Abstract

This thesis is a study of social workers’ contemplation to choose the best placement of a child in care. Over the last 100 years there have been placed about 1% children in the age 0-17 years in childcare. This picture emerges that the society always will have marginalized children (Bryderup, 2005: 403). It is important that the child is placed in care, where the child is able to develop and where the child’s needs are meet.

The thesis statement of this study is: Which considerations do the social worker make, when they have to select childcares that meet the development requirements of the child?
It is the local authority, which has the responsibility to organize, where the marginalised child should be placed. This makes it very interesting to study, what kind of standards the social workers emphasise, when they have to choose a foster family, a 24-hour care centre or a third kind of childcare.

The study is based on a critical hermeneutic method and the study has basis in a qualitative study, which is founded on six interviews with six social workers, from different municipalities. The six interviewees were all asked to describe, how they place a child in care, and were asked to take their starting point in their last tree cases. All of the interviewee’s narratives will frame the analysis.

The study takes standing point in continuity and the child’s own good, which is a stock phrase in the social legislation preamble § 46. In the section it is described that children who are socially marginalised, need to be provided support so they have opportunities for personal development, healthiness, an unassisted adult life as their peers. The support has to contribute in preparation to secure the child (Serviceloven, § 46). In continuation of the critical hermeneutic method we bring our pre-understandings into play. One of our pre-understandings is, that placing children in long-term childcare can make the child feel continuity in its life.

The study finds that there are a lot of challenges in the social workers’ contemplation to choose childcare, which can meet all the child’s needs. They have different standards they considerer before they pick a place for the child, that can be essential for the child's development. Furthermore they have to consider the municipality’s prioritization and look into the child’s network of relatives to see if there are any resources that cane help the child. Also some of the social workers occasionally struggle with insufficient resources, which limits them in their choice of the child’s placement.

The study shows that some of the childcare placements fail, because the placement dose not fit the children’s needs. The social workers therefore need to place the children in new care agreements. They place the children, based on the following standard: If the child needs stable relationships, if the child is able to be in relationships with other people, if the child needs therapy or a special pedagogical treatment, if the child needs to be placed together with siblings, near their parents or in their network of relatives.

The study also finds, that social workers are able to make sure, that some children experience continuity in their childhood, by having good relations to family members, network or professionals. According to the social workers it is not always possible to give the children continuity, by placing them in long-term childcare, but it can be more important to give the children the possibility of development, by placing them at a new placement of care.

All in all there is different challenges for the social worker to choose a place for the child with the best development opportunities.