Tekijät

• Pösö, Tarja (Tampere University)

Asiasanat

adolescents, child protection, children, evaluation, families, social services, social work, social workers

Sisällön kuvaus

The data consists of individual and group interviews related to services for families with children and child welfare. The interviews focus on the assessment of child well-being and the related process in situations where the central question is whether the case is a "child welfare case". The data was collected from child welfare professionals and supervisors in different municipal organizations, as well as from child welfare client workers and experts by experience. The experts are young adults with experience of child welfare themselves and parents with a child who has had client experience of child welfare.

The interviews consist of four different interview frames, each targeting a different group. The interviews with professionals started by presenting the interviewees with a fictional situation related to a contact with a psychologist at a family counselling centre. The following questions deal with what could follow from this contact. First, the interviewees were asked about the assessment process related to the fictional situation. They were asked about who they would potentially undertake an assessment, who in their organization would be doing the assessment and who they would seek to involve in the assessment process. Professionals were also asked whether they had a model for evaluation that guided their activities.

The third section deals with the child and family factors of the fictional situation. Interviewees were asked what information or factors would influence the decision to use services under the Social Welfare Act. This was followed by a discussion of the organization and the service system. Questions included how the services in place influence the assessment and how differences in views about what is in the best interests of the child are resolved. Finally, interviewees were asked how they would seek to ensure that the assessment was carried out in the best interests of the child and what factors might challenge the best interests of the child assessment.

Background information included the role of the interviewee and, for employees, possible information on the work team, supervisor position and job title. The data were organised into an easy to use HTML version at FSD.