Barns rätt till skydd och barns rätt till delaktighet - (o)förenliga rättigheter? En kvalitativ intervjustudie om socialsekreterares beskrivningar av att arbeta med barn och ungas delaktighet vid LVU-ärenden

Abstract

Several investigations and reports show that Swedish social services do not sufficiently provide children’s and young people’s right to participation in cases of care of young people (special provision) act. The aim of this study was to explore how, if at all, social workers working with children and young people in Western Sweden describe themselves working with children’s participations in cases of care of young people (special provision) act. Furthermore the study aimed to identify, based on the social workers descriptions, what eventual challenges and opportunities exist in to supply children’s participation in cases of care of young people (special provision) act and how these can be understood from a social worker perspective. The method of the study was a qualitative interview method and a total of six social workers participated. The collected data from the interviews has been transcribed and later on analysed via thematic analysis. Based on the results of the study a theoretical framework was constructed based on Lipsky’s (2010) theory of street-level bureaucracy, Sommer, Pramling Samuelsson and Hundeide (2011) interpretation of the concepts of child perspective and children’s perspective and Shier’s (2001) participation model. With the help of the theoretical framework, the results of the study could be analyzed from the perspective of social workers. Findings showed that, as in previous research studies, there is a fear among social workers of harming children by sharing difficult information. At the same time, the results of the study indicate that there is a willingness on the part of the social workers to work with children’s participation, but the work is varied and complex. Social workers must take into account, among other things, the child’s often incompatible rights, care givers versus the child’s rights, while at the same time experiencing limited time and resource shortages. From social worker’s perspective the results indicate that it is these factors that limit children’s participation rather than, unlike previous research studies, that social workers have a traditional view of children. However, more research is required to understand the work with children’s participations in cases of care of young people (special provision) act from the perspective of social workers.