The aim of this study is to examine how social workers within the child protective services define children’s participation and what the strategies are to achieve it. Our method was to interview six social workers about their experiences of their pursuit to make children participate during a child protection investigation. The theoretical framework we used to analyze our results was Shier’s pathways to participation. This model is based on five levels of participation, which has different degrees of participation for children. The main finding of this study was that the social workers define children participation as that they should be listen to, be informed and have the ability to choose in what way they participate. Furthermore, we can see from the social workers descriptions about their strategies and the structure of the organisation that they live up to parts of Shier’s criterias for level one, two and tree. Our results both confirm and contrast international and national studies in this field of research.

This study, a narrative analysis of it, deals with the term, home, its importance and the use of it by Child welfare investigators in the city of Malmö between the years 1930-1936. Commonly used and acknowledged, home stood for security and order while the term, street, had just the opposite meaning. Living in the countryside symbolized health and sensibility, while city life was considered to be cramped, dirty and immoral. The responsibility of achieving the liberals and conservatives ideal of a sunny, clean and orderly home was given to the woman of the house, as was the task of keeping the home morally correct, and providing the necessary atmosphere for proper upbringing of the children. Consequently, the basis of theory, using Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in regards to the conflicts between the upper and lower classes, and even theories of Jane Lewis of woman´s connection to home and family, have been the grounds for the study. The very detailed results show that home and morals play a major role in the investigations and prove above all, the intimacy between the home and woman.

Syftet med studien är att se hur socialtjänsten med sina barnavårdsutredningar kan vara en del i upprätthållandet av könsspecifika normer, förväntningar och värderingar. Våra frågeställningar är: Hur ser diskursen om pojkar ut; hur beskrivs och värderas pojkar i utredningstexten? Hur ser diskursen om flickor ut; hur beskrivs och värderas flickor i utredningstexten? Hur ser könsskillnaderna ut? Det är en kvalitativ studie med kritisk diskursanalys som metod och socialkonstruktivism samt genusteori som teoretisk grund. Materialet utgörs av 14 barnavårdsutredningar upprättade av socialtjänsten där hälften gäller flickor och hälften pojkar. I analysen framkommer att fokus i flickutredningarna till viss del skiljer sig från det som står i fokus i pojkutredningarna. Vid utredning av flickor utgör umgänge och sexuella relationer en stor del av texterna, där det senare inte överhuvudtaget finns med i pojkmaterialet. Vi finner även att skillnaderna har förändrats en del i jämförelse med den tidigare forskning vi tagit del av där det framhålls att flickor i allmänhet beskrivs som passiva objekt och pojkar som handlande subjekt. Vi har i materialet kunnat se att både pojkar och flickor görs till subjekt men också objekt beroende på situation. / The purpose of the study is to see how the social services whit their child welfare inquiries can be a part in maintaining the gender specific norms, expectations and values. Our research questions are: How does the discourse about boys look; how are the boys described and valued in the inquiries? How does the discourse about girls look; how are the girls described and valued in the inquiries? What are the differences between the genders? Our theoretical base is social construtivism and gendertheory. This is a qualitative study and critical discourse analysis is our method of choice. Our material is 14 child welfare inquiries made by social services, half of them are about girls and half about boys. In the analyse we have come to the conclusion that the focus in the girl inquiries differs some what from where the focus in the boy inquiries lays. When investigating the girls there social intercourse and sexual relations make out a big part of the texts, the later isn’t even mentioned in the boy inquiries. We do however find that the differences have changed in comparison with the previous research that’s presented in our study where it emphasized that girls are perceived as passive objects and the boys as active subjects. We have in our material been able to see that both boys and girls are perceived as subjects, but also objects depending on the situation.

The purpose of this study is to examine how social workers work in order to enable children and young people's participation during a child protection investigation and how they experience the Convention on the Rights of the Child have changed the conditions of their work. To address the aim of the study, we have interviewed five social workers who work with children and young people at the social services office in four different municipalities in Stockholm county. To analyze the empirical data, we have used two theoretical frameworks; Shier’s Pathways to Participation and New Institutional Theory of Organizations. The results of this study indicate that social workers find it hard to define children and young people's participation, which leads to different ways of working. There are obstacles such as a parental focus and organizational conditions, such as time constraints, workload and budget cuts, which complicate social workers' work with children and young people's participation. Furthermore, we find that the Convention on the Right of the Child as a law has not had a major impact on social workers' practical work with children and young people's participation in child protection investigations.

The aim of the study was to create a greater understanding concerning social workers'experience and their discretion to balance between voluntary and compulsoryinterventions in child welfare. Furthermore, we wanted to investigate social workers'attitudes regarding the implementation of an intermediate compulsory care accordingto the law regarding compulsory care of children and adolescents. Previous researchhas identified a problem where the child is between voluntary and compulsorylegislation which can lead to the child continuing living in harmful conditions. Theempirical data is based on nine interviews with social workers in child welfareinvestigations units in Sweden. Lipsky's (2010) theory of street-level bureaucrats andthe term discretion were used to analyze the data and interpret the results obtainedfrom the study. The results showed that social workers' experience limited discretion.Strategies that were most successful were the relationship-building between socialworker and caregivers, communicative skills, and the application of the law. Thestudy also revealed that social workers had different points of view regarding animplementation of an intermediate care. Some find the implementation hard toenforce in practice, even though it could result in increased child protection. Theconclusion of the study was that the social workers would rather add moreinterventions than an implementation of an additional compulsory law. / Syftet med studien var att skapa en förståelse för socialsekreterares erfarenheter och deras förmåga att balansera mellan frivilliga och tvingande insatser inom den sociala barnavården. Dessutom ville vi undersöka socialsekreterares inställning till implementeringen av ett mellanvårdstvång enligt 2 § i lagen om särskilda bestämmelser om vård av unga. Tidigare forskning har identifierat ett problem där barnet befinner sig mellan frivilliga- och tvångsinsatser, vilket kan leda till att barnet fortsätter att leva under skadliga förhållanden. Empirin baseras på nio intervjuer med socialsekreterare inom den sociala barnavården i Sverige. Lipskys (2010) teori om street-level bureaucrats och begreppet handlingsutrymme användes för att analysera data och tolka de resultat som erhållits från studien. Resultaten visade att socialsekreterarna upplevde ett begränsat handlingsutrymme. Strategier som var mest framgångsrika var relationsskapande mellan socialsekreterare och vårdnadshavare, kommunikativa färdigheter och tillämpning av lagen. Studien visade också att socialsekreterare hade olika inställningar om implementeringen av ett mellanvårdstvång. Vissa tycker att det är svårt att genomföra i praktiken, även om det skulle kunna leda till ökat skydd för barnet. Slutsatsen av studien var att socialsekreterare hellre vill ha tillgång till fler insatser än en implementering av ytterligare en tvångslagstiftning.