Statistical processing

Source data

Municipalities report information on notifications concerning children and young people to Statistics Denmark, which acts as the data processor on behalf of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing.

The Danish Appeals Board (Ankestyrelsen) was responsible for collecting the data from 1 April 2014 to 30 June 2016. Since 1 January 2016, most notifications have been transferred automatically from the municipalities’ case management systems to Statistics Denmark via a dedicated web API and related infrastructure. Previously, some municipalities also submitted data via an FTP connection.

Municipalities can access their submitted data through the information page for the statistics: oplysningssiden.

Mapping to the notifier category »Andre«

When data from the most widely used case management system in this field are submitted to Statistics Denmark, several of the system’s activity types are mapped to the notifier category “Other” used in the statistics.

These include notifications recorded under the activity types family treatment, contact person, 24-hour on-call service, other public authority and miscellaneous. All these activity types are reported under the category “Other” and therefore cannot be distinguished from one another in the data.

See more on fagsystemets oplysningsside.

Frequency of data collection

Data is usually transferred daily, but few municipalities send data weekly, monthly or annually.

Data collection

Municipalities can report information on child welfare notifications via Statistics Denmark’s information page or directly from their case management systems through system-to-system reporting.

All notifications are collected daily in a front-end database connected to a web dialogue system. This allows municipalities to access their own data, make corrections, and delete notifications when necessary.

Data validation

The data are validated yearly. At the start of the validation process, Statistics Denmark sends validation lists and summary reports of the submitted notifications to the municipalities. The purpose is to ensure high data quality in collaboration with each municipality.

Municipalities review the material and assess whether the data accurately reflect the number of notifications they have received. If the data are correct, the municipality approves them. If discrepancies are found, Statistics Denmark and the municipality engage in a dialogue to resolve the issues until the data can be approved.

If a municipality cannot approve its data before the scheduled publication, the collaboration continues afterward to ensure the data are correct for the next release. As a general rule, non-approved data are still published, but with a clear note stating which municipalities have not approved their figures.

Data compilation

All child welfare notifications are collected in a single register, regardless of the reporting method used. Each notification must comply with the requirements set out in the applicable Executive Order on Data Reporting in the Social Sector, available on the website of the Ministry of Social Affairs. Notifications are described in Chapter 4 and Annex 3 of the executive order.

The standardization of data according to the executive order ensures straightforward integration and processing. Categories are already grouped at the time of reporting in accordance with the order, meaning no major calculations are needed for publication.

Notifications submitted before the category revision in 2017 are recategorised to align with current requirements. During the annual validation process, any errors are corrected.

Data aggregation

Statistics Denmark publishes aggregated data in StatBank Denmark. The following principles are applied when calculating age and counting persons.

Age

In StatBank Denmark tables on notifications concerning children and young people, age is calculated as at 31 December of the reference year. This method ensures consistent age definitions and comparability with other Statistics Denmark registers, including the Population Register. The tables therefore include persons who were aged 17 when the notification was received but turned 18 before the end of the reference year. These records typically account for approximately 2–3 per cent of the totals.

The microdata available through Statistics Denmark’s researcher and ministry schemes include information on both age at the date of notification and age as at 31 December of the reference year.

Counting of persons

When compiling the number of children in StatBank table UND2 and the data underlying table LABY16, each child is counted once in each municipality that received one or more notifications concerning the child during the reference year. A child may be included in the figures for several municipalities in the same year, for example as a result of moving between municipalities. At the national level, each child is counted only once. The sum of the municipal figures may therefore exceed the national total.

Scope of LABY16

LABY16 shows the share of children and young people aged 0–18 for whom one or more notifications were received. Records concerning unborn children and records with unknown sex or age are excluded from the calculation.

Adjustment

Correction is not applied.