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I föreliggande rapport redovisas resultat av en studie av hur tre kommuner hanterar socialnämndens ansvar för insatser på våldsområdet. Den undersöker hur kommunerna organiserar och genomför arbetet med att ge stöd till vuxna personer som utsatts för våld i nära relation respektive insatser till personer som utövar våld i nära relation. Studien genomfördes under åren 2020-2022 av forskare knutna till Institutionen för socialvetenskap vid Marie Cederschiöld högskola, inom ramen för det sexåriga forskningsprogrammet ”Samordnade interventionssystem mot våld i nära relationer” finansierat av Forte (2019-01492). Resultaten pekar på betydelsen av särskilda enheter eller mottagningar inriktade på våld i nära relation för att säkra god kvalitet i kommunernas insatser. Samtidigt synliggör både brukares och personalens beskrivningar utmaningar i socialtjänstens arbete med våld i nära relationer. Dessa handlar om implikationer av socialtjänstens funktionsindelning och specialisering, komplexiteten i att komma ur våld i förhållande till begränsade resurser till stödet till våldsutsatta, särskilt sårbara våldsutsatta brukare och hur arbetet är anpassat till deras behov, samt problemet med att interventionssystemet kring våld i nära relationer tenderar att vara vuxencentrerat trots att det finns minderåriga barn i familjen de flesta fall av våld i nära relationer som socialtjänsten kommer i kontakt med.

Stability is vital for the development, health and relationships of children in family foster care. Instability can lead to social and school issues, low self-esteem and diminished trust in caregivers. This article examines the risk and protective factors for stability for these children. Data, drawn from case files in six municipalities (n = 116), combine qualitative and quantitative analyses for a comprehensive understanding. Twenty children from each municipality were selected, with 10 in stable placements (lived in one family foster home for over a year) and 10 in unstable placements (lived in at least two different family foster homes). Quantitative results highlight the importance of factors like familiar placements, a child's age at the time of placement, behavioural challenges and the number of children in the foster home. Stable placements were more common in homes with fewer children (including foster and biological children). Qualitative findings show that in some instances, breakdowns in foster care placements could not be foreseen, often arising from stressful events within the foster family's life after the child's placement. Additionally, we observed that breakdowns sometimes resulted from foster parents lacking the necessary resources to address the child's requirements, particularly in cases involving children with behavioural challenges or extensive needs.

Children with disabilities are over-represented in foster care and exposed to more disruptions. This is unfortunate because they need long-term relationships and predictability, as well as access to special schools and health care. Disruption can be the result of a poor match between the child and the foster family. In this article, we focus on the matching process in relation to children with disabilities. Zeijlmans et al. describe matching as the process by which social workers move from principles of good matching to realistic matching, depending on existing premises. Using their model, we analyse the matching process for children with disabilities in Sweden. The study is based on 31 individual interviews and six group interviews with social workers and social work managers. They describe how they take into account the family climate, family composition and prior knowledge and/or experience of disability in the foster home. However, disruptions occur even when these conditions are met. Stable placements seem to be more related to the fostered child's progress when the family's efforts are rewarded. We also address the complex issue of what disability actually means in the context of foster care, given the interrelatedness of trauma, maltreatment and impairment.

Summary: In Sweden, a practice has developed where the social services have started to hire private consultants in child protection investigations. This article analyses and compares the handling of child protection investigations carried out by private consultants and municipally employed social workers with regard to the reasons for the reports, the investigations, the assessments, and the decisions taken about interventions. The concepts funnel and filtering and children's participation are used in the analysis. The study has a mixed-methods design, where qualitative and quantitative data and analysis are combined and integrated. Data consists of 120 case files regarding the social service's handling of investigations as well as interviews with managers of social service departments. Findings: The results show several differences in the handling of child protection investigations carried out by social workers and private consultants in the municipalities studied. The private consultants worked to a greater extent with investigations that were initiated due to concerns about violence. Investigations conducted by consultants contained less information and specifically concerning children's perspective. These children also received interventions to a lesser extent than children assessed by the municipal social workers. Application: The study indicates that from a child’s perspective, it matters whether a municipally employed social worker or a private consultant performs an investigation. Consultants generally work temporarily in a workplace, and it may therefore be more difficult to establish a trusting relationship with the children, which can be a barrier to children's participation and the implementation of a child’s perspective.

The aim of this article is to investigate how children's care responsibility is recognised in records of personal assistance carried out by the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (SSIA). The article consists of document analysis, examining how caring activities are made visible in the records, and professionals' views and actions regarding responsibilities placed on children. Data consist of 100 cases randomly selected from the SSIA register amongst applicants with children, focusing on parents' descriptions of their needs, the public officials' assessments, and statements from professionals. Recurring themes related to young carers were developed.

I artikeln fördjupas kunskapen om den privata konsultens väg in i arbetet som konsult, tiden som konsult och väg ut mot andra uppdrag. Resultatet visar att vägen in och vägen ut, utifrån ett tidsgeografiskt perspektiv, vilar på samma restriktioner, det vill säga brist på makt och inflytande och krav på samordning. Tilläggas kan en önskan om frihet som sedan övergår till en längtan efter trygga anställningsvillkor. För studiens respondenter blev tiden som konsult ett tillfälligt mellanrum och det är viktigt att det blir så även för socialförvaltningar. Risken finns dock att det blir en mer permanent lösning på svåra situationer.

The chapter explores the apparent contradiction between Sweden’s pre-eminent international welfare reputation and its strikingly limited welfare response to the pandemic. We survey the Swedish welfare impact within two domains: first, the domain of public and social policies during the pandemic and their impact on the welfare of citizens; second, the domain of social work practice and its impact within two fields – disability and gendered violence to women. Finally, we ask how far international social work can learn about its future trajectory from the Swedish experience.

Personal assistance, since its implementation in 1993, has been shown to provide support for persons with severe functional disabilities in their everyday life, ensuring inclusion in societal roles such as working life. Personal assistance (PA) may also provide support in parenting; however, with the right to PA becoming increasingly questioned in Sweden, parents with disabilities have varying experiences of receiving support for their role as parents. Experiences also differ in regard to how access to a personal assistant is important to their child’s daily life. The aim of this article is to shed light on the meaning of PA for parents and children in everyday life, especially when PA is reduced or even withdrawn. Eleven parents who have had or presently have PA were interviewed. The results show that parents describe that PA help them to fullfil their parental roles although the support could be more flexible to the needs of parents and their children. In situations when PA has been denied, children are negatively impacted and some children act by taking on responsibilities for the care of their parent. In conclusion; childrens’ perspective of their family life needs to be taken in consideration when assessing the rights to PA.

In Sweden, personal assistance is one form of support for persons with certain functional impairment. The aim of personal assistance is to give compensatory support to individuals so that they can enjoy the right to live a life like anyone else. This article explores what kind of support parents who have functional impairments and apply for personal assistance may need when they have underage children. The article is focused on the following: What support needs in parenting are expressed in personal assistance applications and by whom? How are the expressed needs in parenting met by the intervention personal assistance, i.e. how do the decisions correspond with the expressed needs? The article is based on qualitative and quantitative document-analyses of 100 randomly selected applications for the right to personal assistance submitted to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency by applicants who were parents with children 0–17 years of age, during the years 2014–2017. The central concepts resulting from the analyses of the empirical material were support and care. The results show that in many cases the children were invisible in the material studied. In several investigations, there was no information at all about the applicant’s children. Many applications for assistance were refused. Few parents received assistance in their parenting role. In the documents, we found the following themes in statements about needs for support related to the role as a parent: practical support, care and supervision, support with communication, emotional support and safety, and support to be involved in the children’s lives.

Hur kan socialtjänsten bäst möta behoven hos personer utsatta för våld i parrelationer, typiskt sett våldsutsatta kvinnor? Med utgångspunkt i exemplet Stockholms stad och organisering av arbetet med våld i nära relation och hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck i den kontexten, diskuteras i presentationen dilemman förknippade med den professionalisering av arbetet med våld i nära relation som pågått sedan millennieskiftet i många av landets kommuner. I exemplet som diskuteras finns två typer av enheter specialiserade på våld; med fokus på myndighetsutövning (Relationsvåldsteam RVT) respektive på stödinsatser (Relationsvåldscentrum RVC). Med utgångspunkt i resultaten av en forskarutvärdering av arbetet vid RVC i Stockholms stad vilken genomfördes under 2020 och 2021 diskuteras i presentationen för- och nackdelar förknippade med socialtjänstens organisering av arbetet med våld i nära relationer, sett ur såväl professionellas som brukares perspektiv. Frågan om samverkan mellan socialtjänstens olika delar och samordningen av insatser riktade till våldsutsatta berörs också. De resultat som presenteras pekar bland annat på hur socialtjänstens specialisering i förhållande till våld å ena sidan kan vara nödvändig för insatser mot våld och god kvalitet, samtidigt som den å andra sidan kan vara förknippad med professionellt ”gränsarbete” mellan olika professionella grupper, så att exempelvis praktiskt och vardagsnära stöd kan definieras ut från det egna professionella uppdraget, samtidigt som det är just den typen av stöd våldsutsatta kvinnor kan behöva för att ta sig ur en relation med våld, i synnerhet de kvinnor med begränsade socioekonomiska resurser., Konferensen arrangeras av forskningsprogrammet Sivin-Barn vid Marie Cederschiöld högskola.

The use of private consultants in child protection investigations in Sweden is an evolving practice that occurs under the radar; it is not in the political agenda and it is obscure in relation to legislation. The aim of this article is to analyse the contextual forces, facilitators and intentions behind the ongoing implementation of privatisation in child protection investigations. For this article, both quantitative and qualitative data for the years 2013–2017 were obtained through a telephone questionnaire. Managers of 32 social services departments were interviewed. Statistical data of the year 2018 collected by the National Board of Health and Welfare was also included in the analysis. Applying a mixed-method design, the article shows that some prerequisites in legislation make it possible for privatisation to develop. There are societal changes that act as contextual forces, and there are structures in place from earlier stages of the development of privatisation that facilitate the new practice. Also, there are professional intentions that drive the process. The implementation of private consultants in child protection takes place during a period of high workload for social services. The article concludes with a discussion about the consequences for children and families of this new trend in privatisation.

I rapporten redovisas en studie om personlig assistans och föräldraskap i situationen då föräldrar med minderåriga barn har funktionsnedsättningar. Studien har genomförts med forskningsmedel från Försäkringskassans öppna utlysning. Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilket stöd föräldrar som har personlig assistans behöver för att kunna utöva föräldraskap på lika villkor som andra. Mer specifikt var avsikten att undersöka hur stöd i föräldraskap som ges genom personlig assistans utformas. Rapporten bygger på två delstudier. Den ena delstudien bygger på dokumentanalyser av ett slumpmässigt urval av Försäkringskassans utredningar (N=100) av rätten till assistansersättning för föräldrar med barn under 18 år. Den andra delstudien är en intervjustudie som bygger på intervjuer med föräldrar (N=11) och personliga assistenter (N=9) om deras erfarenheter av personlig assistans i föräldraskap. Resultaten av dokumentstudien visar att det i 31 procent av akterna inte hade dokumenterats att den sökande hade minderåriga barn. Av de sökande beviljades 26 procent assistansersättning och av dessa beviljades 9 procent specifik assistanstid för att vara föräldrar. Det var en högre andel män än kvinnor som fick rätt till assistansersättning. Analyser av handläggningsprocessen visar att inte alla sökande hade fått möjlighet att vid ett möte med handläggare beskriva sina behov. En förklaring till att få sökande fick rätt till assistans i föräldraskap var att föräldraskap inte inkluderas i definitionen av grundläggande behov, utan betraktas som ett annat personligt behov, vilket kan bli aktuellt först om den sökande bedöms ha grundläggande behov om i genomsnitt mer än 20 timmar per vecka. Av ansökningarna framgick att det fanns dokumentation om upplevda behov av assistans i föräldraskap. Behoven beskrevs av föräldrarna själva och intygas av professionella inom vården. Likartade behov har beskrivits av föräldrar och personliga assistenter i intervjustudien. Det handlar om behov av assist, This is a report of the research project “Personal assistance and parenthood” with grants from Försäkringskassan. The purpose of the study was to investigate what support parents who have personal assistance need to be able to carry out their parenting on the same terms as others. More specifically, the study aimed to investigate how the parenting support provided through personal assistance is composed. The project contains two sub-studies. One sub-study is based on document analyses of a random selection of applications (N=100) to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (SSIA) for the right to personal assistance for parents with children under 18 years old. The other sub-study is an interview study based on interviews with parents (N = 11) and personal assistants (N = 9) about their experiences of personal assistance in parenting. The results of the document study show that 31% of cases had not taken any notice at all that the applicant had underage children. In 26% of the cases the applicant was granted assistance and 9% of these applicants was then granted assistance time specifically for parenting. A higher proportion of men than women were eligible for personal assistance. Analyses of the application process show that not all applicants received the opportunity to describe their needs at a meeting with a SSIA public official. One explanation for so few applicants being entitled to assistance in parenting was that parenting is not included in the definition of basic needs, but rather is considered “other personal need”, which becomes pertinent only if the applicant is assessed to have basic needs totaling on average 20 hours or more per week. The applicants' requests contain documentation about perceived needs for assistance in parenting, where these needs could be described by the parents themselves and certified by health care professionals. Similar needs have been described by parents and personal assistants in the interview study, concerning the need for assis

The austerity measures in social welfare implemented by street-level bureaucrats in their practice are changing the direction of social policy. This article examines the strategies used by public officials in implementing austerity measures in needs assessment for personal assistance in Sweden. The article is based on a document study with N = 100 records of needs assessment for personal assistance for persons with serious functional disabilities. Findings show that the public officials at the Swedish Social Insurance Agency either limit or extend their discretion as a strategy, as well as use weak warrants as strong warrants in recommending decisions. Other strategies involve the organisational logic, fragmentation of the content in the needs assessment and division of work among the public officials. Implementing the cost-cutting goals causes severe consequences for persons with disabilities who bear the brunt by being excluded from participation in society. The social policy values of fifty years, emphasising the right to equal participation in society, are traded for economic austerity goals., Besparingsåtgärder i social välfärd implementeras av gatubyråkrater som i sin praktik förändrar riktningen på den förda socialpolitiken. Denna artikel undersöker de strategier som handläggare använder för att implementera besparingspolitik i utredningar av enskilda personers ansökning om personlig assistans. Artikeln baseras på en dokumentstudie av N=100 utredningar genomförda av Försäkringskassans handläggare. Resultaten visar att handläggare omväxlande begränsar eller utvidgar sitt handlingsutrymme och använder vägledande argument som styrande riktlinjer. Andra strategier som används är kopplade till logiker som gäller i organisationen, fragmentisering av data i utredningen och arbetsdelning av utredningens genomförande och beslutsfattande mellan gatubyråkrater i organisationen. Implementering av besparingsmål får allvarliga konsekvenser för personer med omfattande funktionsnedsättningar som riskerar att exkluderas från delaktighet i samhällslivet. Funktionshinderpolitikens nu 50-åriga målsättning om delaktighet på lika villkor byts i praktiken ut mot ekonomiska mål om besparingar.

In Sweden, personal assistance is one form of support for persons with certain functional impairment. The aim of personal assistance is to give compensatory support to individuals so that they can enjoy the right to live a life like anyone else. This article explores what kind of support parents who have functional impairments and apply for personal assistance may need when they have underage children. The article is focused on the following: What support needs in parenting are expressed in personal assistance applications and by whom? How are the expressed needs in parenting met by the intervention personal assistance, i.e. how do the decisions correspond with the expressed needs? The article is based on qualitative and quantitative document-analyses of 100 randomly selected applications for the right to personal assistance submitted to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency by applicants who were parents with children 0–17 years of age, during the years 2014–2017. The central concepts resulting from the analyses of the empirical material were support and care. The results show that in many cases the children were invisible in the material studied. In several investigations, there was no information at all about the applicant’s children. Many applications for assistance were refused. Few parents received assistance in their parenting role. In the documents, we found the following themes in statements about needs for support related to the role as a parent: practical support, care and supervision, support with communication, emotional support and safety, and support to be involved in the children’s lives.

I Sverige har sedan 2012 insatsen övervakat umgänge ersatts av umgängesstöd. I reformprocessen betonades att om umgänge ansikte mot ansikte mellan barn och en förälder som barnet inte bor med inte kan organiseras utan risk för barnet bör beslut fattas om indirekt umgänge (exempelvis via telefon) eller inget umgänge. Seminariet diskuterar socialarbetares praktik rörande umgängesstöd när stödet gäller ärenden med våld. Det bygger på en studie av en umgängesstödsverksamhet, där underlaget bestod av akter för 37 barn för vilka det fanns en dom om umgängesstöd, intervjuer med sju personal, tio föräldrar och tre barn, samt dokument och rutiner för verksamheten. För 18 av 37 barn innehöll akterna bekräftad information om en historia av våld. Studien visade att tingsrätten ibland beslutar om umgängesstöd i ärenden med våld och där det är osannolikt att umgänget kan ”normaliseras” inom överskådlig framtid. Insatsen umgängesstöd ges alltså ibland på ett sätt som inte var avsett med reformen. När det kommer till det sociala arbetets praktik visar analysen att även om de lokala rutinerna följer lagstiftarens intentioner med reformen och fokus på risk, kan professionella i praktiken både giltiggöra och ogiltiggöra våld. Det senare gäller i synnerhet gruppen umgängesstödjare som finns närvarande med barnet i rummet. Sammantaget visar studien hur både domstolens praktik och umgängesstödsverksamheten kan bidra till barns fortsatta utsatthet., Konferensen arrangeras av Centralförbundet för Socialt Arbete i samarbete med forskningsprogrammet Sivin-Barn vid Ersta Sköndal Bräcke Högskola.

The article examines the implementation of articles 3 and 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in the parental code regulations on custody, residence and access and how they are applied in practice. The best interests of the child are, according to the regulations of the parental code, the superior principle in handling custody disputes, which includes an examination of the risk of abuse, the child’s need for close and good contact with both parents and the child’s will. The results of conducted empirical studies show that articles 3 and 12 of the CRC have not been implemented in the parental code. Children lack an independent right to express their opinion in the handling of custody disputes. The article is based on empirical data from sources of law, custody cases, and interviews with parents in dispute., High-conflict families of divorce

The austerity measures in social welfare implemented by street-level bureaucrats in their practice are changing the direction of social policy. This article examines the strategies used by public officials in implementing austerity measures in needs assessment for personal assistance in Sweden. The article is based on a document study with N = 100 records of needs assessment for personal assistance for persons with serious functional disabilities. Findings show that the public officials at the Swedish Social Insurance Agency either limit or extend their discretion as a strategy, as well as use weak warrants as strong warrants in recommending decisions. Other strategies involve the organisational logic, fragmentation of the content in the needs assessment and division of work among the public officials. Implementing the cost-cutting goals causes severe consequences for persons with disabilities who bear the brunt by being excluded from participation in society. The social policy values of fifty years, emphasising the right to equal participation in society, are traded for economic austerity goals., Besparingsåtgärder i social välfärd implementeras av gatubyråkrater som i sin praktik förändrar riktningen på den förda socialpolitiken. Denna artikel undersöker de strategier som handläggare använder för att implementera besparingspolitik i utredningar av enskilda personers ansökning om personlig assistans. Artikeln baseras på en dokumentstudie av N=100 utredningar genomförda av Försäkringskassans handläggare. Resultaten visar att handläggare omväxlande begränsar eller utvidgar sitt handlingsutrymme och använder vägledande argument som styrande riktlinjer. Andra strategier som används är kopplade till logiker som gäller i organisationen, fragmentisering av data i utredningen och arbetsdelning av utredningens genomförande och beslutsfattande mellan gatubyråkrater i organisationen. Implementering av besparingsmål får allvarliga konsekvenser för personer med omfattande funktionsnedsättningar som riskerar att exkluderas från delaktighet i samhällslivet. Funktionshinderpolitikens nu 50-åriga målsättning om delaktighet på lika villkor byts i praktiken ut mot ekonomiska mål om besparingar.

Children who have parents with any kind of illness may become young carers who take a responsibility not expected of children for household tasks, or personal or emotional care for parents and siblings. So far, little is known about children in Sweden who are at risk of becoming young carers. The aim of this article is therefore to explore the extent and impact of children's caring activities as reported in a pilot study by a sample of children in Sweden. A number of international questionnaires measuring the amount of caring activities, impact of caring, quality of life, and psychological well-being were translated and combined into a survey. The pilot survey was completed by 30 children 10-18 years of age. Also, when completing the survey, the children were interviewed concerning their experiences of caregiving. The participants report on a group level emotional symptoms such as fear and nervousness above the clinical cut-off value. They also rate a lower level of caring compared with findings from the United Kingdom, but they report a higher degree of negative impact of caring than young carers in the United Kingdom.

Children who have parents with any kind of illness may become young carers who take a responsibility not expected of children for household tasks, or personal or emotional care for parents and siblings. So far, little is known about children in Sweden who are at risk of becoming young carers. The aim of this article is therefore to explore the extent and impact of children's caring activities as reported in a pilot study by a sample of children in Sweden. A number of international questionnaires measuring the amount of caring activities, impact of caring, quality of life, and psychological well‐being were translated and combined into a survey. The pilot survey was completed by 30 children 10–18 years of age. Also, when completing the survey, the children were interviewed concerning their experiences of caregiving. The participants report on a group level emotional symptoms such as fear and nervousness above the clinical cut‐off value. They also rate a lower level of caring compared with findings from the United Kingdom, but they report a higher degree of negative impact of caring than young carers in the United Kingdom.

In Sweden, supervised visitation has been replaced with a new measure called supported visitation. In the reform process, it was emphasized that if face to face visitation cannot be organized without risk for the child, indirect visitation or no visitation are to be considered better options. The aim of this article is to explore social work practice regarding supported visitation in cases involving violence. It draws on a study of a local visitation centre and the data consists of case files from the social services regarding 37 children where a court ordered visitation support, interviews with seven members of staff, ten parents and three children, and local documents and guidelines. For 18 of the 37 children, case files contained credible information about a history of violence. The study shows that district courts sometimes order visitation support in cases where there is a risk for the child and where in the near future normalization of visitation is unlikely. Thus, the measure of visitation support is sometimes used in a way that was not intended. Regarding social work practice, the analysis indicates that, although the guidelines developed at the local support centre under study adhere to the national policy intentions, both professionals’ validation and invalidation of violence can be seen. For service users previously subjected to violence, the documented court and social services’ practices may actively contribute to children’s and residential parents’ continued vulnerability.

Artikeln syftar till att belysa svenska barns mående vid högintensiva vårdnadstvister och att relatera resultaten till internationell forskning. Den baseras på ett empiriskt underlag bestående av tingsrättsakter och föräldraintervjuer, som företrädesvis har utforskats genom kvalitativa innehållsanalyser. Underlagen ger samstämmiga resultat och indikerar att barn främst utvecklar internaliserande men även externaliserande och somatiska symtom vid svåra föräldrakonflikter. Det finns också barn som reagerar genom försenad utveckling eller regression. Därutöver framgår att andelen barn med funktionsnedsättningar är överrepresenterad i undersökningspopulationen. Resultaten ligger i linje med internationell forskning. Resultaten indikerar att det föreligger ett samband mellan barns mående och konfliktens varaktighet, föräldrarnas hälsa och föräldraförmåga. Yngre barn som lever med föräldrars vårdnadstvist behöver uppmärksammas ur ett hälsoperspektiv genom att exempelvis erbjudas preventiva interventioner., The article aims to highlight Swedish children's health in relation to high intensity custody disputes and to relate the results to international research. Empirical data consist of district court acts and parent interviews, explored through qualitative content analysis. Regardless of empirical material, the results indicate that children's reactions are internalizing but also externalizing and somatic symptoms. There are also children who react through a developmental delay or regression. In addition, the results show that children with disabilities are over-represented. The results are in line with previous international research indicating that there is a connection between the children's health, the duration of the conflict, the parents' health and parental ability. Younger children living with parental custody disputes need attention from a health perspective e.g. by preventive interventions., High-conflict families of divorce

Since 2000, the number of custody disputes has increased in Sweden. Living in the midst of a parental conflict places the children under great stress. Research on parental conflicts is predominantly theoretical; thus, there is a need for empirical studies to better understand the problems and needs of the children and parents. This article examines parental disputes regarding custody, residence, and access for children, and aims to understand the characteristics of the conflicts behind the disputes. The article is primarily based on qualitative analyses of court documents. The results show that the majority of the parents’ conflicts are defined as conflicts of values, stemming from concern about the other parent’s capability to care for younger children., High-conflict families of divorce