Children and young people

In the area of children and young people, AKF conducts research into:

• Vulnerable children and young people
• Social initiatives relating to children and young people
• Children in 24-hour placement
• Primary and lower secondary schools
• Daycare institutions

AKF’s research in the area is particularly relevant for social workers in municipal family administrations, teachers at primary and lower secondary schools, educators in daycare institutions and residential institutions as well as politicians and municipal decision-makers.

Vulnerable children and young people

For many years, AKF has conducted research into conditions for children and young people, including conditions for vulnerable children and young people, e.g. kinship care and adoption of children from abroad.

Social initiatives relating to children and young people

Danish local authorities have different approaches to conducting the preliminary investigations of children’s conditions prior to the implementation of measures, but often these investigations mainly comprise general descriptions of the child’s situation in prose. There is a need to develop tools to upgrade this work in the direction of more systematic collection of information and description of the individual child to elucidate all aspects of a child’s development and needs and to better be able to set and evaluate specific targets. AKF has designed and tested a model for this.

Children in 24-hour placement

In connection with the local government reform in Denmark, the local authorities will take over responsibility for the entire area relating to children and young people. The 24-hour placement of children and young people will, thus, be a municipal responsibility, and residential institutions will henceforth be operated at the municipal level. There will also be a new reform of the child placement system, requiring, among other things, that social workers conduct a more thorough and systematic investigation, and that the local authorities strengthen their focus on placement within the child’s social network. AKF has studied, among other things, how to measure the effectiveness and quality of an initiative with regard to children placed in residential institutions.

Primary and lower secondary schools

A key focus area for AKF’s research is the Danish municipal primary and lower secondary school system. Research is conducted in such areas as the well-being of children and young people in general in and outside school; the integration of bilingual children in schools; the reading and mathematics proficiency of children and young people; and the characteristics of schools with pupils who perform well academically. In the years to come, AKF will also study the organisation of remedial instruction at primary and lower secondary schools in Denmark.

Daycare institutions

AKF has previously conducted studies on the significance of spending time in a daycare institution for children's development. In coming years, we will study how teaching plans have been implemented in daycare institutions in Denmark, and the influence this has had on children’s learning and development.