Självbestämmande kontra barnets bästa inom lagen för stöd och service till vissa funktionshindrade

Sammanfattning: In 1994, a new law called “Lagen om stöd och service till vissa funktionshindrade” or abbreviated as LSS was admitted by the Swedish government, the law was aimed to increase the social rights of people with certain disabilities. The aim of this study was to explore how these rights were understood and implemented by supportive assistants working with children. The two main aspects we looked into were the best interest of the child and the right to self-determination. The study also aimed to create a better understanding of the supportive assistants' reasoning when choosing one over the other. To achieve this we took a qualitative approach by using semi-structured interviews targeted toward working supportive assistants with six participating respondents. By doing this we got material constructed by the ones who are in direct contact with those entitled to LSS and therefore also responsible for enabling their social rights. In this study, we found that there is no clear distinction between when the child's right to self-determination or the best interest of the child should be the main course of action other than when the child’s health may be at risk. When this was the case we discovered that the supportive assistants felt a responsibility to intervene to secure that the best interest of the child is looked after. In situations when this wasn't the case, we found that the supportive assistants had to make individual decisions based on the situation at hand. Although we found that there is general consent among supportive assistants that these decisions should be directed towards improving the child’s life experience.