevernet). Additionally, we touch upon the limitations and future directions for the model in the context of reunification practice.