En kvalitativ intervjustudie om socialsekreterares diskretion och barnets röst i barnavårdsärenden

Sammanfattning

Social workers in Swedish child welfare operate within a context where children’s right to express their views is legally regulated, while professional decision-making often takes place in complex situations involving different perspectives and interests. This study aimed to explore how social workers describe their use of professional discretion in cases where children’s and parents’ wishes do not align, and how they work to ensure that the child’s voice is given space and significance in the decision-making process. The method chosen for this study was qualitative semi-structured interviews with social workers working in child welfare. The empirical material was analyzed through thematic analysis. The theoretical framework consists of Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracy, Evans’ perspective on professional discretion in welfare organizations, and Lundy’s model for conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The study found that professional discretion is not limited to the final decision, but is exercised throughout the process in which cases are structured, interpreted, and made possible to justify. A central finding was that situations where children’s and parents’ wishes differ function as a specific point of tension, where the child’s voice, parents’ wishes, assessments of the child’s best interests, and organizational conditions must be handled simultaneously. Furthermore, the study shows that the child’s voice does not automatically gain significance because the child has been heard. Rather, social workers actively create space for the child’s voice, support the child’s expression, and work to ensure that the child’s perspective is carried forward through documentation, feedback, and professional reasoning. The study highlights the importance of understanding discretion not only as a general feature of child welfare work, but as a professional practice that becomes particularly significant when the child’s voice must be interpreted, weighed, and justified in relation to other wishes and conditions.