Secure care in Sweden is the most intrusive child welfare intervention, and children and their family members have restricted contact. For each child in secure care, there are at least twice as many affected family members and parents who must manage the consequences of this institutionalization. Clearly, it is just as important to understand how secure care affects parents as it is to understand how secure care affects children. To address this issue, we conducted in-depth interviews with 11 parents to eight children who had been placed in secure care during their childhood, focusing on the institutional and societal structures that affected these parents and their parenting. With a narrative approach, stories alluding to a metaphor of war are identified. These stories reveal how all parents (but especially single mothers) are affected by their diverse socio-economic positions and the rigid frames of family life presumed by child welfare interventions. In these narratives, parenting emerges as a social practice rather than a skill. Above all, the stories demonstrate a great deal of vulnerability and sensitivity of parenting. The findings raise critical questions about the meaning and overarching consequences of institutional interventions in a family life.

Den senaste tiden har allt starkare röster höjts för att låta Kriminalvården överta ansvaret för minderåriga som begår brott, och en enkät genomförd i riksdagen visar att en majoritet av ledamöterna är för en sådan förändring. Författarna, som alla forskar om de särskilda ungdomshem där denna grupp placeras, problematiserar synen på unga lagöverträdare och ifrågasätter en sådan förändring utifrån barnkonventionen.

This article explores refugee girls’ talk about friendship formation. Friendship is a complex process and a subjective experience. The study participants stressed similarity and cultural affinity as important criteria of forming friendships. Those who attended schools with a mixture of students described their native peers as having different temperaments and interests. Relatives were referred to as being best friends who one could trust and confide in. This suggests the need for a broad conceptualisation of friendship in research and practice.

Jämlikhet och jämlika villkor betyder att alla har samma möjligheter att utvecklas, tillgodogöra sig utbildning, uppnå god socioekonomisk standard, vara vid god hälsa och uppnå sin fulla potential. Ojämlika villkor innebär att vissa grupper har sämre chanser än andra till utveckling, lärande och välmående. Denna rapport handlar om ungdomar och unga vuxna i Sverige mellan åldrarna 13 och 25 år. Syftet är att sammanställa svenska studier från 2008 till 2016 som granskar ungdomars uppväxt- och levnadsvillkor och hur dessa skiljer sig beroende på kön, ursprung, ekonomiska förutsättningar och funktionsnedsättning.

Rapporten har särskilt fokus på följande områden: ekonomiska villkor, boende, utbildning, sysselsättning, hälsa, fritid, inflytande och delaktighet samt brottslighet och utsatthet för brott. Den bygger på två typer av material: nationella rapporter från svenska statliga myndigheter och organisationer, och vetenskapligt granskade forskningsstudier. Rapporten visar att majoriteten av ungdomar och unga vuxna i Sverige har goda uppväxt- och levnadsvillkor. Välståndet och de ekonomiska förutsättningarna har ökat de senaste tjugo åren. Samtidigt har den fattigaste andelen av befolkningen blivit större, och dessa har inte kunnat ta del av den generella förbättringen. Det framkommer tydligt att låg ekonomisk standard påverkar ungdomars och unga vuxnas övriga levnadsvillkor negativt med bland annat ökad risk för fysisk och psykisk ohälsa, bristfälliga relationer till vänner och föräldrar, kriminalitet, utsatthet för brott och otrygghet, trångboddhet, låga studieresultat, arbetslöshet, bidragsberoende och ingripanden av den sociala barnavården. Det är särskilt ungdomar som bor med ensamstående föräldrar (vanligtvis mamman), har utrikes födda föräldrar och/eller lever i hushåll med låg socioekonomisk status som drabbas av följderna.

Skolgången har mycket stor betydelse för ungdomars hälsa, välmående och framtida möjligheter till utbildning och sysselsättning. Oavsett familjeförhållanden är godkända betyg och bra relationer till klasskamrater och lärare viktiga för att minska risken för ohälsa. Flickor presterar bättre än pojkar i skolan, men uppvisar i högre grad stressrelaterade psykosomatiska problem och etablerar sig senare på arbetsmarknaden. Det är framför allt pojkar med utländskt ursprung som uppvisar problem i skolan och runt hälften saknar behörighet till gymnasiet efter årskurs nio.

Ungdomar och unga vuxna som vuxit upp i familjer med behov av försörjningsstöd, haft en kontaktperson genom socialtjänsten och/eller varit placerad i boende utanför hemmet är särskilt utsatta. De löper stor risk för misslyckad skolgång, fysisk och psykisk ohälsa, kriminalitet och förtidig död.

Rapporten belyser områden i behov av ökad kunskap. Mer kunskap behövs om levnadsvillkoren för unga med olika former av funktionsnedsättningar. Detsamma gäller för hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck, som många flickor och kvinnor lever under. Generellt kan sägas att mer kunskap behövs om hur ungdomar och unga vuxna själva förstår och upplever sin livssituation, inte minst om hur de handlar och vilka strategier de tillämpar för att påverka sitt liv och sin framtid. Forskning om ungdomar i tidiga tonåren (13–14 år) samt unga vuxna (20–25 år) är inte lika vanligt förekommande som forskning om äldre tonåringar (15–19 år). Av de områden som rapporten särskilt fokuserar på behövs mer kunskap om fritidsaktiviteter, delaktighet och inflytande samt brottslighet och utsatthet för brott.

Det presenteras även en rad förslag som kan vara till underlag vid det fortsatta arbetet med att förbättra ungdomars och unga vuxnas levnadsvillkor i Sverige. Exempelvis behövs fler och effektivare interventioner för de grupper som i denna rapport har identifierats som marginaliserade. Villkoren behöver förbättras för ungdomar och unga vuxna i socioekonomiskt utsatta bostadsområden, resurssvaga familjer med eller utan försörjningsstöd, unga placerade i dygnsvård utanför hemmet, unga med funktionsnedsättning, missbruk eller i behov av psykiatrisk vård, unga som står utan sysselsättning, och unga som begår eller utsätts för brott. Åtgärder för att säkerställa en likvärdig skolgång och möjliggöra för skolväsendet att uppfylla sitt kompensatoriska uppdrag är viktiga för att förbättra levnadsvillkoren.

An analysis of Swedish young persons’ trajectories in out-of-home care will be here be presented. The young persons concerned have, at the request of social service authorities, been assessed by a multi-professional team at secure accommodations. These assessments lead to recommendations for further interventions for the social service to decide about, recommendations expected to provide a more foreseeable and stable time in care. Research has shown that young persons in out-of-home care can encounter more complexity instead of desired stability and foreseeability. Strauss analytical concept “trajectory” has been used to analyse the characteristics of the social processes in which the young persons were involved. A trajectory is initiated when children and young persons are being subjected to interventions from child protection and it is formed by involved actors. The aim was to analyse a sequence of young persons’ trajectories in out-of-home care in relation to the assessment. The sequence constitutes an assessment during an eight weeks placement at a secure unit and the two following years. The young persons’ trajectories are analysed by the interaction of young persons and social workers; the central actors. The courses of events regarding stability and instability were connected to the analysis. Using a multi-method approach, young persons have been followed during the two-year-period. Interviews with 16 young persons and 16 social workers as well as surveys to social workers concerning 85 young persons were conducted. The analysis displayed the specific characteristics of young persons’ trajectories. The courses of events in the diverse trajectories also differed to some extent. The young persons rarely perceived the courses of events as comprehensible and the assessment did not constitute a definite marker for increased stability and foreseeability. The courses of events after the assessments included additional placement instability, new social workers and new assessments. This instability was often connected to the context of the care system. In conclusion, despite instability at group level the young persons’ time in care was portrayed in unique and complex social processes. The result emphasise the importance for all professionals of paying attention to each young person’s experiences.

Unga kan placeras på Statens institutionsstyrelses (SiS)institutioner för att utredas tvärprofessionellt. Utredningarnaleder fram till förslag på fortsatt vård som socialtjänstentar ställning till och beslutar om. I artikeln analyserasen sekvens av utredda ungas banor i samhällsvården.

In this article I reflect on research relationships in a qualitative longitudinal (QL) project from a relational perspective, understanding agency as interdependent and evolving. My reflections are based on a study involving repeated interviews over eight years with young people who have experienced secure care, which is the most intrusive form of intervention for troubled youths in the Swedish child welfare. Research using a QL methodology requires a delicate balance in maintaining professional boundaries in relationships between the researchers and participants and emphasizes how time and place are embedded in relations. I explore the complexities of research relationships over time and the effect of repeated research encounters on understandings of time. My reflections are grouped into three themes: emotional footing, intersections of time and place, and evolving research agencies. While emotions from early encounters became a resource for my reflections as a researcher, return interviews turned me into an embodiment of time, producing linear-time narratives of progress, and the agencies of both me and young people evolved within and beyond the research project. I offer some conclusions for qualitative social work research regarding the effects of emotional, temporal and spatial dimensions on researcher vulnerability and research relationships over time.

In this paper, reflections on research relationships in a qualitative longitudinal (QL) project are provided from a relational perspective, in which agency is understood to be interdependent and evolving. All reflections are based on a study involving repeated interviews over nine years with young people who have experienced secure care, which is the most intrusive form of intervention for troubled youths in Swedish child welfare. Methodological QL research emphasizes the importance of the relationships between the researcher and participants, and an understanding of time and place as interdependent. Here, complexities in research relationships over time and the effects of repeated research encounters on the understanding of time are explored. The reflections are presented in three themes: emotional footing, intersections of time and place, and evolving research agencies. While emotions from the first encounters became a resource for reflections for the researcher, the recurrent interviews made the researcher become a time bearer that produced time-linear narratives of progress, and the research agencies of both the researcher and the participants evolved within and beyond the research project. Conclusions for qualitative social work research in regard to the effects of emotional, temporal and spatial dimensions on researcher vulnerability and research relationships over time are presented. 

This article explores young people's understandings of assessments conducted in secure accommodation. The concepts of institutional identity' and text-mediated' actions have been used in the analysis. The main empirical material is repeated interviews with assessed young people during a two-year period. In the findings, the stories of three young people display understandings of appreciation, disappointment and self-development. The assessments seem to have made the youths aware of their failings and faults'. An analysis of the written assessments found institutional identities of inner problems and unstructured everyday lives'. In conclusion, the young people's understandings of the meanings and implications of the assessments are suggested to be connected to the caseworkers' text-mediated actions and their position in the assessment process. The young people's stories indicate the need to consider the institutional context of the assessments and to acknowledge young people's efforts in care.

In this paper, young people’s understandings of how their troubles are transformed into problems and its consequences for their lives are explored. Children and youth in out-of-home care have had their troubles turned into problems by professionals. How their troubles are defined as problems has real consequences for their lives. When people’s troubles are turned into problems in professional procedures it includes processes of categorisation and clientization. The local context for categorisation and clientization processes is, in this paper, assessments in secure accommodations. Gubrium and Holstein’s concepts “troubled identities” and “institutional identities” has been used to analyse the empirical data of repeated interviews with 16 assessed youths, the youths´ written assessments, interviews with the youths’ caseworkers and observations of assessment meetings. Three ways to understand the assessments and its consequences were found; assessment as progress, assessment as devastating and assessment as inner change. The youths’ understandings were closely related to what happened after the assessments. In conclusion, the transition of youths’ institutional identities from one care arrangement to another involves how youth will understand and relate to provided care and of what life holds for them.

This thesis is about assessments of young people in secure accommodations. Institutional assessments relate to the paradox in child welfare of combining control and care. The procedure raises questions about their implications for young people, their caseworkers and evolving care trajectories. Although institutional assessments of young people have a historical heritage, research about their implications is lacking. The aim of the thesis is to explore young people’s and their caseworkers’ experiences of assessments in secure accommodations and their implications for young people’s care trajectories. Methods used are primarily repeated interviews with 16 young people during a period of two years and one interview with their caseworkers. Surveys about 85 youths, participatory observations and written assessments are also included. This thesis takes an interactionist approach and the material has been analysed with the main concept of care trajectory along with the concepts of self-presentation, total institution, institutional identity and texts as coordinators.

The results are presented in four papers. The concluding analysis shows that assessments in secure accommodations can be divided into three elements: the practice, the text and the placement. These three elements have different implications for the young people and the caseworkers. For the young people the practice and the placement converge into an assessment universe that, with the text, intensifies their shaping of self-identity. The young people’s experiences are characterised by lack of control over their self-presentations, the present and the future. For the caseworkers, the practice has implications for their understanding of the young people’s individual troubles, the text for negotiating with other actors and the placement in their efforts to achieve change in the young people’s troublesome situations. The assessments’ implications for stability and foreseeability in the young people’s further care trajectories are limited. Moreover, the procedure of assessing young people in itself contains instability through involving several professionals in different parts of the assessment and decision-making process. Despite lack of stability, the thesis reveals that some young people experience the assessment as a place for self-development and where the course of the care trajectory changes to the better.

In Sweden, young people are assessed in secure accommodations at the request of the social services. Although this kind of practice has a historical heritage in Sweden, research about their effectiveness and implications is lacking, especially from the assessed young people’s perspective. In this oral communication a study about how 16 Swedish adolescents perceived being assessed in a secure accommodation at time of the assessment and in retrospect is presented.

Being assessed can be regarded as being in limbo, a state of uncertainty. The assessed know a change, more or less extensive, is going to come but they do not know what kind of change it is going to be. Young people assessed in residential care, are in the hands of professionals; professionals that might have a profound impact on their lives, as decisions they make might influence the young people’s future. Further, being in the limbo of assessment processes could challenges people’s perceptions of themselves. Erving Goffman identified institutional processes in total institutions restricting the residents’ autonomy to act. Later research has demonstrated that Goffman’s concept is still relevant for life in institutions and the processes have been thoroughly described in modern institutions for children and young people. Given the features of assessment processes and of institutions, they both affect what Goffman named as presentations of self (self-presentations). By using Goffman’s concepts of self-presentation and institutional processes in total institutions, the aim of the study was to analyse young people’s perceptions of being assessed in secure accommodation.

The empirical material consists of three interviews each with 16 young people conducted over a two-year period. All interviews were semi-structured and an empirical and theoretical analysis was carried out with a focus on the young people’s perceptions of their experiences of being assessed in an institution.

Three situations were identified in which the young people felt that their self-presentations were in some way in or out of their control: the placement situation; the assessment situation; and the assessment-outcome situation. The youths perceived their self-presentations to be influenced by the setting (i.e., the institution). Moreover, three audiences for the young people’s self-presentations were identifier: the present staff, the not present caseworkers at the social services and the peer group. This entire situation differs significantly from everyday life for youths. It also made the young people’s assessment limbo dual, they were involved in one assessment process in the institution and one in the social services realm. It made the time to be of overall and multidimensional uncertainty and consequently lack of control. The young persons’ perceptions of themselves were challenged by their perceived contradictory self-presentations that they felt were problematised. To manage, they distanced themselves from their self-presentations or searched for continuity in their self-presentations. The analysis of the youth’s perceptions raises questions about how vulnerable young people benefit from being assessed in institutions.

In Sweden, young people are assessed in institutions at the request of the social services, a situation that can be described as being in limbo, in a state of uncertainty. Using the concepts of self-presentation and institutional processes in total institutions, this research aims to analyse young people’s perceptions of being assessed in secure accommodation. The empirical material consists of repeated interviews with 16 adolescents assessed in secure accommodation. Three situations were identified in which the young people felt that their self-presentations were in some way in or out of their control: the placement situation; the assessment situation and the assessment-outcome situation. The youths perceived their self-presentations to be influenced by the setting (i.e., the institution). In addition, there were two parts to being in limbo: being on site in the institution and being distant from the social services. The young people’s experience of being assessed in an institution was characterized by feelings of a loss of control over self-presentation and of their perceptions of themselves.

Conditioned normality - stories of (ab)normal life during and after secure care placements

Secure care for young people has an ambiguous mission. It is supposed to socially integrate troubled young people into society by excluding them from the same. As such, young people are supposed to be normalised by abnormal interventions. Young people in secure care also experience the placement as deviant. In this study, we depart from a relational understanding of normality and stories of apology, ‘sad tales’, to explore how young people understand and do normality during and after placement in secure.

This interview-based study builds on almost a decade-long engagement with 11 young people, following their lives after institutional placement. The analysis demonstrates three different ways of doing normality: 1) integrating the normalisation practices of the institution in their current life, 2) distancing and, if possible, hiding their experiences from others and, 3) isolating themselves from overly close relationships because of repeated betrayals from adults. Although different in character, these three ways are underpinned by a focus on self-reliance and independence, and an emergent need ‘to behave’.

This study is a reminder that institutional practices of normality create a feeling of being deviant many years after leaving the institution. Thus, the need for developing supporting structures and relations that acknowledge and address the young people’s experiences of abnormality and in such way enable them to feel respected, valued and cared for, is emphasised.

Med en utgångspunkt i en kritisk förståelse av barns rättigheter redogör författarna för barnkonventionens innehåll och undersöker dess betydelse för det preventiva arbetet på policynivå.

Tidiga och förebyggande insatser för barn och föräldrar efterfrågas allt mer idag. Samverkan mellan verksamheter såsom socialtjänst, BVC, förskola och skola lyfts ofta fram som en nödvändighet för att förebygga ohälsa och socialproblematik. Men, kunskap om vilka faktorer som är betydelsefulla för att i samverkan förbättra barns livsvillkor är begränsad. I denna studie analyseras ett samverkansprojekt och vilka faktorer som framstår ha bidragit till eller försvårat det förebyggande arbetet. Det aktuella samverkansprojektet genomfördes i Braås, ett litet samhälle i Växjö kommun, mellan 2013–2015. Studien bygger på dokumentsanalys och intervjuer med de som ansvarade, genomförde eller deltog i projektet. I analysen har teorier om samverkan och begreppet gränsarbete använts. Gränsarbete handlar om hur professionella sätter upp gränser för vilket arbete som tillhör eller inte tillhör den egna professionsarenan.

Studien visar att pedagoger i förskolan uppfattade att de fått ökad kompetens och ökad trygghet i att bemöta barn och föräldrar. Likaså har personal upplevt sig tryggare i att kontakta och göra anmälningar till socialtjänsten. Familjer har också av professionella i de olika verksamheterna blivit hänvisade till projektet och fått enskilt stöd. Studien visar också att projektet kunde få en avgörande betydelse för föräldrars livssituation både då som nu. De faktorer som identifierats bidra är att de ansvariga på förvaltningarna hade en gemensam samsyn och tog ett gemensamt ansvar. De projektanställdas förmåga att med barnens bästa för ögonen vara gränsöverskridare – att med stort engagemang skapa relationer och tillit och få tillgång till andras arenor – framstår varit centralt. Att arbetet gjordes i projektform kan också ses ha bidragit då det möjliggjort att existerande gränser kunnat utmanas. Utbildningssatsningar kan ha bidragit till ökad reflektion hos personal och större gemensam förståelse av barns behov.

Till de försvårande och hindrande faktorerna hör bristande implementering i berördaverksamheter vilket väckte frågor och ett behov av att försvara gränser. Projektet påverkades också negativt av att personal i projektet och på chefsposter utanför projektet slutade. Personalomsättningens betydelse visar också att projektet var och förblev personberoende. Analysen av samverkansprojektet i Braås visar på vikten av att skapa en verksamhetdomän för tidiga och förebyggande insatser som vilar på flera stöttepelare – någon form av reglerande strukturer, gemensamt ansvar och uppdrag och samverkanskultur i såväl förvaltning som berörda verksamheter. För Växjös del framstår det som att arbetet främst vilat mot den normerande stöttepelaren – att skapa ett moraliskt tryck på verksamheter och personal att genom samverkan arbeta förebyggande. Skapandet av en verksamhetsdomän för tidiga och förebyggande insatser framstår därmed vara en fortsatt utmaning för Växjö kommun. För utvecklingen av en sådan domän finns flera lärdomar från Braåsprojektet – en samsyn från involverade förvaltningar som skapar ett gränsland för förebyggande arbete, att detta gränsland har autonomi i relation till andra verksamheter, lokal tillgänglighet och personal med förmåga att skapa relation och tillit. Fortsatt arbete bör inriktas på omgivande strukturer som skapar tillhörighet och långsiktighet i arbetet. Vår analys visar också påbehov av bättre villkor för samverkan och förebyggande arbete, något vi trorkan gynnas av följande:

1. Ett lagstiftat gemensamt socialt uppdrag att förebygga ojämlika villkor för verksamheter som kommer i kontakt med barn. Ett sådant uppdrag bör innefatta att verksamheten ska (1) vara väl förtrogen med barnslevnadsförhållanden,(2) främja jämlikhet i levnadsvillkor och (3)samverka.

2. Ökad kunskap om konsekvenserna för barn och föräldrar av förebyggande arbete. Det är särskilt angeläget att föräldrar och barn får dela med sig av erfarenheter och att studier inriktas på att undersöka vilken betydelse förebyggande arbete och tidiga insatser kan få fördem.

3. Att samverkan och förebyggande arbete ges förutsättningar för att lyckas. Det inbegriper tydlig ledning i alla nivåer, från högsta till lägsta, gemensamma utbildningar för personal i olika verksamheter, lokalt utarbetade samverkansuppdrag, öppna och icke-diskriminerande strukturer bortom myndighetsutövning och uthållighet. Växjö kommun har med sin uthållighet och vilja att förebygga ohälsa och sociala problem för barn goda förutsättningar för att utveckla enverksamhetsdomän för tidiga och förebyggande arbete. Fortsatt arbete bör inriktas på att göra detta uppdrag till ett delat samhällsansvar för professionella i berörda verksamheter.

This paper examines caseworkers' efforts to plan and find appropriate interventions for troublesome young people. Strauss's concept oftrajectory is applied to analyse how Swedish caseworkers shape and manage the evolving care trajectories using assessments for young people in secure accommodation, i.e. institutional youth assessments. The empirical material consists of surveys to 82 caseworkers concerning 85 institutional youth assessments and interviews with 16 of these caseworkers. The findings reveal ongoing care trajectories that are out of control where the assessments are seen as an opportunity of change for the youths. Diagnoses, confirmations and plans for action are provided through the assessments and used by the caseworkers in negotiations for resources. Three orientations of contributions to the caseworkers' management of care trajectories were found, all reflecting the many uncertainties of child welfare work:child centred, professional and discharge of liability. In conclusion, the caseworkers searched for the right measures to manage change and achieve youth compliance, but it was also a matter of managing professional and organizational contingencies and passing on responsibility.

Låsta institutioner, tvångsvård, kriminalitet, missbruk, ungdomar på rymmen. Orden skapar bilder och väcker debatt – hur ska ungdomar som utsätter sig själva och andra för fara hanteras? I denna antologi går författarna bortom förenklade föreställningar om farliga ungdomar och hårdare tag till en mer sammansatt förståelse av tillvaron innanför institutionernas väggar. Det är en tillvaro som präglas av kontroll och säkerhetsarrangemang. Låsta dörrar och personal som bär synliga larmanordningar signalerar hur tvångspraktiker är möjliga och oavbrutet tillgängliga. Det blir samtidigt en tillvaro som producerar kontrollerade unga som anpassar sitt beteende, sina rörelser och hur de framställer sig själva för att återfå något av den kontroll de genom inlåsningen förlorat.

Bokens olika bidrag öppnar för kontrasterande perspektiv på den låsta institutionsvården. I huvudsak står de svenska särskilda ungdomshemmen i fokus men de speglas även mot sina motsvarigheter i andra nordiska länder.

Kontrollerade unga vänder sig till studenter och praktiskt verksamma inom socialt arbete och andra närliggande ämnen. Boken är också av intresse för politiker och beslutsfattare med koppling till den sociala ungdomsvården.

In Sweden, the recent debate on youth crime has focused on strengthening repressive measures. At the same time, government work is underway to strengthen children’s rights. Young people who are placed for the purpose of care in secure youth care (locked institutions) are placed at the intersection of these two trends. Starting from a critical children’s rights perspective, we explore how young people understand rights in a secure care environment and discuss how these understandings relates to central principals, laws and conventions. We start from the concrete situations and contexts in which rights are to be realized in order to contribute to a better understanding of the importance of rights in a secure care environment. The empirical data consists of 15 youth interviews, at four institutions. Three understandings of rights are identified; rights as tokens where rights are seen as something symbolic and without meaning, rights as self-responsibility where rights are seen as conditional on the young people’s actions and, rights as fundamental value where rights are understood as respect for one’s own and others’ human dignity, regardless of their actions. The three understandings of rights can be linked to different care contexts and to the relationship between staff and young people. Taken together, the young people’s understandings highlight the importance of basic principles of dignity and respect on equal terms, as well as the right of children deprived of their liberty to be helped to reintegrate into society. Implications for the operation of secure youth care are highlighted.

Following an international trend, current Swedish child welfare policy making centres around the development of early and coordinated support. The Scottish praxis-model “Getting It Right For Every Child” is held as a role model and inspires today development efforts at several places in Sweden. Previous research, however, indicates a paradox for social work in that despite the model’s intentions of providing early support based on a holistic and ecological understanding, it may weaken the role of social work – placing professionals at (even) longer distance from children and youth and given a narrow administrative function. With an understanding of professionalism as a situated practice balancing between theory and (local) ideals, this presentation analyses whether this paradox is acknowledged and translated in a regional development work in Sweden. Data is obtained from a three-year study, including regional level (health services) and eight municipalities (pre-schools, schools, social services) and consists of observations of (43) steering board meetings, documents and (42) interviews with stakeholders at managerial and operative level. The analysis reveals that due to the pre-existing uncertain position of social work in the appointed prevention and coordinating arenas (the health sector and the schools), the role of social work may not only become weak, but rather even weaker and at an increased distant position, something also indicated in initial piloting during the implementation. The findings call for more attention of the roles social work could/should take and being pro-active when new frameworks of prevention are introduced and translated locally.

This article reviews and compares the use of confinement and other restrictive measures against young people under 18 in child welfare and/or the criminal justice systems in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Young people are confined for a variety of reasons, including protection, care, treatment, and punishment. However, confinement of young people is a contested issue because it can beviewed as necessary but also potentially harmful. Comparison of legislation and practices reveals that while there are some similarities in the service provisions for young people, there are also significant disparities among the four countries regarding the organization, function, and frequency of the use of confinement and restrictive measures. While Denmark and Sweden use secure welfare institutions, Finland and Norway apply other restrictive measures. Despite the differences in approaches to confinement in the Nordic countries, the use of confinement is guided by the principle of the child’s best interest, and the child welfare system is the main frame for confinement and intervention. The article discusses these disparate practices from the perspective of children’s rights and identifies new avenues for research and practice.

This study (based in Sweden) explores family practices and family display among young adults with a history of secure care, which limits and restricts contacts and therefore causes fundamental changes in relationships. Almost ten years after institutional placement, narrations of 11 young adults and 11 nominated family members reveal ongoing struggles between imagined and lived realities of family. These struggles are revealed by memories and emotions evoked by the context of secure care and show how deeply the secure care penetrated their family lives. By using the metaphor of shadows, we discern dimensions of secure care (moral obligations of parental responsibility, moral practices of parents as the only contact and the emotionally pervasive life situation) in the young adults’ and their parents’ moral understanding of the parent-child relationship as family. We call for more attention to the perversity of secure care arrangements, at both policy and institutional levels.

Every year, there are approximately 1 200 young persons locked up within the child protection institutions in Sweden. This way of handling troubled and troubling youth is guided by the perception of children and youth as in need of care and protection, but not punishment. However, the disciplinary powers of such institutions are far-reaching. While in care, staff has the authority to make extensive restrictions of the young people's rights and freedom. With this, previous research has demonstrated that arguments of child protection, first and foremost, are rhetorical and that the actual reason for locking up children is protection of the society from ‘troubled youth’. Furthermore, the Swedish child protection system is not built on the legal justice system with courts and legal process, it is instead based on the ideas of social services administration and upbringing. Consequently, the practice of locking up young people for treatment is for an indefinite period of time.

The aim of the presentation is to nuance and problematize the practice of locking up young people in the name of care. We critically examine the Swedish system of locking up young people, touching upon the themes of organization, reasons for placement and working conditions for the staff. With this as a backdrop, we analyse the experiences of young persons from their time of placement and up to two years after the placement.

The empirical material consists of interviews with nine young persons between the ages of 14 and 18. Each young person was interviewed three times: the first interview took place at the institution; the second, one year later; and the third one, approximately two years after the first interview. In this presentation, we explore the ways in which young people position themselves when they talk about their experiences of secure care. The analysis focuses on how the young people's positions are related to the concepts of "children at risk" and "children as risk". 

The analysis uncovers strong emotional and enduring experiences of being taken into care. However, the young people's understandings of their time at the institution changes over time and may contain seemingly opposing experiences. For example, the same person could talk about their experience as both harsh but educative or as meaningless and as a punishment. Interestingly, the young people seldom talk about themselves as being "at risk" or "as risk" before their placement in secure care. However, after being in care, their talk changes and they describe themselves as being "as risk" (boys and girls) or "at risk" (mainly girls). Above all else, they consistently present themselves as active agents, either by assuming a learning/adaptive position or a resistant/self-governing position. The young people's positioning seems to differ also between girls and boys – while the girls appear to dissociate themselves from their own actions and find themselves reliant on others, the boys construct themselves as independent and self-standing. Irrespective of their subject positions, the young persons' experiences of secure care contain deeply-rooted emotions of violation. Their overall understanding of secure care is: ”not in this way”, showing that they could not merge the experience of secure care placement with a feeling of being cared for. To them, their time in secure care was not in the name of care.

This study based in Sweden explores family practices and family displays among young adults with a history of secure care, which limits and restricts contacts and therefore causes fundamental changes in relationships. Almost 10 years after institutional placement, narrations of 11 young adults and 11 nominated family members reveal ongoing struggles between imagined and lived realities of family. These struggles are revealed by memories and emotions evoked by the context of secure care and show how deeply the secure care penetrated their family lives. By using the metaphor of shadows, shadows of recalled horror of secure care (reflecting family displacement) and the pressure to make family work (reflecting restricting practices in secure care where only (birth) family were considered as family and relations of (natural) importance) are discerned. We call for more attention to the perversity of secure care arrangements, at both policy and institutional levels.

This study (based in Sweden) explores family practices and family displays among young adults with a history of secure care. Placement in secure care signifies critical interventions in young people’s relations both in and outside the institution, making this placement a special form of relational practice. In this article, we apply a relational perspective on families, which means that we understand family relations as fluid and liable to change. With this as a starting point, we engage with the concept of family within the context of secure care to explore the ways in which such care affects families, their understanding of family, and their everyday family practices.

The study is a follow-up of 16 young adults with experience of secure care. Almost ten years after the last interview, these 16 young adults were contacted again. After months of intense efforts at reaching out , 11 young adults (six men and five women between 21 and 26 years old) and 11 nominated family members agreed to participate.

To help elucidate how secure care affects understandings of family and family practices, we use the metaphor of shadows. This metaphor emphasizes the ways in which the experiences of secure care may lurk through images of family and family life years after the placement. By using this metaphor, we discern three broad areas (emotional chaos; revised and negotiated family positions and; doing and undoing family) in which secure care shadows revealed themselves providing different forms of shadows where some were more distinct while others were more difficult to grasp. Of the more apparent shadows were the recalled horror of secure care reflecting family displacement and the pressure to make family work reflecting the restricting practices in secure care where only (birth) parents were considered as family and relations of (natural) importance to the young people. These shadows may impair an understanding of family as something relational, created and maintained through various practices. In this sense, the context of secure care does not seem to support young people’s embeddedness in relationships other than to parents. Nor does the institutional context support the idea of intertwined life biographies with relations other than parents. The institutional strategy of solitude and consequential undoing of family life could have been avoided if different types of relations had been embraced and supported during secure care. Consequently, both parents and young adults shared stories of a struggle between their morally ingrained images of family and their (young adults) experiences of family members failing to reach this ideal, or of being the one(s) (parents) failing

The title of this paper contains a quotation from one of the young adults, Paula, who states “My whole family is not really my family.” The excerpt manifests a persistence of culturally and socially shaped family norms that emphasize the parent-child relationship. At the same time, to Paula, family membership is something that one has to qualify for through actions – one has to earn and deserve it. The narratives seem to be impregnated with the idea that ‘family’ means a parent-child relationship, and they demonstrate that it is difficult to go beyond such an understanding. In this way we can also see how secure care casts shadows on the talk of young adults about doing and undoing, i.e. giving up family relations.

Above all, our findings reveal the shadows cast by secure care are shown to be strong, which testifies to the tremendous impact that institutional placement has on the relational and family landscape, stretching far beyond the immediate situation of being locked up. We call for more attention to the perversity of secure care arrangements, at both policy and institutional levels.

This article analyses how young people, with experiences of secure care, relate to the contradictory images of children in child welfare: the child in danger and the dangerous child. The study is based in Sweden and consists of in-depth interviews with 16 youths conducted repeatedly (three times) over a period of two years. Using the perspective of relational sociology we demonstrate how abstract images of children are materialised through the institutional practices of broken, interrupted, forbidden and forced relations. Within this context, young people are found to relate differently to being placed in the institution by negotiating, opposing, and transposing. All practices display their unfolding agency and struggle to make sense of the experience. The restrictive practices seem to deny young people relations through which a sense of safety and care can be established. We conclude by putting into question the very foundations of secure care within child welfare services.

I kapitlet ges en inledning till boken och övergripande presention om vad preventivt arbete med barn och unga innebär.

Det finns i dag ett stort intresse för att ställa om arbetet med barn och unga utifrån ett förebyggande perspektiv. Tanken är att identifiera dem som behöver stöd i ett tidigt skede, innan problemen vuxit sig stora och svårbemästrade. Genom att tillvarata barns och ungas vardagsmiljöer, i familj, förskola, skola och under fritiden, och erbjuda insatser utan att särskilja och peka ut vissa barn som problem, finns förhoppningar om att stärka såväl de inkluderande krafterna i vardagliga sammanhang som barnets förmåga att fungera i dessa. Intresset för förebyggande arbete är inget nytt, vare sig i Sverige eller internationellt. Det nya är kraften i dess uttryck, dess omfattning och att det sker en  grundläggande omställning inom och mellan flera områden samtidigt.

Det innebär formandet av ett slags professionellt fält inom vilket specialiserade funktioner skapas och kompetens håller på att byggas upp. I detta arbete har uppbyggnaden av den teoretiska grunden för arbetet halkat efter. Med denna antologi vill författarna möta intresset för och presentera en systematiskt sammanställd kunskapsbas om preventivt arbete med barn och unga i Sverige i dag.Prevention med barn och unga vänder sig till studenter och praktiskt verksamma i socialt och pedagogiskt arbete samt andra närliggande ämnen. Boken är också av intresse för politiker och myndigheter där samtal förs och beslut fattas om förebyggande arbete.

I kapitlet summeras preventionsantologin och teoretiska implikationer för ett kritiskt preventivt arbete föreslås. 

In this article the authors present a meta-synthesis of their studies on secure institutions in Sweden and Denmark. The aim of the metasynthesis is to explore how the context of confinement shapes the possibilities for providing treatment and positive change for at-risk youth. Drawing on meta-synthesis methodology the authors extract content from nine studies published in 20 articles. We highlight three dimensions, which are a) treatment practices and behavioural regulation, b) the carceral materialities and sociomaterial practices, and c) relations. We argue that while treatment is curtailed by confinement, improvements can be made to support more successful change among at-risk youth and smooth their transition into adulthood.

Artiklen præsenterer en metasyntese af ni studier om sikrede institutioner i Danmark og Sverige. Formålet med metasyntesen er at undersøge, hvordan frihedsberøvelse rammesætter behandling og forandringsarbejde med unge i udsatte positioner. Forfatterne analyserer 20 artikler fordelt på ni studier, de selv har gennemført. Analysen har fokus på tre centrale forhold; a) behandlingsarbejde og adfærdsregulering, b) materialitet og sociomaterielle praktikker, og c) relationer. Vi argumenterer for, at behandling påvirkes af frihedsberøvelse, men med forbedringer kan behandling på sikret institution bidrage til at skabe positiv forandring og sikre de unges overgang til voksenliv.

Children’s and young persons’ rights have received increasing been focus in recent decades, due in a significant degree to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In Sweden, compulsory care in the social-services system is disputed, not least for the forceful measures that facility personnel have at their disposal to control children in certain conflict situations. The general aim of this article is to examine how the increased emphasis in Sweden on children’s rights is promoting resilience for children and youth in youth compulsory secure-care settings. A more general question is whether the child-rights discourse leads in practice to increased resilience for children and youth in this setting, or even in general. The empirical material shows that children and young people’s perceptions of care and treatment are strongly linked to their interactions with staff and how the staff use restrictive measures. Applying Martha Fineman’s vulnerability theory in this context means that achieving resilience demands an analysis of the institutional settings in which children and young persons live their day-to-day lives, including their relationships in this setting. Comparing the legal possibilities of physical constraint with interviews of children and personnel reveals that relevant legislative frameworks and children’s-rights discourse should serve as a protection mechanism for children and youths, but in real life, these seem to have limited effect.

This article explores how staff in Swedish secure care value and understand the rightsof the children and young people in their care. To be a staff member in secure caremeans having a professional role that includes viewing and relating to young people asindividual rights holders in a setting where care and treatment shall be provided to agroup of young people. However, this occurs in an environment characterised by strongcoercive and controlling elements. The study shows that the viewing and handling ofchildren’s rights is dependent on various trade-offs that staff make. Negotiations aboutwhat should be seen as rights frequently take place, leading to tensions regardingchildren’s status as individual rights holders. The study adds knowledge about how staffdescribe the nature of these tensions in the daily life of secure care units. Implicationsfor practice are discussed.

Background: Estimates suggest that over a million children per year are deprived of their liberty across the world. Little is known about the types, ethos or distribution of secure beds in which they are detained.

Aim: This study aims to provide quantitative data with background information, to explore similarities and differences across jurisdictions, and to inform critical inquiry into key concepts and practices.

Methods: Data was obtained using an opportunistic sample of affluent countries, derived from an emerging academic/practice network of senior professionals. Depending on jurisdiction, data was already in the public domain or specifically requested. Data requests were related to the nature and size of health, welfare and criminal justice elements of secure beds and recent occupancy. Key professionals working in child secure settings, within jurisdictions, provided commentary on local approaches.

Results: Data was incomplete but allowed for comparisons between 10 jurisdictions. The proportions of the populations of children and young people detained varied by jurisdiction as did their distribution across variations of secure settings. Not all jurisdictions had all three kinds of secure settings. Definitions of secure beds varied depending on the use of relational, procedural or physical security.

Conclusion: Findings are tentative but suggestion solely considering numerical descriptions of children's detention is misleading; our study highlights ways in which comparative studies may be improved. Within reported jurisdictions, the framework of health, welfare and justice was meaningful but this may not hold true with a wider international application of this method. Open interrogation of this data would be enhanced by the inclusion of children's perspectives.

Det finns ett stort intresse för tidiga och samordnade välfärdsinsatser för barn och unga, såväl i Sverige som internationellt. Ambitionen är att komma in med stödjande insatser i så tidigt skede att en framtida problemutveckling kan förhindras eller vändas i positiv riktning. Den skotska modellen GIRFEC (Getting it Right for Every Child) har rönt stort intresse i Sverige och utgör förebild för lokalt utvecklingsarbete på flera platser. Denna kunskapsöversikt beskriver och analyserar policyutvecklingen i Skottland för att få till stånd en fungerande samordning kring barn och unga i utsatta livssituationer. Två nyckelfunktioner har varit centrala för detta: en kontaktperson ”named person” som barn och föräldrar lätt ska kunna vända sig till och en samordningsansvarig ”lead professional” med ansvar att länka samman olika aktörer kring ett barn med mer omfattande stödbehov. I rapporten redovisas modellens antaganden, föresatser och kunskapsbas men också att införandet inte varit konfliktfritt, samt att en del oförutsedda konsekvenser uppstått undervägs. Kunskapsöversikten är en del av följeforskningen ”Tillitsskapande organisering” som knutits till det utvecklingsarbete i Kronobergsregionen som hämtar inspiration från GIRFEC. 

In Sweden, 21 different state-run secure care institutions have the unique authority to offer locked wards and use restrictive measures such as solitary confinement, care in solitude and bodily search. During the last decades, inspections have repeatedly revealed poor conditions and malpractice in Swedish secure care and lately an increased use of restrictive measures, such as solitary confinement. In the circumstances of secure care staff’s complex work tasks, poor conditions and the increasing use of restrictive measures (especially of girls), we are carrying out a study with the aim to analyse scope and variation over time of the most privacy infringing restrictive measures at secure care institutions and how this is related to organisation, target group and staff’s work prerequisites, and to form an understanding of how staff balance their task to provide both safety and treatment for young people. This presentation is based on the first part of the study, containing a quantitative analyse of the use of selected restrictive measures 2008-2022. Preliminary results show a great variation between different secure care institutions, along with variation due to young people’s gender and, in some extent, age. In the presentation we will focus on how these variations can be understood in relation to target groups, organisation and policy changes.