"Ibland kan vi inte göra det jobbet vi behöver göra, ska göra och måste göra" - En kvalitativ intervjustudie om desinformationskampanjen som påstår att socialtjänsten tar barn och dess påverkan på socialsekreterares arbete

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to explore how Swedish social workers were affected by the disinformation campaign claiming that social services take children. The study explored how social workers were affected by this in their work revolving around meetings with clients and assessments. We used a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews. The result is based on interviews with seven Swedish social workers within the Department of child protection services. To analyze our findings we used a theoretical framework consisting of street-level bureaucrats, discretion, and social constructivism. The most important result was that social workers experienced a higher sense of fear among parents which made it more challenging to cooperate. The fear also contributed to less information from clients during meetings. Social workers thought this made their work difficult because of the limited information to base their assessments on. A consequence of this was that the possibility to protect children has become more challenging. In conclusion, did our respondents experience that the disinformation campaign had a negative impact on their client meetings and an indirect or unconscious influence on assessments.