Constructing professional boundaries: external experts’ perspectives on their role and function in care proceedings in Norway

This article explores how external experts in Norway perceive their role and function when commissioned to assist Child Welfare Service (CWS) assessments in care proceedings. Based on qualitative interviews with twelve external experts, we specifically examine how these experts draw professional boundaries towards social workers when commissioned to assess child welfare cases and how these boundaries are legitimized. Our analysis found that the experts constructed these professional boundaries by positioning themselves along two dimensions: One, relating to horizontal boundaries, emphasizing their external position in the child welfare system. Another dimension was related to vertical boundaries, pointing to their additional analytical qualifications that social workers lack. However, some described cases where the role and contribution of external experts were redundant and the professional boundaries became blurred. The findings address the need to discuss what constitutes valid knowledge in a care assessment and how boundary work between external experts and child welfare social workers can contribute to the quality of care assessments in child protection cases.