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

Flexibel fyrkantighet möter meningslös skötsamhet: – tidens betydelse för interaktionen i institutionsvård

AbstractEvery year, over 1,000 children and young people, between the ages of 8 and 20, are placed in special youth homes in Sweden due to criminality, substance abuse or ”other socially destructive behaviour”. This article is based on interviews with youth and staff about what happens at the institution and how they regard the purpose of the stay in a facility that has the character of a total institution, in Goffman’s understanding. With support in Adam’s theories about time rhythms and Abbott’s concepts of time/event, we analyze how staff and youth cooperate in creating institutional life where they share the space, while having distance from each other and avoid creating closeness as their interaction is limited in time. Due to several parallel time rhythms affecting their everyday life and time at the institution the young people develop an approach between resisting or developing what can be termed as ”meaningless diligence”. Everyday life becomes easier to manage if they follow what the staff say, but they cannot see that it leads to a better future. The staff describe an approach where they are careful both to follow rules and to make constant individual and situational exceptions, a ”flexible rigidity” to fixed rules and time-schedules, to deal with specific events and needs. Together they maintain institutional life and the young people are adapted to the situation here and now, not to the life outside or after the institution

Child Protection in Europe: Development of an International Cross-Comparison Model to Inform National Policies and Practices

We report a five-nations project in comparative child protection to provide recommendations on policy and practice to inform the redevelopment of the Swiss child protection system. The Swiss Federal Government and the Optimus and Oak Foundations commissioned the project—collective title: Association Programme National pour la Protection de l'Enfant. We identify the historical developmental trajectories of child protection systems together with common drivers: the evidential basis for the prevalence and effects of child abuse, the co-joining of social and economic policies and practices to promote early investment in children, the influence of children's rights and comparative international league tables on child well-being. We describe the cross-national project methodology and analysis of results. Three key indicators for the performance of national child protection systems are indicated: creating a culturally sensitive child protection governance framework, building a relational heart and using evidence to inform policy and practice. These encapsulate the recommendations made with respect to the Swiss child protection system. The results provide a prototype model with potential utility in similar cross-national studies, and add weight to the argument that cross-cultural learning in the context of a globalised society is not only possible, but desirabl

Social workers’ accounts of custody and custody transfers in cases of homicidal violence

This article analyses Swedish social workers’ accounts of custody when a parent is in remand prison or prison due to homicidal violence that has resulted in the death of the other parent. How do social workers justify or excuse assessments of custody and custody transfers? What legal dilemmas can be discerned? The empirical material comprises six group interviews with 14 Swedish social workers based on two fictional vignettes. The interviews have been analysed using accounts theory and in relation to how social workers reason about their discretion. The social workers used four main accounts related to assessments of custody: Time and stability in foster care, Legal context, Deficient parenting and Kinship relations. The results show that although social workers believe that deadly violence is a serious risk factor and consider transferrals of custody to foster parents to be an important tool for safeguarding children in long-term foster care, custody decisions are also assessed in relation to possible rejections in courts, the legal basis for placement (compulsory care or voluntary placement) and the children’s age. The length of imprisonment of the parent appears to be an important factor for suggesting a custody transfer in cases of homicidal violence. The results are discussed in relation to the legal context and the protection of children