Ifrågasatt! En kvalitativ intervjustudie om socialsekreterares arbete med klienter med utomeuropeisk bakgrund och lågt förtroende för socialtjänsten.

Abstract

Swedish Social services have been exposed to a misleading campaign with false allegations of kidnapping migrant children - especially Muslims- in order to forcely assimilate them in the Swedish culture and society. The aim of this study is to approach the experience of social secretaries working with families, with non - European backgrounds, that show low - trust to them. Previous studies show the effectiveness of trust to achieve a good work alliance which results in qualitative childcare and protection. The empirical material has been analyzed on the framework of organization theories, Sense of coherence (SOC), intercultural perspective and childhood sociology. The respondents are social secretaries from different areas in Sweden with long experience with their work with the mentioned families. We use a qualitative method to analyze the empirical material using the concept of thematic analysis. Our study shows mistrust's effect on social work with children in addition to the prerequisites that can take place at different levels such as: a) the interpersonal level, b) the organizational and societal level so as to the solutions can be ostensible and grounded. We came to the conclusion that when society and the organization's responsibilities fail, subsequently, the responsibility will lie on social secretaries. For this reason, we believe that further efforts to reduce the consequences of parents' mistrust of social services and to bridge the trust gap between parents and social services are of great importance.