Reykjavík kept sending children to Bakkakot, warnings ignored, licence gap left unanswered

• RÚV reports that Reykjavík sent 12 children for summer stays and one child into foster care at Bakkakot from 2002 to 2005.
• Barnaverndarstofa, the State Agency for Child Protection, had advised in 2002 against continued placements there after abuse cases emerged.
• Kópavogur stopped using Bakkakot after that warning, while Reykjavík kept placing children for roughly three more years.
• Part of the period was unlawful because Bakkakot lacked a licence after new child-protection legislation took effect in 2004.

Reykjavík placed 13 children at the Bakkakot foster home between 2002 and 2005, even after abuse had been reported there and after the state child-protection agency had stopped recommending the placement. RÚV reports that 12 of the children were sent for summer stays and one was placed in foster care under Reykjavík’s child welfare committee.

The timeline leaves little room for confusion. According to earlier reporting cited by RÚV, Barnaverndarstofa, the State Agency for Child Protection, sent a communication to Kópavogur in 2002 saying children should no longer be placed at Bakkakot after cases of abuse had come to light there. Kópavogur stopped using the home. Reykjavík did not. By the city’s own account to RÚV, it continued sending children to Bakkakot until 2005, and available information indicates it was the only municipality still doing so during those years.

The licence question runs alongside the abuse warnings. RÚV says archival records show that Bakkakot did not have permission to receive children in placement for part of the 2002–2005 period after new child-protection legislation took effect in 2004. The placements ended not because Reykjavík withdrew first, but because the social services authority in Rangárvalla- and Skaftafellssýsla prohibited the owner, Þóra Bernódusdóttir, from taking more children in 2005 on the grounds that she lacked the required licence under the law then in force.

Reykjavík’s response points upward in the chain of responsibility. The city told RÚV that under the Child Protection Act and the regulation then in force, Barnaverndarstofa was responsible for assessing foster parents, issuing licences, keeping a registry of children in foster care, and monitoring whether placements complied with law and rules. The city also said its welfare department has no information on how licence status was communicated from Barnaverndarstofa to Reykjavík and other municipalities at the time, and directed that question to the present-day supervisory authority.

That leaves a narrow administrative fact with broad consequences: one municipality stopped after a warning, another kept placing children for years, and no public explanation has yet accounted for the difference. The government has since decided to appoint an inquiry into foster homes and supervision, and Reykjavík’s welfare council has ordered an external review of current oversight of out-of-home placements. The city has not issued a formal apology over the Bakkakot placements.

The record now shows warnings in 2002, a licence gap after 2004, and Reykjavík placements continuing until a local ban in 2005 stopped them.

Källor: RÚV