Det övergripande syftet med denna uppsats har varit att belysa normer och värderingar i socialtjänstens arbete med barn, detta genom att problematisera olika föreställningar om barns behov och föräldraskap samt utredarens roll i barnavårdsutredningar. Jag ställde mig frågan, hur ser egentligen barnavårdsutredningar ut i sken av rådande samhällsmoral och socialpolitik? Vilka föreställningar om barns behov, föräldraskap och inte minst utredarens roll bygger egentligen utredningarna på? Jag kan konstatera att det finns en speciell utredningskultur. Vidare har jag funnit att barnets behov avgörs av föräldraförmåga men även att föräldraförmåga bedöms utifrån barnets behov. Jag har också identifierat utredare som omedvetet eller medvetet framstår som neutrala. Neutral eller inte har utredaren ändå störst makt att påverka en barnavårdsutredning. Vid genomförandet av studien har jag använt mig av diskursanalys som metod. I studien ingår 14 st barnavårdsutredningar som alla avslutats de senaste två åren och lett till åtgärd enligt SoL eller LVU. Jag har använt mig av kritisk social teori, genusteori och empowerment för att analysera resultatet. Samtliga teorier liksom den diskursteoretiska metoden har ett maktperspektiv såväl som ett generellt kritiskt perspektiv och utgår alla från förutsättningen att människan är en social konstruktion snarare än ett biologiskt och förutbestämt väsen.

Syftet med studien är att belysa hur fäder beskrivs i socialtjänstens barnavårdsutredningar då utredningarna aktualiserats till följd av att fadern misstänks ha våldfört sig på modern. Detta har gjorts genom att ta reda på hur fäderna är och görs närvarande i socialtjänstens barnavårdsutredningar. Hur socialsekreterarna beskriver fäderna i utredningarna liksom på vilket sätt det görs skillnad på föräldrarna utifrån kön. Mäns våld mot kvinnor är ett utbrett, frekvent och aktuellt problem. Våld i nära relation är inte bara en folkhälsofråga utan också ett allvarligt samhällsproblem som behöver förebyggas då dess konsekvenser ger stort mänskligt lidande liksom stora kostnader för samhället. Vart tionde barn har någon gång upplevt våld i nära relation och var tjugonde barn upplever våld ofta. Att som barn uppleva våld kan ses som psykisk misshandel och att se eller höra våld kan innebära ett psykologiskt trauma för ett barn. Enligt socialtjänstlagen har samhället ett särskilt ansvar för att se till barns bästa i allmänhet och barn som upplevt våld i nära relation i synnerhet.Till följd av olika socialpolitiska diskurser liksom heteronormativa föreställningar om vad och hur en familj skall vara, finns det en risk att fäder som brister i sin föräldraförmåga till följd utav våld, blir osynliga i socialtjänstens arbete. Det finns en risk att ansvaret fortsatt till största delen läggs på mödrarnas förmåga att skydda barnen istället för fädernas och samhällets ansvar att skydda barnen från att uppleva våld. För att kunna förändra samhälleliga strukturer kopplade till föräldraskap, kön och våld behöver strukturerna först uppmärksammas och belysas. Resultatet i min studie visar på att våldsamma fäderna är mer närvarande och syns mer i socialtjänstens utredningar nu än vad fäder varit i socialtjänstens utredningar tidigare. Främst är de närvarande utifrån att de rentvår sig från misstankar om våld liksom kontrollera utredningsförfarandet. Våldet görs om i utredningarna från att handla om fäders våld mot mödrar till att handla om ömsesidiga bråk eller våld mellan föräldrarna och fäderna görs inte enskilt ansvariga för våldet liksom att det skall upphöra. Det finns en könsaspekt gällande moderskap och faderskap där det förväntas mer av och ställs större krav på modern än på fadern. / The purpose of the study is to illustrate how violent fathers are described in the social services child welfare investigation documents when the investigations come to the fore as a result of the father used violence against the mother. This has been done to find out how the fathers are and made present in the child welfare investigations. How the social workers describe the fathers in the investigations as well as the way in which it distinguishes between the parents on the basis of gender. Men's violence against women is a widespread, frequent and current problem. Domestic violence is not only a public health issue but also a serious social problem that needs to be prevented because its consequences provide great human suffering and high costs for society. Every tenth child has experienced domestic violence, and one in twenty children experiencing violence often. For a child to experience violence can be seen as psychological abuse. To see or hear violence can mean a psychological trauma for a child. According to the law society has a particular responsibility to ensure the child's best in general and children who have experienced domestic violence in particular.As a result of different socio-political discourses and heteronormative beliefs about what and how a family should be, there is a risk that fathers, who deficiencies in parenting skills arising out of violence, become invisible in social service work. There is a risk that the responsibility remains largely imposed on mothers' ability to protect the children instead of fathers and society's responsibility to protect children from experiencing violence. In order to change social structures linked to parenting, gender and violence, the structures first needs to be recognized and highlighted. The results of my study shows that violent fathers are more present and more visible in the social service investigations now than fathers has been in the social service investigations earlier mainly to clear himself from suspicion of violence and control the inquiry proceedings. Violence is converted in the child welfare investigation documents from be about fathers violence against mothers to be about reciprocal fights or violence between the parents. The fathers are not individually made responsible for the violence and that it must cease. There is a gender aspect concerning motherhood and fatherhood where it is expected more and greater demands on the mother than the father.

According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children should be involved in all decisions affecting them by being able to express their opinions. The Government Offices emphasize the importance of social workers having working methods aimed at enabling children's participation. Despite legislation and rules, there are several shortcomings in making children participate in practice. The purpose of the study is to increase the knowledge of the premises for children's participation by investigating how social workers in the social services involve children in the investigation process. Based on a qualitative approach, six semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers in the social services who work with child welfare investigations. The study has been analyzed through a thematic analysis based on the theoretical perspectives of childhood sociology, Hart's ladder of participation and Shier's pathways to participation. The results show that high workload, lack of education on talking with children and the complex practical work are limiting factors for children's participation. The study's conclusion is that there is a need for further work to enable social workers' conditions to involve children. / Barn ska enligt Barnkonventionen göras delaktiga i alla beslut som rör dem genom att få uttrycka sina åsikter. Regeringskansliet understryker vikten av att socialsekreterare har arbetssätt och metoder som syftar till att möjliggöra barns delaktighet. Trots styrkande lagstiftning och regler finns flertalet brister med att göra barn delaktiga i praktiken. Syftet med studien är att öka kunskapen om premisserna för barns delaktighet genom att undersöka hur socialsekreterare på socialtjänsten gör barn delaktiga i utredningsprocessen. Utifrån en kvalitativ ansats genomfördes sex semi-strukturerade intervjuer med socialsekreterare inom socialtjänsten som arbetar med barnavårdsutredningar. Studien har analyserats genom en tematisk analys utifrån de teoretiska perspektiven barndomssociologi, Harts delaktighetsstege och Shiers delaktighetsmodell. Resultatet visar att hög arbetsbelastning, bristande utbildning om barnsamtal samt det komplexa praktiska arbetet är begränsande faktorer för barns delaktighet. Studiens slutsats är att det föreligger ett behov av ytterligare arbete för att möjliggöra socialsekreterares förutsättningar att göra barn delaktiga.

The aim of this study was to examine what knowledge social workers express about home visits in child welfare investigations and how they know what to do. Sixteen social workers who work with social investigations concerning children were asked to discuss the topic home visit in three focus group interviews in three different municipalities in southern Sweden. The social workers in our focus group interviews mainly discussed the purpose of the home visit, what social workers do during home visits and furthermore their opinions about guidelines and policy documents regarding the home visit.  To get an understanding of what type of knowledge is the basis for social workers use of the home visit, we used Polanyi's concept of 'tacit knowing' as well as the Aristotelian theory of knowledge containing three forms of knowledge, that is, episteme, techne and fronesis. We found that the displaying of ‘tacit knowing’ was a consistent feature in all groups, as they had difficulty expressing their knowledge use. This may be considered as an effect of their knowledge being deeply incorporated into them as social workers. Our observations also indicate that the social workers mostly use the form of knowledge fronesis which is aimed at the common sense and the practical wisdom. Evidence for this was found in how respondents frequently described how they observe the interpersonal interaction, and that they sense the home's atmosphere to get a picture of the child's situation.

The aim of this study was to get a greater comprehension of social welfare secretaries’ notion of "good parenting" and furthermore how this is expressed in evaluations of investigations regarding care of children. The empirics in this qualitative study were collected with the help of a vignette containing relevant questions. Moreover interview questions were answered at seven occasions. The interviewees were social welfare secretaries that worked with evaluations of care of children. The theoretical approach in the study was Yeheskel Hasenfelds theory on human service organizations along with grassroots bureaucracy that Roine Johansson’s translated and interpreted based on Michael Lipsky’s theory on street-level- bureaucracy. The result showed that good parenting according to social welfare secretaries is based on moral values that are reflected in society. In regards to how social welfare secretaries manage their room for action it is done differently in the context of freedom and limitations of the work involved.

The purpose of this study was to examine social worker’s own experiences of dealing with gender perspectives in child welfare cases. With a constructionist perspective, this study is based on a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews. Six social workers were asked to reflect on their work and their methodology, and how it relates to gender perspectives when assessing children and adolescents in child welfare services.The result shows that there is a lack of control and review that children are given a gender neutral treatment. It also shows that there was no explicit protocol for how to take a gender perspective into account when assessing children and adolescents needs of welfare services. The respondents find that the BBIC-model offers support for applying a gender neural approach to their work. Moreover, the social workers feel they treat all children and adolescents equally, despite the lack of protocol. Dedicated time for reflection and specific support for gender perspective in BBIC is missed, and a high workload means that more organizational support is needed to improve the use of gender perspectives in child welfare cases.

Den här intervjubaserade kvalitativa studien syftar till att utforska den professionskunskap som socialarbetare upplever att de har och använder i sitt dagliga arbete inom barnavårdsutredningar i Sverige. Ordet "professionskunskap" avgränsas i studien som den kunskap, de erfarenheter, de verktyg och upplevelsen av handlingsutrymme som socialarbetare använder i beslutsprocessen kring tvångsomhändertaganden. Det empiriska materialet består av åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialarbetare som syftade till att samla in socialarbetarnas subjektiva syn på och åsikter kring sin professionskunskap. Det empiriska materialet tematiserades och analyserades genom Michael Lipskys teori "Street-level bureaucracy" och narrativ teori. Även om professionskunskap kan anses vara individbaserad visar studien på vissa gemensamma mönster. En av uppsatsens slutsatser är att den professionella kunskapen som socialarbetaren har uttrycks genom ett utbyte av erfarenhetsbaserad kunskap som är knuten till det utmanande ställning som socialarbetarna har som gräsrotsbyråkrater. Ett annat resultat är att för att behärska denna komplicerade position måste socialarbetarna hantera sina känslor i samband med sitt arbete genom att regelbundet utbyta kunskaper och erfarenheter i en narrativ miljö. Sammanfattningsvis indikerar uppsatsen att ett konstant utbyte av erfarenheter skapar den ultimata grunden för professionskunskap. / This interview based qualitative study aims to explore the professional knowledge that social workers experience that they have and use in their daily work in authority based child care in Sweden. The word “professional knowledge” is defined in the report as what “knowledge”, “experiences”, “instruments” and sense of “action space” the social workers include in the process of decision making regarding compulsory care. The empirical material was collected through eight semi-structured interviews with social workers with the purpose to gather their subjective views and opinions regarding their professional knowledge. Then, the empirical material was thematically categorized and analysed through Michael Lipsky's theory “Street-level bureaucracy” and narrative theory. The study finds that professional knowledge is a constant exchange of self-perceived experiences and that it is somewhat tied to the individual social work but also that there are some basic common observations to be made. One of the conclusions of the essay is that the professional knowledge that the social worker possesses is expressed through a development of experience which is tied to the challenging position the social workers have as street-level bureaucrats. Another finding is that in order to master this complicated position the social workers have to manage the emotions connected to their work through exchanging experience-based knowledge on a regular basis. In summary, the essay suggests that a constant exchange of experiences creates the ultimate basis for professional knowledge.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka hur socialsekreterare praktiskt arbetar för att möjliggöra barn och ungas delaktighet i barnavårdsutredningar. I denna kvalitativa studie har fokusgruppsintervjuer använts och materialet har analyserats med hjälp av en kvalitativ tematisk nätverksanalys. Totalt tio socialsekreterare som arbetar med barnavårdsutredningar har deltagit. Studien visar att det finns olika sätt att praktiskt göra barn och unga delaktiga, att synen på delaktighet är bred och innefattar behov av att individanpassa delaktigheten till det unika barn eller unge de har framför sig. Studien visar även att relationen mellan socialsekreterare och barn och unga är av stor vikt samt att organisationens förutsättningar har stor betydelse i arbetet med att göra barn och unga delaktiga i barnavårdsutredningar. Studien visar att förbättringsmöjligheter inom framförallt organisationens förutsättningar finns i arbetet med att möjliggöra barn och ungas delaktighet. / The aim of this study is to investigate how social workers practically work to enable children and young people’s participation in child care investigations. The method used is qualitative focus group interviews and the empirical material has been analysed using a qualitative thematic network analysis. A total of ten social workers working with child care investigations have participated. The study shows that there are different ways of practically involving children and young people, that social workers view of participation is broad and involves the need to individualize the participation of the unique child or youth they meet. The study also shows that the relationship between social workers and children and young people is of great importance and that the organisation's prerequisities are of great importance in the work to enable children´s and young people’s participation. The study shows that opportunities for improvement within, above all, the organisation's prerequisities exist in the work to enable children´s and young people’s participation in child care investigation.

<p>The purpose with this examination essay was to find out if participation of children in social welfare investigations had increased since the social services had started to work with BBIC. I compared the participation of the child before BBIC, then when social service had started to work with BBIC and I tried to see if there were increased participation in the investigations. My theoretic starting-point was the symbolic interactionism and I used the qualitative method of investigation. In my investigation I found that there is not yet any increase in participation of the child in the investigations when social service work with BBIC. What I found was that the reason to start an investigation often was that the parents made the problem for the child and that conditions at home for the child influenced the possibility of the child to communi- cate with an adult that the child did not know. It is important for the social welfare secretary to create social interaction/communication with the child to get the ability to listen to the child and its story. If the child just interact with it itself we adult will never know the story.</p>

The purpose with this examination essay was to find out if participation of children in social welfare investigations had increased since the social services had started to work with BBIC. I compared the participation of the child before BBIC, then when social service had started to work with BBIC and I tried to see if there were increased participation in the investigations. My theoretic starting-point was the symbolic interactionism and I used the qualitative method of investigation. In my investigation I found that there is not yet any increase in participation of the child in the investigations when social service work with BBIC. What I found was that the reason to start an investigation often was that the parents made the problem for the child and that conditions at home for the child influenced the possibility of the child to communi- cate with an adult that the child did not know. It is important for the social welfare secretary to create social interaction/communication with the child to get the ability to listen to the child and its story. If the child just interact with it itself we adult will never know the story.