This study aims to examine social service worker’s perception of factors that complicate and challenge their freedom of action in childcare investigation where children have witnessed violence between parents, and how they manage this in their assessments. Data was collected using qualitative semi-structured interviews with eight social workers from three social offices in Stockholm. The transcriptions from the interviews were analysed via thematic analysis. The results were analysed by using a social theoretical approach. Getting access to children’s perception of the experienced violence is shown in the study as achallenge for the social workers. The conclusions of the study show that high workload, co- operation within different units in the organisation and lack of authority for decision-making are the main factors that complicates the social workers freedom of action in their work. Consequences of these factors lead to less time for the social workers to meet the children and get their voice heard during the investigation work. The study also concludes that professional experience and support from colleagues enable the social workers to managetheir freedom of action during childcare investigations.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how social workers participate in the operationalization of children's agency in child welfare research. In order to fulfill the purpose and answer our questions, we have used qualitative semistructured interviews. The study is based on statements from 7 social workers working whit child welfare investigation in small to medium-sized municipalities in south of Sweden. In the analysis of our collected material, we started from the sociology of childhood.  The fact that children are given the opportunity to act themselves is a prerequisite for their right to participation and influence, so that children's agency goes hand in hand with the provisions of the Social Services Act and the Children's Convention on the Influence and Participation of Children. Social security officers working on child welfare investigations should always work on the basis that it is in the best interest for the child. In order for this to be considered fulfilled in practice, the child must be able to express her/his views and wishes, and that they are important in both the investigation process and the decision making.  The result of our study shows that Social Security Officers work actively to promote children's agency and with different strategies motivate the children to actively participate. It has also been found that there are factors that complicate children's participation and, especially, influence in decision making. We found that social security officers look at their responsibility for children's rights to participation and influence as a major and important task, though with different meanings and solutions.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how social workers experience their cooperation in childcare investigations, how they experience their discretion and what happens emotionally with social workers in relationship with child care investigations. The study is based on a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews. The interviews have been analyzed via a thematic analysis and have been interpreted with the theoretical frameworks, human service organizations, street level bureaucracy and power. The results show that work linked to childcare investigations arouses feelings of the social secretary. Feelings like hopefulness, fear, stress and powerlessness. Further results show that the social secretary prefers parents to accept voluntary efforts compared with imperativ efforts and cooperation is of the greatest importance to bring child care investigations forward. The study shows that the social secretaries consider themselves to have discretion in their work but their work is also controlled by the organization. Especially when it comes to imperative care, something that the law also prescribes.

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.

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.