148 ANNUAL REPORT 2014 In a case report, the Ombudsman went through the major legal principles applicable to the placement of children outside the home as well as the authority in the Social Services Act to bring back children in care to the municipality or to place them at another facility. The Ombudsman expressed his concern about the fact that the information he had received did not contain a description of the legal framework for the municipality’s process. Also, the Ombudsman did not think that the municipality’s so-called minimum intervention principle was consistent with the state of law suggested by the Social Services Act. All in all, the case gave the Ombudsman reason for grave concern that the legal position of the most vulnerable children was being put at risk, and the Ombudsman asked Guldborgsund Municipality to reconsider the procedure as well as the principles for the seven step process which constituted the basis of the municipality’s planned cost-cutting for care placements. The Ombudsman asked to be informed of the municipality’s intended actions. The Ombudsman informed the National Social Appeals Board, the Ministry of Children, Gender Equality, Integration and Social Affairs, Parliament’s Social Affairs Committee and Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee of the case. 2014-11. CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND ADDITIONAL OCCUPATION IN CONNECTION WITH MUNICIPALITY’S PLACEMENT OF A MOTHER AND CHILD IN A FOSTER FAMILY WHERE THE FOSTER FATHER WAS ALSO HEAD OF THE MUNICIPALITY’S FAMILY HOUSE AND THE MUNICIPALITY’S FAMILY CARE CONSULTANTS The Ombudsman opened an own initiative case in relation to a municipality because it came to the Ombudsman’s attention that the municipality had decided to place a mother and her child in a foster family where the foster father also held a municipal management position. The foster father worked for the municipality as head of the municipality’s Family House (family resource centre) and the municipality’s family care consultants. Based on information received from the municipality, the Ombudsman found that the foster father had not been part of the case processing which led to the mother and child being placed in his and his wife’s care. Neither were there grounds for presuming that there was a conflict of interests in regard to the persons making the decision to place the mother and child in the foster family.