“[...] det viktigaste i mitt arbete är sunt förnuft”. : En kvalitativ studie om socialsekreterares hantering av utredande barnsamtal med barn som misstänks fara illa

The aim of this study is to understand how social workers view their management of social investigative communication with children concerning child welfare to get an understanding on different factors which influence the management of communication with children. Method: A qualitative research effort has been used in this study, based on semi-structured interviews with six social workers. Theory: In our study the theoretical points have been Lipskys street-level bureaucracy, professionalism and tacit knowledge. Our different theories helped us to analyze our empirical results. Results: The results of this study are presented in three different themes which are: The importance of education and experience, children’s participation and factors that influence the management of communication with children. The results implies that experience and further education is important and social workers view on children’s participation influences the communication. Furthermore factors that improve the communication are different techniques and discretion. Factors that restrain communication with children are the dependence towards their parents, work load and lack of time. The results indicates that social workers management of communication with children is individual.