Barns röst och socialsekreterares resonemang. En kvalitativ studie om socialsekreterares uppfattning av barns delaktighet i barnavårdsutredningar

Sammanfattning

The purpose of this study was to examine how social workers within the Swedish child welfare system experience that they are encouraging children and adolescents' participation in child care investigations. The qualitative method used for this thesis was semi-structured interviews with social workers. To analyze the material, the social workers' statements are perceived from childhood sociology and scope of action perspective. Former studies show that children's opinions are taken into account to a rather low to very low extent in only 42% of all Swedish municipalities working with child care investigation. Previous research has shown that multiple factors take part in the difficulty of making children participate in the investigations. Our study reveals three central difficulties in the work involving children in investigations. These are the high workload experienced by social workers, parental involvement, and that children may take on a great deal of responsibility when it comes to making extensive decisions. Even though The Convention of the Rights of the Child is part of Swedish law, our study demonstrates that social workers differ in the amount that they use the law in their practical work. In our study, three main themes emerged on how social workers claim that they work to promote children's participation. These are adaptations to the environment, creating relationships with the children, and cooperation with different professions.