This essay is about what considerations foster home secretary may face in their profession and how they use themselves as a tool. We were interested in the family home secretaries as a profession and we found that this area is relatively unexplored. The essay is based on semi-structured interviews with ten family home secretaries from seven different municipalities. To interpret our results, we used Mead's theory of "Mind, Self and Society". Our paper shows that family secretaries are faced with a variety of considerations in the selection of foster homes. We have also presented several different criteria that foster secretaries put on families to enable them to become current foster home. All the family home secretary saw themselves as tools in the process to match children with foster homes, but it proved to be difficult for them to put this into words and describe how they used themselves. One of our research questions concern how experience affects their work. It turned out that the experience also gave answers to our other questions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate social workers professional experiences of social services statutory responsibilities to provide advice, support and other help to foster families. Furthermore, the purpose was to analyze what factors and conditions that affects social workers ability to provide adequate support. According to both inter-national and Swedish research foster parents are asking for more support. We became curious about how foster care secretaries in Sweden give support. To get this infor-mation we had three focusgroup interviews with a total of twelve social workers. Our three focusgroups were located in municipalities in southern Sweden. The interviews were transcribed and coded for our results. The theoretical perspective we used were Urie Bronfenbrenner's theory about the ecology of human development and the perspec-tive about risk- and protection factors. The study shows that they have quite few sup-port methods to offer the foster homes and the lack of resources (time, education and economy) and vague guidelines are two factors that affects the social workers ability to provide adequate support. Although social services becomes the deputy parent of the foster child and are one protection factor in the child's life, the social services does not receive much attention in forms of for example further education.

Denna studie avhandlar föräldrars upplevelser gällande sina barns placering i enlighet med lagen med särskilda bestämmelser om vård av unga, (LVU) 2§. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod, där sju föräldrar intervjuats. Studien undersöker föräldrars upplevelser och därav metodvalet, att kunna ställa respondenternas perspektiv i centrum, i detta avseende deras individuella upplevelser. Studien utgår från teoretiska utgångspunkterna symbolisk interaktionism och intersubjektivitet för att belysa föräldrars upplevelser av att vara förälder till ett placerat barn. Studien belyser även det negativa sociala arvet samt generationstrauma, vilket visar sig i att flera av föräldrarna har erfarenhet av att själva ha utsatts för våld från sina föräldrar och flera har även själva varit familjehemsplacerade som barn. Studiens resultat visade på varierande upplevelser av att få sitt barn placerat enligt 2§ LVU. Flera respondenter beskrev en känsla av att inte uppleva sig själva som förälder förutom under umgänge, andra respondenter ansåg sig själva fortfarande vara föräldrar trots placeringen. De föräldrar som upplevde placeringen som negativ uppgav en känsla av motstånd från familjehemmet samt att bli fråntagen sin roll som förälder. Vissa föräldrar beskrev även en känsla av ambivalens utifrån att de upplevde en viss tacksamhet gentemot familjehemmet trots att föräldern inte samtycker till placeringen. / ABSTRACTThis study deals with parents' experiences regarding the placement of their children in accordance with “lagen med särskilda bestämmelser om vård av unga, (LVU) 2§”. The study was carried out using a qualitative method, where seven parents were interviewed. The study investigates parents' experiences and hence the choice of method, to be able to place the respondents' perspective in the center, in this respect their individual experiences. The study is based on the theoretical starting points of symbolic interactionism and intersubjectivity to shed light on parents' experiences of being the parent of a placed child. The study also highlights the negative social legacy and generational trauma, which is shown in the fact that several of the parents have experience of having been subjected to violence from their parents themselves and several have also themselves been placed in family homes as children. The results of the study showed different experiences of being seated according to § 2 LVU. Several respondents described a feeling of not experiencing themselves as a parent except during socializing, other respondents still considered themselves to be parents despite the placement. The parents who experienced the placement as negative stated a feeling of resistance from the family home and of being deprived of their role as a parent. Some parents also described a feeling of ambivalence based on the fact that they felt a certain gratitude towards the family home despite the parent not consenting to the placement.

Sammanfattning Syftet med studien, som grundar sig i en kvalitativ ansats, är att genom semistrukturerade intervjuer få uppfattning om vilka positiva och negativa aspekter det finns med privatisering av barn- och ungdomsvård. Dessutom grundar sig studien på att upptäcka socialarbetare upplevda skillnader i uppföljningsarbetet hos kommunalt utredda familjehem respektive konsulentstödda familjehem. Utifrån tidigare forskning framgår det att barn och vuxna är väldigt beroende av kontinuitet gällande att träffa samma socialarbetare för att uppleva situationen på ett bra sätt. Stor omsättning av socialarbetare leder till att upplevelsen med dessa inte blir lika bra och att förtroendet för socialarbetaren sjunker.   Genom tematisk analys framkom det att uppföljningen av placerade barn skiljer sig beroende på om barnet är placerat i kommunal eller privat verksamhet. I studien framkommer det att socialtjänsten besitter det yttersta ansvaret för det placerade barnet men saknar insyn i de privata aktörernas arbete. Det finns inte heller någon granskning från IVO gällande de privata verksamheterna. Detta skapar en osäkerhet om barnets behov tillgodoses på rätt sätt. / Abstract The purpose of this study is to get an idea through a qualitative method based in semi-structured interviews of which positive and negative aspects exist with the privatization of child and youth care. In addition, the study is based on discovering social workers perceived differences in the follow-up work of municipally investigated family homes and consultant-supported family homes. Previous research conclude that children and adults are very dependent on continuity in meeting the same social worker to experience the situation in a good way. A high turnover of social workers generates a bad experience and a lack of trust between the social worker and client.  Through thematic analysis, it emerged that the follow-up of placed children differs depending on whether the child is placed in a municipal or private operation. In the study it appears that the social service has the ultimate responsibility for the placed child but lacks insight into the work of the private operations. This creates uncertainty as to whether the child’s needs are being met in the right way.