The main purpose of this study is to examine and gain increased knowledge concerning the legal security of children taken into protective care. The purpose is also to enable contemporary social workers to reflect around phenomena in today´s social work, among other things how investigations are carried out surrounding children taken into protective care thought this historical study. To find out how social workers dealt with caretakings I have chosen to examine the personel files that the social workers compiled for each child and also interview a man who worked as a social worker at the time of the investigation. The paper is divided into two part studies were the first one studies legal security through Mattsson´s (2002) further development of KjÆnstad’s way to analyse legal security, namely through investigating the clarity of the law, procedural rules and the comtetenay of the social workers. The second part study focuses on the social documentation based upon the terminology real, substantial and adequate. The result of the study shows that the law was clear, but the language and terminology could be difficult to grasp. There were procedural rules but no outspoken demands for a particular education. The personal files were often to the point and contained substantial information but lacked in adequacy.

<p>The main purpose of this study is to examine and gain increased knowledge concerning the legal security of children taken into protective care. The purpose is also to enable contemporary social workers to reflect around phenomena in today´s social work, among other things how investigations are carried out surrounding children taken into protective care thought this historical study. To find out how social workers dealt with caretakings I have chosen to examine the personel files that the social workers compiled for each child and also interview a man who worked as a social worker at the time of the investigation. The paper is divided into two part studies were the first one studies legal security through Mattsson´s (2002) further development of KjÆnstad’s way to analyse legal security, namely through investigating the clarity of the law, procedural rules and the comtetenay of the social workers. The second part study focuses on the social documentation based upon the terminology real, substantial and adequate. The result of the study shows that the law was clear, but the language and terminology could be difficult to grasp. There were procedural rules but no outspoken demands for a particular education. The personal files were often to the point and contained substantial information but lacked in adequacy.</p>