Sammanbrott i familjehemsvård : En riktad kvalitativ innehållsanalys av fem olika myndighetsdokument

• Main Authors: Nilsson, Hannah, Kavhed, Emil
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för hälsa och samhälle (HS) 2021
• Subjects: Placement breakdowns; childrens' rights perspective; foster care; social services; Bronfenbrenners ecological system theory of child development; theory of childhood sociology; children as actors; Social Work; Socialt arbete
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-43311

When a child for some reason can’t live with their parents it is up to the welfare system to provide a home and care for that child. In Sweden long-term foster care placements are the most common state interventions for those children. Recent studies have shown that as much as one out of four foster care placements break down in the child’s adolescent years. To experience one or a series of tough separations from important elders has shown to have negative effects on the development of the child. This does not align with the welfare systems’  responsibility to always act in favor of the child. Always acting in favor of the Child is at the core of the Convention on the rights of the Child. In the following qualitative content analysis five state documents (three from the National Board of Health and Welfare, one from The Ombudsman for Children and one governmental investigation document) have been examined. The aim of the analysis is to examine how the documents portray placement breakdowns in foster care and how much they focus on the child rights perspective in their portrayals. Previous research and two theories regarding children are used as the theoretical framework to help analyze the essay results. The two theories are Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory of child development and the theory of childhood sociology with emphasis on children as actors. This essay comes to the conclusion that the state documents are well informed of the complex nature of placement breakdowns and the dissonance between the problem of breakdowns and the child’s right perspective. The documents also contain a number of interventions that in theory could reduce the number of breakdowns. What is revealed is that the process of acknowledging the problem, finding a solution and implementing it in the social care practice takes a lot of time and is a slow process. The discussion includes that further research of what can be done on a municipal level would be of use.