Searching for the right track – managing care trajectories in child welfare

Abstract

A B S T R AC TThis paper examines caseworkers' efforts to plan and find appropriate interventions for troublesome young people. Strauss's concept of trajectory 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. I N T R O D U C T I O NWhen child welfare needs to intervene for young people's safety, outcomes are unclear and uncertain. Gambrill (2008) and Munro (1996) state that decision-making in child welfare is an uncertain business because of incomplete, ambiguous or unreliable information about clients. However, it is also about the embedded uncertainty about how the social problem will proceed and how young people will respond to the interventions. Although established norms, regulations and routines provide caseworkers with a course of action, the effects of the interventions are indeterminate (Hasenfeld 2010). This indeterminacy is explained by the implications of people work, i.e. work performed by, over and through people, and of organizational restraints (Strauss et al. 1997;Hasenfeld 2010). In child welfare, work is performed by caseworkers but is dependent on clients' compliance and on access to needed resources. We argue that managing contingencies of social problems and of client's compliance is at the heart of work in child welfare, and how they are managed by caseworkers and the organization has consequences for how interventions will proceed. According to Hasenfeld, '[T]he ability of the clients to respond and the need of the staff to react to these very responses are captured in the concept of service trajectory' (Hasenfeld 2010, p. 19; cf. Strauss et al. 1997). Using the concept of care trajectory (Strauss et al. 1997; Hasenfeld 2010) we will explore, in the context of Swedish child welfare, caseworkers' need for external assessments and experts when managing protection and change for young people. Specifically, this paper examines caseworkers' motives and use of assessments conducted by psychological and pedagogical expertise at the secure accommodation where the youths are placed. bs_bs_banner

Tensions and Trade-Offs – Staff’s Understanding of Children as Rights Holders in Secure Care

“…However, in Sweden, as in other countries, children in secure care are a heterogeneous group, and many of them 480 suffer from severe difficulties in school and at home, along with serious mental health problems. It is also common for them to have experienced previous placements in out-of-home care (Enell and Denvall, 2017).…”

“…Almost all beds (90 per cent) are in locked units, categorised as assessments and emergency units or as treatment units. Emergency and assessment units are used for short-term care and for handling acute situations or providing social services with information about the young people's problems and the kind of interventions needed (Enell and Denvall, 2017). This study focused solely on treatment units.…”

Socialfaglig analyse – processer, vidensformer & perspektiver i myndighedsarbejdet på børne- og ungeområdet

“…Enell & Denvall er optaget af beslutninger om og vurderinger af indsatser for unge på sikrede institutioner i Sverige. De påpeger på baggrund af en spørgeskemaundersøgelse og interviews med 16 socialarbejdere og unge som gentages efter et halvt år, at både vurdering og valg af indsats kan ses som en del af en proces, der i nogle tilfaelde kan stå alene, men i andre tilfaelde fungerer som en begyndelse på en anden indsats (Enell & Denvall 2017).…”

“…Derfor udvikler socialarbejderne strategier, der kan bidrage til at reducere usikkerhed og det indebaerer bl.a. at traekketypisk ureflekteret -på eksperters udsagn og perspektiver (Enell & Denvall 2017). Skotte har også blik for socialarbejdernes brug af ekspertudtalelser, som hun ser brugt strategisk fx ud fra et ønske om bevilling af ressourcer (Skotte 2020).…”

Social change in developmental times? On ‘changeability’ and the uneven timings of child welfare interventions

“…Prior research also offers insightful analyses of the profession and its conditions, such as time pressures and constraints (Holland, 2011; Roberts, 2017; White, 1998). Scholars also address care trajectories (Enell and Denvall, 2017; Pösö and Eronen, 2015), temporal discourses in social work, and temporal structuring of child welfare and protection practice (Fahlgren, 2009; Juhila et al, 2015; Pösö, 2018; White, 1998; Yuill and Mueller-Hirth, 2019). Also addressed are the timings and temporalities of care and support (Pösö and Eronen, 2015; Roberts, 2017), including from the perspective of young people (Andersen and Bengtsson, 2019; Pösö et al, 2018).…”