NORWEGIAN PARLIAMENTARY OMBUDSMAN National Preventive Mechanism ANNUAL REPORT 2020 40 VISIT REPORTS PUBLISHED IN 2020 Olivia Solhaugen, Hadeland The Ombudsman’s NPM visited Olivia Solhaugen’s child welfare sections in Hadeland in January 2020. Separate visits were carried out to the sections Myrheim and Storetjern. Myrheim is a long-term section where adolescents can be placed for a period up to one year, with the possibil­ ity of an extension. Storetjern is an emergency section where adolescents, in principle, should not stay longer than six weeks. Both sections accept adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 who have been placed without their consent. During the visit, the Ombudsman’s general impres­ sion was that both sections had accessible and clear management. At the time of the visit, both sections had stability and continuity of staff. The institution promoted systematic training of staff members. The training was carried out in accordance with semi-annual plans; it was mandatory to attend and well recognised among One of the buildings of the child welfare institution Olivia Solhaugen, Hadeland. staff. The institution had its own professionally re­ sponsible manager, appointed to ensure continous professional development. A review of documents in connection with the visit showed that this structure allowed the institution to acquire new knowledge and to embed it within the organisation relatively quickly. Olivia Solhaugen has previously been criticised by Bufetat and the County Governor for a lack of competence regarding adolescents with substance abuse problems. Even if the sections did not have adolescents suffering from drug or alcohol addiction as a primary target group, all child welfare institutions should have basic competence in identifying risk factors for development of drug and alcohol related problems. At the time of the visit, all staff had received relevant training on these topics. There are strict requirements regarding docu­ mentation of the use of coercion in child welfare institutions. Decisions that involve the use of coercion are individual decisions according to the Public Administration Act. These decisions must be registered in an official protocol and sent to the supervisory authorities. Olivia Solhaugen had developed their own template for registering the use of coercion. The template was approved by the County Governor; however, in our view it had several deficiencies. Among other things, it did not ensure that signatures were dated, nor that the date and time for when the decision on the use of coercion was reviewed with the adolescent, were inserted. The template did not allow for proper registration of the duration of the use of coercion and did not have a heading where the date of placement could be registered, which made it impossible to see at what point during the stay at the institution the coercion had been applied.