The Ministry of Children and Family Affairs changed its name to the Ministry of Children and Equality on 1 January 2006.
The Ministry of Family and Consumer Affairs was established by Royal resolution on 22 Dec. 1989. On 1 Jan. 1991 it became the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs and a number of responsibilities were transferred from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Administration (which was then discontinued), the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry Of Local Government and Labour Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Environment (Norwegian Pollution Control Authority) and the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. The object of setting up a new Ministry of Children and Family Affairs was to strengthen and coordinate initiatives benefiting children, youth, families, gender equality, consumer protection and product safety by assembling them under one authority.
The desire to strengthen consumer policy actually dates back to 1955. A consultative ministerial-level office was created that year and then superseded in 1956 by a full-fledged Ministry of Family and Consumer Affairs. In 1972, this ministry became a department within the new Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Government Administration. The Government proposed to further strengthen the administration of family and gender-equality policies in 1977. One result was that family and gender-equality issues were given their own department within the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Government Administration. A separate Department of Consumer Affairs was established at the same time.
On 1 Jan. 1990 the Government revived the Ministry of Family and Consumer Affairs and reorganized its Department of Family Affairs and Gender Equality. The newly reorganized department took over policy areas previously belonging to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Government Administration, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. The department's name was changed to the Department for Children, Family and Gender Equality. Some product safety functions were transferred from the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority to the Department of Consumer Affairs. The Norwegian-language name of the Department of Family Affairs and Gender Equality was changed on 1 Jan. 2006 from Famlie- og likestillingsavdelingen to Samlivs- og likestillingsavdelingen, but the official English-language name remained the same.
When the Ministry of Family and Consumer Affairs changed its name on 1 Jan. 1991 to the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs, the Department for Children, Family and Gender Equality was split in two, becoming the Department of Family and Preschool Affairs and the Department of Children and Youth. Youth-related issues were transferred to new Department of Children and Youth from the Ministry of cultural affairs. When the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs changed its name to the Ministry of Children and Equality on 1 Jan. 2006, the responsibility for nurseries and preschools was transferred to the Ministry of Education and Research.
The Department of Consumer and Product Safety got its current name in 1992. The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (known as Bufetat) was established 1 July 2004 after a merger of two other agencies (SBF and BUFA). The directorate oversees five regional offices, in Alta, Trondheim, Bergen,Tønsberg and Oslo, as well as a variety of services spread across the country. The new national agency is responsible for operating child welfare institutions, foster home services, other family-based child welfare services and local and neighbourhood facilities. It also provides professional support to municipalities facing difficult child-welfare cases, out-of-family placements and adoptions, and it supports municipal operation of family counselling offices.
