Barnperspektiv och barns delaktighet– utopi eller verklig möjlighet? En kvalitativ studie om barnperspektivet och barns delaktighet inom försörjningsstöd utifrån socialsekreterares upplevelser

Sammanfattning: Authors: Camilla Anzoategui and Josephine Rosenquist Title: Child perspective and participation - utopia or a real possibility? A qualitative study about social workers' perspective on child perspective and child participation within economic aid Supervisor: Susanna Johansson Assessor: Marta Kolankiewicz The aim of this study was to examine how social workers practicing economic aid in the Swedish welfare system experience their ability to work with a child perspective, as well as with children’s participation in proportion to the discretion given from the organization. The study was based on semi structured qualitative interviews. Seven social workers specialized in economic aid was chosen from five different counties in south Sweden to be interviewed about three themes: child perspective, participation, and organizational preconditions. The analysis was based on two theoretical terms, participation and discretion. We found that social workers talked about both pros and cons for making children participate in their work. Although they emphasized many positive outcomes for involving children, only one out of seven decided to work with children’s involvement on the basis of her own initiative in her practical work. Majority of the social workers chose to work with children’s involvement when children themselves showed interest in talking. The social workers stated that they have enough of discretion to work with children’s participation but choose not to for various reasons. We also found that the social workers consider a child perspective in the decision making process and in the documentation, whereas the phrase child perspective sometimes was used for other purposes, such as decoration. We also found that some of the social workers did not involve the children in their work. This can be understood through Hart’s concept manipulation and tokenism. The social workers emphasized that since they did not have strict guidelines, it is possible for them to make individual decisions for the children