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Making sense of common sense: examining the decision‐making of politically appointed representatives in S wedish child protection
Author(s) -
Forkby Torbjörn,
Höjer Staffan,
Liljegren Andreas
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
child and family social work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-2206
pISSN - 1356-7500
DOI - 10.1111/cfs.12100
Subject(s) - judgement , politics , child protection , bureaucracy , common sense , corporate governance , public relations , political science , social work , public administration , sociology , social psychology , psychology , law , economics , management
A distinguishing feature of S wedish child protection is the direct and indirect influence on decision‐making in individual cases by representatives appointed by their elected political parties. As members of local committees, they take the most interventionist and costly decisions themselves, informed by care proposals submitted by professional social workers. Other decisions are delegated to professional social workers. In direct decision‐making, they are supposed to act as laypersons using their own judgement and experience, not as politicians. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse these committees, their role and responsibilities, and possible influence of politics on child protection. A mixed method was used, with a survey sent to 467 representatives, structured interviews with 99 secretaries of local committees and data drawn from national statistics. The S wedish model is discussed as a hybrid system influenced not only by professional, bureaucratic, political and market governance logics but also by laypersons. One conclusion is that although child protection is directly influenced by politics, the reverse is also true. By exposing politicians to the difficult life circumstances and societal shortcomings experienced by vulnerable children, the system can, in turn, have an impact on politics at the municipal level.