Socialsekreteraren - En kvalitativ studie om faktorer som påverkar valet till att påbörja arbetet som barn- och ungdomsutredare inom socialtjänsten

You have seen it in the news, you have seen it in the papers. The situations for social workers in child protection are bursting. Turnovers, though work environment and low payments are things social-workers daily has to receive. Still there is few of them who starts to work at this workplace. Our question is why? In the following study, the aim is to analyze what factors are affecting their choice in working with child protection. We have analyzed our material by using the Pierre Bourdieu inspired theory Careership, and Bourdieu’s thoughts about habitus, field and capital. One of our conclusions of this study is that habitus can be an important impact in the choice of workplace, and that choosing work at the social service can be seen as a starting point of their career

”De är ju alldeles galna… de hänger inte ihop med verkligheten” : En kvalitativ studie som belyser socialsekreterares upplevelser kring sina arbetsvillkor inom socialtjänstens barn- och ungdomsenhet

The aim of this study was to understand the experiences that social workers in the social services child protection unit has regarding their working conditions and how they reflect about their workload, staff turnovers, wellbeing in regards to the role of a social worker. Our qualitative study was based on seven interviews with social workers who worked in a middle-sized municipality in Skåne. The results from our study was analyzed and disscussed from a new- institutional perspective together with Antonovskys KASAM - theory and Lipsky´s theory regarding street level bureaucrats. We have also incorporeded and made use of previous scientific research that has been done around these topics. The results of our study shows that this high demanding profession in relation to the major workload and stress that exists, can be seen as a lack of support, resourses and structure from the organization which utimately had a great effect on the social workers well being, feeling of trust and saftey as well as how well of job they do as social officers towards the clients and their cases. We can also discuss the fact that the handling of each issue is very much indiviudal depending on wich type of person that is carrying out the task in hand. Some individuals take a more tangible, objective and impersonal direction wile others are service-driven and more empotionally involved, which could be an effect of the normality, values and demands of the society at large. But it can also for our respontens be a coping mechanism to psychologically handle the tough decisions that they have to go through on a daily basis to experience the sense of coherence

Årsbok 2016 : Socialhögskolan, Lunds universitet

Denna årsbok presenterar Socialhögskolans verksamhet för 2016och in mot 2017

Hundra år av ensamhet - Om ensamkommande barns möjlighet till skydd enligt LVU.

Ongoing conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan has meant that the number of refugees worldwide has risen to levels not measured in decades. Children constitute a big part of these refugees, some of them fleeing their homes without a parent or a legal guardian. In a Swedish and international context these children are often referred to as ”unaccompanied”. This term referrers to the child’s special position in international research about migrant children as well as in Swedish welfare policies. The aim of my essay is to analyze how the term ”unaccompanied child” is filled with a content in the child’s contact with authorities and courts in Sweden. I focus on analyzing how children who have fled their native countries without parents or legal guardians are described in 42 judicial decisions from a number of County Administrative Courts (förvaltningsrätter) according to the Care of Young Persons Act (1990:52, LVU). I will also try to clarify how this description, together with judicial principals, affects the courts arguments and analysis of the unaccom-panied child. A legal sociological point of view influences my investigation, where the focus is not to investigate what is the law, rather then how the law is applied on an everyday basis. According to social constructivist theories about the importance of language in creating, organizing and maintaining a human understanding of the concept ”reality”, I analyze what is important in the courts creation of the ”unaccompanied child”, for example phrases used and disposition of the judgment. My results show two main starting points. First, there is an ambition of the Court to treat the unaccompanied child as ”any other child”, focusing on how the child’s situation is covered by the scope of LVU. Such a starting point takes less interest with the specific situation that the unaccompanied child’s position constitutes. Secondly, I find several exam-ples when the Court attaches great importance of the unaccompanied child´s specific situation. In these cases the unaccompanied child’s historical experi-ences function as a reason for both granting and denying compulsory care. The Courts main argument for granting care according to LVU is consequently divided into two parts. In this remark there´s no such thing as a uniform standards on how the children’s experience of fleeing there native country shall be processed inside the four walls of the Court. With these results in mind and with the numbers of unaccompanied children continuing to rise during 2015, I mean that there are reasons for the court to analyze and consider how fundamental legal principals are maintained when the matter concerns an unaccompanied child.Pågående konflikter i Syrien, Afghanistan, Somalia och Sudan har inneburit att antalet flyktingar i världen stigit till nivåer som inte uppmäts på decennier. Barn och ungdomar utgör en stor del av de människor som befinner sig på flykt, varav vissa av dessa flyr ensamma utan stöd eller närvaro av föräldrar, syskon eller nära släktingar. I en svensk och internationell kontext benämns dessa barn som ”ensamkommande” (unaccompanied), ett begrepp som markera en särskild definierad position i både internationell migrationsforskning och svensk välfärdspolitik. Min uppsats uppmärksammar hur begreppet ”ensamkommande barn” fylls med ett innehåll vid det enskilda barnets kontakt med myndigheter och domstolar i Sverige. Mer specifikt så analyserar jag hur barn som flytt till Sverige utan någon av dess legala vårdnadshavare beskrivs i LVU-domar från ett antal förvaltningsrätter runt om i landet. En sådan beskrivning sätts sedan i relation till relevant forskning i ämnet och juridiska principer med syfte att klarlägga vad beteckningen ”ensamkommande barn” innebär vid domstolens bedömning och argumentation. Min undersökning präglas av en rättssociologisk utgångspunkt, där fokus i första hand inte är att utreda vad som är gällande rätt utan snarare hur gällande rätt tillämpas i ett antal specifika fall. Med hjälp av socialkonstruktivistiska teorier om språkets betydelse i skapandet, organiserandet och upprätthållandet av en mänsklig förståelse och innebörd av begreppet ”verklighet” analyserar jag hur benämningar och disposition i förvaltningsrättens domar används för att skapa en bild eller föreställning av det ”ensamkommande barnet”. Minar resultat visar på två huvudsakliga utgångspunkter. För det första finns en ambition att hos domstolen behandla ensamkommande barn som ”vilket barn som helst”. Detta innebär att barnets historia, erfarenheter och sociala utsatthet ges mindre vikt och istället fokuserar domstolen på det specifika barnets unika situation och om denna ryms inom LVU:s tillämpningsområde. För det andra så finner jag exempel på när domstolen lägger stor vikt vid det ”ensamkommande barnets” speciella situation. Vid en sådan tillämpning så kan barnets erfarenheter av flykt och avsaknad av föräldrar eller nära släktingar innebära att tvångsvård anses nödvändigt. Men det kan också få motsatt effekt då liknande faktorer även fungerar som argument för att inte bevilja tvångsvård. Med mina resultat i åtanke och med hänsyn till att antalet ensamkommande barn som anländer till Sverige beräknas stiga kraftig även under 2015, menar jag att det finns anledning för både lagstiftare och domstol att analysera och beakta hur grundläggande rättsprinciper och avvägningar vid utdömande av samhällelig tvångsvård ska kunna upprätthållas även för dessa barn

Mellan klient och rättssystem : Tvångsvård av barn och unga ur socialsekreterares perspektiv

This dissertation focuses on assessments concerning children and young persons in the Social Services. The aim has been to describe and analyse the compulsory care process from a social worker perspective, and to understand and explain how this affects the practice of child welfare. I have used case files from the Social Services and focus group interviews with social workers as empirical data. The analysis is primarily inspired by Lipsky's theory about street-level bureaucracies, and Hasenfeld's theories of human services organisations. I have also used a critical perspective regarding the limitations of the legal system, and how these affect social work practice. Social workers experience a high level of uncertainty when they have to assess if compulsory care is necessary. My analysis shows that social workers associate the compulsory care process with a risk of losing control of the case. This risk could be minimised by three strategies. The first strategy was to wait for legal evidence that supported their personal moral conviction that compulsory care was in the best interest of the child. A second strategy was to use a problem focused argumentation in written assessments to make sure that the Court made the same assessment as the Social Services. A third strategy was to mention some good things about the family, and especially about the parents and their resources, in written assessments, so that they did not turn their backs on the Social Services if the application for compulsory care failed (?the logics of balancing facts?). The analysis also shows that social workers tend to use different kinds of argumentation depending on whether the case concerns parental neglect or abuse, or if the child/young person has an antisocial behaviour. Cases concerning antisocial behaviour are presented in a massive problem centred way, whereas cases concerning parent's neglect or abuse of children are presented in a more vague and ambiguous way. The consequences are that social workers create different images of the child and the parents in written assessments, depending on whether they primarily try to control/influence the decision of the Court or the parent's future cooperation with the Social Services. One conclusion is that compulsory care is not regarded as a safe way of saving children and social workers tend to focus their assessment work on achieving parent's consent to care, which is regarded as a safer way to gain control of the case

Sociala utredningar om barn : En rättssociologisk studie av lagstiftningens krav, utredningarnas argumentationer och konsekvenser för den enskilde

This thesis is about the social services’ investigations into childrens need of protection and support. The principal purpose is, from a critical perspective, to analyse and discuss how the legally-accorded procedural directives for the execution of an investigation, and therein the integrated support and counselling work, are adapted in the social services’ actual investigation work in relation to the parents.The issue is illustrated through an in-depth analysis of three case documents as a basis for an application in the county administrative court for compulsory care in 1997. For analytical purposes two elements are distinguished: 1) The investigation as part of a decision process constitutes an argumentation process which affects how the family’s problems and the child’s need of care may be defined. 2) The investigation as part of a counselling process constitutes a social intervention which affects the parents’ capacity to act as parents and individuals. The study is looked at from a socio-constructionist perspective which concerns itself with how the law is applied in the interaction between the executor of the law and the individual in daily reality, as well as an analytical method which considers various social factors’ significance in the way in which the law is actually applied.The analysis is based on two premises: 1) The investigator is placed in a rhetorical situation and must formulate his/her argumentation in the investigation in such a way as to be able to influence the court to decide in favour of the investigator’s standpoint. 2) The parents are placed at a disadvantage since the investigator has control over both the counselling resources and means for coercion and the investigation’s structure, content and information flow.The analysis demonstrates that the investigator’s power of authority is used repressively against the parents. This may be seen not least in the form of a suppression of the parents’ own definitions of the problem and suggestions for solving this problem, a biased focusing on the negative aspects of the parents as well as, by classifying the parents as either “treatable” or “untreatable”, an exclusion of certain parents from means of support and counselling. The results illustrate the need for a legal reinforcement of the parents’ position in the investigation. Yet the repression is also partly linked to a standardised range of measures which do not allow for tailor-made solutions to the complex cases often involved, and partly insufficient material resources which necessitate a system of priorities wherein the most resource-demanding parents are excluded from the procedural system. Consequently, if the social services are to be able to carry out the investigations according to the legislative aims, then they must also receive the necessary resources