Forældrekompetenceundersøgelse (FKU; lit. 'Parental competence test') is a Danish psychometric assessment of parental competence.[1] Guidelines describing legal requirements, recommendations and good practice under the Child's Act (entered into force on January 1, 2024)[2] are under the auspices of the Danish Authority of Social Services and Housing. The FKU tests are used in complex and serious cases.[3] They are considered to be significant psychological work as they include intrusive decisions, such as clarification of placement and adoption.[4] The test includes things such as interpretation of facial expressions, which differ culturally.[5] Results may also be biased against parents who do not speak Danish as their mother tongue, causing them to mistakenly appear to have limited cognitive abilities.[6]
Application to Greenlanders
editFKU competency testing of Greenlanders has been characterized as discriminatory[7] and racist.[5] The tests have contributed to the disproportionate placement of children with a Greenlandic ethnic background in foster care, with 1% of Danish children in Denmark being removed from their families compared to 5.6% of Greenlandic children in Denmark being removed from their families.[7]
In November 2024, people in Greenland demonstrated after a Greenlandic woman had her newborn child forcibly removed in Thisted Municipality.[8] Demonstrators criticized the municipalities for forcibly removing children, based on an FKU test.[9] According to the protesters, the test used parameters that did not take into account cultural differences. Subsequently, the Minister of Social Affairs, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, urged the municipalities to drop the test when assessing whether children should be forcibly removed.[10] Denmark announced in January 2025, that it would end the use of FKU with Greenlandic families,[6] The law was subsequently changed so that, from May 2025, the use of the FKU with Greenlandic families would be banned and a specialist unit named VISO would be used instead.[11] However protests occurred in August 2025 after a Greenlandic newborn was removed from its Nuuk-born mother one hour after birth subsequent to the mother's competency testing.[11]
See also
edit- Godhavn inquiry – a 2011 Danish government inquiry into the conditions of children's homes between 1945 and 1976
- Little Danes experiment – 1951 forced relocation of Greenlandic Inuit children to Danish families
- Legally fatherless – Danish laws denying some Greenlandic children the right to inherit from their Danish fathers
- Spiral case – an ongoing investigation into the forced sterilization of Greenlandic Inuit women during the 1960s and 1970s by Danish physicians, often without the women's consent and under the direction of government officials
References
edit- ^ Dutt, Tanya (24 August 2025). "What Is The Controversial Danish 'Parenting Test' That Was Used To Check Competency?". Health and Me. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ^ "The First Danish Biennial Report on the Implementation of the European Child Guarantee" (PDF). European Commission. 2024. Archived from the original on 1 April 2025. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ^ "Opdaterede retningslinjer for forældrekompetence- og tilknytningsundersøgelser" [Updated guidelines for parenting competency and attachment tests]. www.sbst.dk (in Danish). Social- og Boligstyrelsen. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ^ "Forældrekompetenceundersøgelser med barnet i centrum" [Parenting competence surveys with the child at the center]. Dansk Psykolog Forening (in Danish). 13 June 2024. Archived from the original on 15 July 2025. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ^ a b Marsden, Harriet (10 February 2025). "The 'racist' parenting test fuelling Denmark-Greenland tensions". The Week. Archived from the original on 22 April 2025. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ^ a b Bryant, Miranda (20 January 2025). "Denmark to ditch 'parenting competency' tests for Greenlandic families". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ^ a b Nilsson-Julien, Estelle (21 January 2025). "Denmark abandons controversial 'parenting competency' tests used on Greenlanders". www.euronews.com. Archived from the original on 26 August 2025. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ^ Kongsted, Asta (28 November 2024). "Tvangsfjerner vi grønlandske børn på forkert grundlag? Dansk forældretest får hård kritik" [Are we forcibly removing Greenlandic children on the wrong grounds? Danish parent test receives harsh criticism]. Zetland (in Danish). Archived from the original on 13 April 2025. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ^ Prakash, Thomas; Kert, Karoline; Bøgeholt Baltsen, Lærke (12 November 2024). "Tvangsfjernelse af nyfødt barn har fået folk på gaden i både Nuuk og København" [Forced removal of newborn child has brought people to the streets in both Nuuk and Copenhagen]. DR (in Danish). Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ^ "Socialminister ønsker test af grønlandske forældre stoppet, men jurist er skeptisk: Hvorfor skulle ministerens ord have en effekt?" [Minister of Social Affairs wants testing of Greenlandic parents stopped, but lawyer is skeptical: Why should the minister's words have any effect?]. Kristeligt Dagblad (in Danish). 20 November 2024. Archived from the original on 21 November 2024. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ^ a b Bryant, Miranda (23 August 2025). "Protests as newborn removed from Greenlandic mother after 'parenting competence' tests". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 August 2025.