”Andra ögon idag?”

- Socialtjänstens hantering av barnavårdsutredningar om våldsutsatthet

Abstract

“Other eyes today?” ̶ Social services’ handling of child protection investigations in cases of violence

Social work involving child protection investigations is extensive within social services. The largest proportion of investigations are initiated due to reports of concern. Between the years 2010 and 2021, national statistics indicates that reports of concern increased by 200 percent. This article analyses the social services’ handling of child protection investigations initiated due to concerns about violence. The article is part of a larger study of privatisation in child protection investigations in six municipalities, with comparisons between investigations carried out by municipally employed social workers and private consultants. A high proportion of the investigations examined were initiated due to concerns about violence. The article analyses child protection investigations regarding 70 children, where the reports of concern contain information about violence, either concern about violence against the child or concern that the child experienced violence in close relationships. The article is based on qualitative and quantitative content analyses of the investigations and interviews with professionals. The results show that violence could tend to disappear in the documentation during the investigation process. The investigator could reformulate the questions that guided the investigation and reformulate the statements about violence from one person (father) towards another person (mother) into parental “conflicts”. Instead of a focus on violence, the focus of the investigation could be directed towards the parents’ own problems or the child’s behaviour. One explanation could be that, according to the reports of concern, children who were exposed to violence did not always have the opportunity to express themselves in safe and secure ways during the investigation process. The study shows differences between investigations carried out by private consultants and employed social workers in terms of children’s participation and the extent to which investigations led to any intervention.