The aim of this study was to explore social workers’ experiences of conducting maturityassessments based on a lack of guidelines. This to create a deeper understanding of thecomplexity of these assessments and how children are allowed participation in childprotection cases. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers inchild protection units in different Swedish municipalities. The data was then analyzed usingBraun and Clarks (2006; 2019) method of reflexive thematic analysis. The theories ofdiscretion, Skön and childhood sociology were applied in the analysis. The study shows thatthe assessment of maturity is somewhat connected to the child’s age, possible disabilities andthe adult perspective. This complexity reveals the importance of discretion where theassessment is intuition based on experience and theoretical knowledge. The lack of guidelinesfor maturity assessments opens for discretion where each social worker bases theirassessments on social norms. The child’s participation has been emphasised as crucialalthough it differs to which extent this is practised. To promote participation the socialworkers describe adjusting how they communicate with the child. Factors that obstructparticipation are the assessment that participation would be hurtful to the child and aninherent fear of social services.