In Switzerland, the KESB authorities decide about welfare service delivery as well as about the taking of coercive measures. The authorities were created in 2013, following a change to the Swiss Civil Code (ZGB) adopted by the Swiss Parliament. Whereas most of the French-speaking cantons were able to continue working within the existing system, the changes to the Civil Code led to organizational changes in the German-speaking cantons and the Ticino.
Our analysis will begin in the 1990s, when the first meetings on the reform of the guardianship system, as child and adult protection services were referred to back then, took place. We will then track the reform on the national level as well as its implementation on the cantonal level at the turn of the millennium. This will be followed by an analysis of the debate in the media and its implications for today.
