This thesis examines how social workers in Denmark handle a specific part of the case management for parents, whose children are placed in out of home care.

According to Danish law, social workers are obliged to offer these parents an action plan, which in details describes what needs to be altered in the parents’ behavior, for their child to return home. Thus, the parents’ action plan is a separate document, that specifies what kind of support the parents are provided with from the local authority, as well as milestones and overall goals of the support.

Statistics show that the parents’ action plans are not a prioritized part of the workflow for the social workers, even though the plans are just as statutory as other parts of the case management. Therefore, the main purpose for this thesis is to answer the research question: how can the parents’ action plans become part of the case management when children are placed in out of home care? The aim is to improve the quality in case managing this specific area - to the benefit of both the children and their parents.

My approach to the study is to perform nine qualitative interviews with social workers and their leaders, who are actually prioritizing the action plans. The reason for this choice of informants is, that practitioners, who already draw up action plans on a regularly basis, must be the most qualified to answer, what it takes to get it done. The study is based on inductive method in order to stay open to the possible theoretical discussion perspectives, that will follow the empirical analysis.

The conclusion of the study shows that three aspects seem to be of importance to the prioritization of the parents’ action plans. 1) Methodological knowledge of how to handle the action plans, 2) Awareness of values in relation to the approach to the parents 3) Knowledge of the purpose of professional management. These three aspects can contribute to practice-oriented, professional discussions on how to implement and prioritize the parents’ action plans.