Om familjehemssekreterares handlingsutrymme i umgängesfrågor

Sammanfattning: The aim of the study is to describe social workers discretion when it comes to the relation between children placed away from home and their biological parents. The study describes how the social worker designs the contacts with the biological parents, for instance the extension for the actual meeting. The results are based on six interviews conducted with social workers who work with foster children. They have responded to questions related to the contact between children and their biological parent. The questions are based on eight vignettes. The contents of the vignettes show different conditions that affect the contact, for example age and foster care attitudes The results of the study have been compared to other previous research in discretion of the social worker and contacts between children and their biological parents. In summary the study shows that there is  high degree of independence for the social workers designing their work and that their level of discretion. The study shows that contacts between the foster children and their biological parents are designed differently and vary according to the social worker responsible for the actual case. The high degree of discretion creates opportunities for individual assessments in accordance to national legislation.