"Det handlar om att ge och ta" : En kvalitativ studie om barns delaktighet i utredningsprocessen ur socialsekreterares perspektiv

Sammanfattning: According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children should be involved in all decisions affecting them by being able to express their opinions. The Government Offices emphasize the importance of social workers having working methods aimed at enabling children's participation. Despite legislation and rules, there are several shortcomings in making children participate in practice. The purpose of the study is to increase the knowledge of the premises for children's participation by investigating how social workers in the social services involve children in the investigation process. Based on a qualitative approach, six semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers in the social services who work with child welfare investigations. The study has been analyzed through a thematic analysis based on the theoretical perspectives of childhood sociology, Hart's ladder of participation and Shier's pathways to participation. The results show that high workload, lack of education on talking with children and the complex practical work are limiting factors for children's participation. The study's conclusion is that there is a need for further work to enable social workers' conditions to involve children.