Background: Children's right to participation in child welfare decision-making is highlighted in law and research. However, there is a lack of comprehensive empirical research on how such participation is actually fulfilled.

Objective: This article aims to describe and analyse the extent, nature and determinants of children's participation in child welfare investigations in Sweden as well as to discuss barriers to participation.

Participants and setting: The dataset comprises a cohort of 2123 children investigated during 2022 across eight municipalities in Stockholm County, Sweden.

Methods: The study is based on cross-sectional data where the responsible child welfare workers served as informant in a survey focusing child and case factors concerning 2123 children subject to child welfare investigations. The data is analysed by using descriptive and binary logistic regression analyses.

Results: In approximately 75 % of the child welfare investigations, child welfare workers held interviews with the child (with or without parental presence) while individual child interviews were carried out in about 50 % of the cases. Multiple interviews (≥3) occurred in 14 % of the cases. Reasons for not interviewing children included finding interviews to be unnecessary, perceiving the child as too young, and reluctance by the child as to participation. Investigations involving older children and referrals related to abuse increased the odds for participation.

Conclusions: The study suggests that more children are interviewed by child welfare authorities than found in previous studies, but that there still is a gap between the legislative intention to facilitate child participation and the actual state of child welfare practice.

Child welfare work involves investigating referrals to determine whether a child requires protection or support. In Sweden, the number of children referred to child welfare authorities has increased in recent years, but most children do not receive services. This article aims to enhance understanding of how child welfare representatives reason when determining client eligibility. The article is part of a longitudinal research programme following 2,123 children across eight Swedish child welfare authorities. The study draws on interviews with twenty-five unit managers and child welfare workers. To analyse the results, the study employs concepts that highlight how client eligibility is negotiated by modifying client demand, job conception, and client conception. The findings reveal that child welfare workers may modify client demand by addressing issues without providing services, modify job conception by either narrowing or broadening what is considered within the remit of child welfare, and modify client conception by focusing on motivated and receptive clients. These findings are discussed in the context of previous research and ongoing policy trends in Swedish child welfare.

  In recent decades, a new type of organisation—independent foster care agencies (IFAs)—has emerged in Sweden and other countries. These organisations operate outside the public sector, marking a significant shift in how foster care is provided. The presence of IFAs signifies the establishment of a foster care market, where responsibilities once managed by child welfare authorities are now outsourced. In this article, the position of IFAs in the Swedish foster care market is analysed. IFAs are viewed as intermediaries facilitating the provision of foster homes and often providing support to foster families. As IFAs primarily operate as for‐profit entities, they are analysed within the context of market dynamics and financial considerations in child welfare. The study is based on data from the state inspectorate, including a register of IFAs, framework agreements outlining the requirements for IFAs, and a national survey on IFAs, which includes social workers’ assessments of quality and costs. In Sweden, there were around 400 IFAs in 2024, ranging from large care corporations to small companies, frequently used by child welfare services. As for the services provided by IFAs, professionals hold mixed views, with some questioning their value for money. IFAs are an international phenomenon, and they have faced criticism for generating large profits from foster care services. The entrance of IFAs represents a form of radicalisation of the “love or money” dichotomy that has been a recurring theme in the foster care field.

Across most countries, child welfare involves complex investigative and decision-making processes to assess eligibility for services. This article analyses the sorting process from investigation to service allocation within Swedish child welfare. Data comes from a questionnaire completed by social workers, covering 2123 children across eight child welfare agencies. The findings are discussed in relation to the family service model and the legal and normative pressures it faces. Most children were filtered out without intervention; only one-third received services. The most common issues related to parental ability included abuse, domestic violence, neglect, and adult relational problems. For young children, neglect, abuse, and violence were key factors for receiving services, while for older children, behavioural problems were more prominent. However, child abuse was also common among older children. Interventions mainly focused on home-based support and were typically based on consent. We conclude that, while key elements of the Swedish family service model remain intact, it is increasingly challenged by growing referral volumes and heightened legal and normative demands, particularly concerning youth criminality and children at risk of abuse.

With placement in residential care, society assumes overall responsibility for a child's daily care, well-being and development. How public authorities respond to poor care quality is of crucial importance. To guarantee quality care and minimise risks, welfare states increasingly develop different mechanisms and systems to supervise out-of-home care. In this article, we analyse how central inspectorates in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden deal with what can be conceived as the last supervisory measure, namely, the revocation of licences. The aim is to describe and analyse how frequently and why national inspectorates in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden withdraw residential care licences. The findings are based on an analysis of all available documented reports on revocation decisions between 2017 and 2021. The findings reveal that, between 2017 and 2021, there were 53 licence suspensions or revocations across the four countries, albeit with variations among the nations. Furthermore, the study shows that residential care units (RCUs) generally have a documented history of interactions with inspectorates. Revocation decisions were often attributed to several reasons, with safety, staff-related concerns and documentation deficiencies being the primary factors. The findings are discussed based on concepts and theory on regulation and supervision.

In many countries, local supervision is the main activity to control foster care. In Sweden, the legislation stipulates that foster parents have a supervising social worker (SSW) and the foster child an assigned social worker (CSW). This article describes and analyses how child welfare authorities organize and social workers handle the supervision of foster care. The study is based on data (policy documents and 18 individual/group interviews with 43 managers/social workers) collected from six Swedish child welfare authorities. Analytically, the study assumes that the position of foster care between the private and the public spheres paves the way for different ideas regarding how to conduct supervision that can be broadly based on trust or control vis-à-vis foster homes. The findings show that supervision is differentiated and varies more between foster parents and children than between authorities. Supervision approaches are identified that can be analysed as being more or less trust-based (discreet and affirming) or control-based (compensating and interfering) towards foster parents and children, but overall trust-based approaches dominate. The approaches imply different levels of involvement in care and vary regarding emphasis on the private and the public aspects of fostering. The discussion focuses in particular on the potential impact of different supervision approaches on the foster care service.

Under senare år har socialtjänstens arbete och ansvar i förhållande till ungdomar med normbrytande och kriminellt beteende diskuterats intensivt i den politiska och offentliga debatten. En vanlig åsikt är att socialtjänsten måste ageraskarpare och mer kraftfullt i förhållande till denna grupp. Debatten är starktpräglad av den dramatiska utvecklingen av gängrelaterad ungdomskriminalitet under det senaste decenniet. Det handlar i stor utsträckning om ungdomarmed invandrarbakgrund som lever i storstadsregionernas socio-ekonomiskt utsatta förorter och som agerar utifrån normativa strukturer som är främmandeför de flesta individer utanför dessa kretsar. Gemensamt för många av dessaungdomar är att de inte vill – eller inte kan – hitta en förankring i samhället.

Stationäre Wohngruppen und Heime sind ein integraler Bestandteil der meisten Kinder- und Jugendhilfesysteme. Ein wesentliches Hauptmerkmal ist dabei die spezifische Verschmelzungpsychosozialer Hilfe und Kontrolle. In Schweden wird eine heterogene Gruppe von jungenMenschen in stationären Settings betreut. Dabei trägt die Kinder- und Jugendhilfe dieumfangreiche Verantwortung auch für jugendliche Straftäter*innen. Der Bereich derstationären Unterbringung junger Menschen wird daher in geschlossene und offeneUnterbringung unterteilt: Die geschlossenen Unterbringungseinheiten (secure Residential CareUnits (RCUs)) werden vom Staat betrieben und sind zur Anwendung restriktiver M-.aßnahmenberechtigt, während die offenen stationären Einrichtungen überwiegend an gewinnorientierteprivate Träger ausgelagert sind, die keine derartigen Maßnahmen anwenden. In der politischenDiskussion wurden stationäre Wohngruppen und Heime als Unterbringungsform in der KinderundJugendhilfe lange Zeit vernachlässigt, doch in letzter Zeit hat diese Jugendhilfeleistungpolitische Aufmerksamkeit auf sich gezogen. Diese fokussiert sich zum einen aufKinderrechtsverletzungen in stationären Einrichtungen in privater Trägerschaft und zumanderen auf das vermeintliche Versagen des Systems bei der wirksamen Resozialisierung vonJugendlichen mit delinquentem Verhalten in den geschlossenen stationären Einrichtungen.Derzeit werden öffentliche Untersuchungen zu den teilweise widersprüchlichen ThemenKinderrechte und verstärkten repressiven Maßnahmen durchgeführt. In diesem Beitrag wirdanalysiert, wie Kinderrechte und Restriktionen in stationären Einrichtungen in den jüngstenöffentlichen Untersuchungen und Richtlinien der schwedischen Regierung diskutiert undadressiert werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Regierung a) sich stärker an Straf- undZwangsmaßnahmen orientiert, b) darauf drängt, die offene stationäre Unterbringung stärker andie geschlossene Unterbringung anzugleichen, und c) einen rigideren, d.h. auf Disziplin und Sanktionen Setzenden Ansatz ingeschlossenen Einrichtungen umsetzt. Die Vorschläge werden auf der Grundlage vonUntersuchungen zu Rechten und Einschränkungen in der stationären Unterbringung erörtert.

In this article, we discuss residential staff in Sweden. Here, residential care is part of the municipal child welfare system, which covers services targeting juvenile delinquency as well as other residential care services. Children and young people placed in Swedish residential care have diverse needs, from mainly supportive needs to advanced behavioral problems, and the field consists of open and secure residential care units. There is limited knowledge about the staff working in residential care. This article helps to fill this knowledge gap by giving an overall picture of staff educational attainments, age and gender in Swedish residential care between the years of 2008–2020. To reason about staff qualifications, we use theoretical concepts from sociological theory on professions. Findings show that residential care in Sweden can be analyzed as a pre- professional field, dominated by staff with low levels of educa-tion. In addition, we show that the field is dominated by women – even if the proportion of men is higher than in other areas of social work – and that the majority of staff are between 30 and 64 years old. Some differences between open and secure residential care were found, the most notable concerning edu-cational levels and gender.