Barns delaktighet i barnavårdsutredningar inom socialtjänsten : En kvalitativ intervjustudie med grund i socialtjänsten och dess arbete med barns delaktighet

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study is to examine how social workers within the social services describe their work with children's participation in child conversations and the impact of children's participation for the decision-making process in a child welfare investigation. Children´s participation refers to their right to information, influence, the opportunity to express themselves and be heard in child welfare investigations. This to gain a deeper understanding of how social workers describe their work and the discretion it entails. To answer the purpose and research questions, a qualitative method was used, involving semi-structured interviews with eight social workers. A qualitative content analysis was then conducted to analyze the collected data. The interviewed social workers described the work with children's participation in various ways but emphasized that they possess a measure of flexibility within their discretion to structure the conversations and determine the number of interviews to be conducted with the child. All social workers emphasized the value of children's opinions expressed during the child conversations in the decision-making process, ensuring that the social worker incorporates what they deem relevant into the decision-making process. Additionally, the level of influence a child has in the decision-making process is influenced by factors such as their age, maturity, the assigned social worker, and the municipality they reside in. The study also revealed that the Swedish child investigation approach BBIC (barns behov i centrum) leads to a greater significance of child conversations for the decision-making process, as it focuses on the needs of the child. Factors identified by social workers that prevent children's participation include parents' and children's resistance to participate in child conversations and social workers' difficulties in engaging with children, which can be attributed because of insufficient educational support. Factors that social workers perceive as facilitating children's participation include building relationships with children and parents and having expertise in conducting child conversations.