THE ESBJERG CASE – SEVERE CRITICISM FOLLOWING A MONITORING VISIT years without any clarification as to where they were going to live in the future, go to school and so on. Furthermore, the facility had been overcrowded constantly for a prolonged period of time. PREVENTION WAS THE OBJECTIVE Based on the observations we made before and during the monitoring visit, we decided to initiate a more extensive investigation. Firstly, we asked Esbjerg Municipality to explain why some of the children were under emergency placement, and we asked the municipality to account for the cases, from the municipality’s reception of the first notification to the placement of the children at the facility. Secondly, we asked the municipality to explain why a number of children had been living at ‘Nordstjernen’ for a very long time. In regard to this, we asked the municipality to inform us of the maximum time a child should be kept at a crisis centre. In addition, we asked Esbjerg Municipality to comment on the information that for years, ‘Nordstjernen’ had been overcrowded, and also to account for any initiatives the municipality had taken to avoid future overcrowding of the facility. Obviously, we began our investigation out of consideration for the individual children. Our findings can help assure the children that what they have been through is not acceptable. However, the reality is that those of the children’s problems which were mentioned in the Ombudsman’s investigation were either solved or on their way to being solved when we opened the cases. Thus, in the cases where the municipality had taken a long time and had been given numerous notifications before initiating placements, the children had finally been placed in care. Also, at the time of the monitoring visit, the children who had been living at the crisis centre for a long time had been promised a permanent placement within the foreseeable future. Therefore, the most substantial reason for initiating an extensive own-initiative investigation was to avoid similar mistakes in the future. In Esbjerg Municipality as well as in other municipalities. We are talking about errors that have serious consequences for the individual children and which may also occur in other municipalities. By opening the cases, we wished to emphasise how important it is that both Esbjerg Municipality and other municipalities react quickly and correctly when they get notifications and also that the municipalities act swiftly when children are waiting for clarification at a facility. 51