Osäkerhet vid placeringar av barn
– om individers, organisationers och marknaders föränderlighet
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64098/SVT.2026.33.65105Keywords:
Osäkerhet, barnavårdsutredning, decision making ecology, placeringar av barnAbstract
--
This study explores causes for uncertainty that social workers experience when making assessments of out of home placements in foster or institutional care. Uncertainty is often considered to be an integral part of professional decision making, and the reason why professions are needed at all. Most research has concentrated on investigating how uncertainty is approached in education, professions, and organizations, while fewer studies deal with the circumstances producing uncertainty. In the present article, social workers’ and front-line managers’ reasoning in child protection cases is analyzed from an uncertainty perspective. The results are based on abductively processed ethnographic data (observations, interviews and validation work-shops) collected over a nine-month period in seven Swedish municipalities. Using the ecological decision-making framework, it is demonstrated that uncertainty in placement assessments is linked to ever changing circumstances of the individual (the children’s and parents’ relations and reactions), as well as the organization (budget, staffing and organizational boundaries), and the market (supply and availability). This means that when engaging in the improvement of child protection, it is not enough with methods and procedures for the social worker- client interaction, but that organizational- and market processes must be considered to a further extent. The study contributes with empirically grounded knowledge about the complexity surrounding placement considerations, and the circumstances that can cause uncertainty. The study also contributes to theory development on factors of importance for placement decisions by exploring these from an uncertainty lens and by identifying the market as an important external circumstance.
References
Afrouz, R. (2021). Approaching uncertainty in social work education, a lesson from COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative Social Work, 20(1–2), s. 561–567. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325020981078 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325020981078
Andersson, G. (2013). Reflektioner om dilemman i social barnavård. Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift, 20(2), s. 93–107. https://doi.org/10.3384/SVT.2013.20.2.2438 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3384/SVT.2013.20.2.2438
Atkinson, P. (2015). For Ethnography. Sage. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781036235376
Bartelink, C., Knorth, E. J., López, M. L., Koopmans, C., Ten Berge, I. J., Witteman, C. L., & Van Yperen, T. A. (2018). Reasons for placement decisions in a case of suspected child abuse: The role of reasoning, work experience and attitudes in decision-making. Child Abuse & Neglect, 83, s. 129-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.06.013 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.06.013
Baumann, D. J., Dalgleish, L., Fluke, J. & Kern, H. (2011). The decision-making ecology. American Humane Association.
Beckett, C., McKeigue, B., & Taylor, H. (2007). Coming to conclusions: social workers’ perceptions of the decision‐making process in care proceedings. Child & Family Social Work, 12(1), s. 54–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2006.00437.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2006.00437.x
Brante, T. (2005). Om begreppet och företeelsen profession. Tidskrift för Praxisnära forskning, (1), s. 1–13.
Chibnall, S., Dutch, N., Jones-Harden, B., Brown, A., Gourdine, B., Smith, B., Boone. A. & Snyder, S. (2003). Children of color in the child welfare system: Perspectives from the child welfare community. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families.
Clifford, D., & Burke, B. (2005). Developing anti‐oppressive ethics in the new curriculum. Social Work Education, 24(6), s. 677–692. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615470500185101 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02615470500185101
Emerson, R M., Fretz, R I. & Shaw, L. (2011). Writing Ethnographic Field Notes. Second Edition. The University of Chicago Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226206868.001.0001
Engebretsen, E., Heggen, K., Wieringa, S., & Greenhalgh, T. (2016). Uncertainty and objectivity in clinical decision making: a clinical case in emergency medicine. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 19, 595-603. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-016-9714-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-016-9714-5
Fridell Lif, E. (2023). The use of independent foster care agencies by Swedish local authorities: Do structural factors matter?. European Journal of Social Work, 26(2), s. 348–359. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2023.2166017 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2023.2166017
Fluke, J. D., Corwin, T. W., Hollinshead, D. M., & Maher, E. J. (2016). Family preservation or child safety? Associations between child welfare workers' experience, position, and perspectives. Children and Youth Services Review, 69, s. 210–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.08.012 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.08.012
Graham, J. C., Dettlaff, A. J., Baumann, D. J., & Fluke, J. D. (2015). The decision making ecology of placing a child into foster care: A structural equation model. Child abuse & neglect, (49), 12-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.02.020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.02.020
Greenhalgh, T. (2013). Uncertainty and clinical method. I: Siegel Somers, L. & Launer, J. (red.) (2013). Clinical uncertainty in primary care: the challenge of collaborative engagement (pp. 23-45). Springer New York. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6812-7_2
Hjärpe, T. (2025). The family-market wall contested: social workers managing contradictory ideals in marketised foster care. Emotions and Society, 13, s. 1-18. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.10724 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/26316897Y2025D000000071
Hollinshead, D., Currie, D., Kroll, K., Feldman, S. W., Monahan-Price, K., & Fluke, J. (2021). Associations between case, staff, and agency characteristics and the decision to place a child in out-of-home care. International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy and Practice, 4(3), 3s. 25–347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42448-021-00083-9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42448-021-00083-9
Jacobsson, K. (2023). ‘Hur mycket får man som familjehem?’ En riskfylld pengafråga med snåriga svar. I: Cederholm, E. Jacobsson, K. & Wästerfors, D. (red.) (2023). Den empiriska glädjen: En vänbok till Malin Åkerström, Lunds universitet, s. 120–34.
Khoo, E., Nygren, L., & Gümüscü, A. (2020). From needs to relationships to organisations: transactional complexity in social work in the Swedish social services. The British Journal of Social Work, 50(7), s. 2098–2115. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcz141 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcz141
Lind, J., Lindgren, C., & Sköld, J. (2023). Är intresset för att bli familjehem tillräckligt stort?. Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift, 30(4), 881–895. https://doi.org/10.3384/SVT.2023.30.4.5188 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3384/SVT.2023.30.4.5188
Meagher, G., Lundström, T., Sallnäs, M., & Wiklund, S. (2016). Big business in a thin market: Understanding the privatization of residential care for children and youth in Sweden. Social Policy & Administration, 50(7), s. 805–823. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12172 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12172
Munro, E. (2005). Improving practice: Child protection as a systems problem. Children and Youth Services Review, 27(4), s. 375–391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2004.11.006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2004.11.006
Munro, E. (2019). Decision‐making under uncertainty in child protection: Creating a just and learning culture. Child & Family Social Work, 24(1), s. 123–130. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12589 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12589
Parton, N. (1998). Risk, advanced liberalism and child welfare: The need to rediscover uncertainty and ambiguity. The British Journal of Social Work, 28(1), s. 5–27. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjsw.a011317 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjsw.a011317
Ponnert, L. (2013). Osäkerhet. Ett nödvändigt uttryck för professionalitet eller ett tecken på okunskap? I: Linde, S., & Svensson, K. (red.) (2013). Förändringens entreprenörer och tröghetens agenter. Människobehandlande organisationer ur ett nyinstitutionellt perspektiv. Liber.
Ponnert, L. (2018). Utredningsarbete i den sociala barnavården. Gleerups Utbildning AB.
Sallnäs, M. (2005) Institution eller familjehem? Om kommunal variation och vad den hänger samman med, Socionomens forskningssupplement, (6), s. 15–28.
Schwalbe, C. (2004). Re-visioning risk assessment for human service decision making. Children and Youth Services Review, 26(6), s. 561–576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2004.02.011 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2004.02.011
Shanks, E., Lundström, T., Meagher, G., Sallnäs, M., & Wiklund, S. (2021). Impression management in the market for residential care for children and youth in Sweden. Social Policy & Administration, 55(1), s. 82–96.https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12613 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12613
Silverman, D. (2011). Qualitative Reasearch (tredje upplagan). Sage.
Skogens, L. (2005). Socialsekreterares bedömningar– finns någon form av konsensus? Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift, 12(4), s. 328–344. https://doi.org/10.3384/SVT.2005.12.4.2615 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3384/SVT.2005.12.4.2615
Socialstyrelsen (2023). Instabilitet bland barn och unga placerade i heldygnsvård enligt SoL och LVU. Placeringsmönster t.o.m. år 2020 bland barn och unga födda 1990–2004.
Spafford, M. M., Schryer, C. F., Campbell, S. L., & Lingard, L. (2007). Towards embracing clinical uncertainty: Lessons from social work, optometry and medicine. Journal of Social Work, 7(2), s. 155–178. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017307080282 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017307080282
Spratt, T., Devaney, J., & Hayes, D. (2015). In and out of home care decisions: The influence of confirmation bias in developing decision supportive reasoning. Child Abuse & Neglect, 49, s. 76–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.01.015 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.01.015
Stalker, K. (2003). Managing risk and uncertainty in social work: A literature review. Journal of Social Work, 3(2), s. 211–233. https://doi.org/10.1177/14680173030032006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14680173030032006
Sundell, K., Soydan, H., Tengvald, K., & Anttila, S. (2010). From opinion-based to evidence-based social work: The Swedish case. Research on Social Work Practice, 20(6), s. 714–722. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731509347887 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731509347887
Taylor, B. J. (2012). Models for professional judgement in social work. European Journal of Social Work, 15(4), s. 546–562. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2012.702310 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2012.702310
Taylor, B., Killick, C., Bertotti, T., Enosh, G., Gautschi, J., Hietamäki, J., ... & Whittaker, A. (2018). European social work research association SIG to study decisions, assessment, and risk. Journal of Evidence-Informed Social Work, 15(1), s. 82–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/23761407.2017.1394244 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23761407.2017.1394244
Todd, S. L., Occhiuto, K., Asakura, K., & Grassau, P. (2021). Navigating uncertainty in clinical social work practice: A pilot simulation-based study. Clinical Social Work Journal, 49, s. 286–297. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-021-00800-4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-021-00800-4
White, S. (2009). Fabled uncertainty in social work: A coda to Spafford et al. Journal of Social Work, 9(2), s. 222–235. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017308101824 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017308101824
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Teres Hjärpe
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
