Taking of children into care in Sweden
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Linda Ärlig is student at Örebro University. She wrote an 80-page paper "The Rhetoric Case" in which she examined the methods of the social workers when they took Liz Edner's child into care. This is an excerpt from that paper. |
Every year children and adolescents are taken into custody, thereby being separated from their parents. This is done in accord with the law containing special regulations concerning the care of young persons (LVU - Care of Young Persons Act). According to this same law, society has special responsibility for children and adolescents.
The social welfare committee can offer parents and children support and help on a voluntary basis according to the Social Services Act (SoL). LVU, which applies to care without consent, acts as a supplement to SoL. Both placements according to SoL and LVU should, in the opinion of the Swedish Board of Social Welfare (SoS), "as far as possible, be for limited periods of time and focused on treatment, with reunion as the objective." (SoS report 1990:24). Any decision concerning care according to LVU is a strong emotional experience for the child and the parents. It implies limitations of the parents' right of decision concerning the child. For this reason, it is extremely important that no mistakes are made on the part of the social welfare committee.
An investigation that forms the basis of an LVU decision must be objective, impartial and worked through in accordance with the true facts. This is founded on the Constitution Act, Chap. 1, section 9. Taking a child into care can affect the investigator emotionally. So as not to affect the investigator's personal involvement or disturb the work, it is necessary that the work should follow certain rules. Investigation work should proceed with a critical-objective method, in which a number of basic criteria must be met. Examples of such criteria area: clarity, posing questions, relevant information, account of sources, precision, avoidance of emotional language, ethical considerations for the protection of private persons etc. (cf. Edvardsson, 1996).
When these criteria are not observed, partial investigations lacking in objectivity may arise, which are characterised by the fabrication of evidence with the intention of influencing and persuading the reader and supporting the investigator's own purposes. Defective investigations can lead to wrong or unsuitable decisions being reached that destroy the future of the family.
LVU
The law on care for children and youths (LVU) is a complement to SoL, in the situations when the voluntary efforts that can be given with the support of SoL are not sufficient. That is, the law is used first when it is found that it is not possible to come to agreement as to the care considered necessary for the child according to the social service authority.
Judgements on care according to LVU are made by county courts after notification via the social service authority, and the maximum time in which the case shall be treated is four weeks. A decision about care with the support of LVU implies that the parents' right to decide over the child is limited in the extent that is necessary for care to be able to be carried out.
Immediate custody can be carried out when there is direct danger for the child's life and health. This means that the social service authority can, without waiting for a decision by the county court, place the child in a "safe environment". When a child is taken into custody, it is placed in an emergency home. When the child is given care for a longer period of time the child is placed in a so-called family home.
"The social service authority shall regularly and at least every sixth month according to section 28 SoL and section13 second paragraph LVU consider whether care needs to continue when it is a case of a child that has been given care with the support of sections 6 and 12 SoL or section 2 LVU (environment case)." (General counsel from the social service authority 1994:3, p.65)
3.4 Perspective of the child
"The social service law shall fulfil the child's need of care and eventual efforts shall be made for the child's good. The child can not itself demand its rights with the support of the law, but the social service authority represents the child and takes upon itself the care responsibility for children who are taken into custody and placed outside their own families' homes." (Hagbard & Esping, 1992, p.19)
Hollander (1985, chap. 6) state that a vaguely formulated law and detailed rules for action do not constitute a guarantee that the child's needs and the child's good are fulfilled. Her feeling is that a detailed and more precise legislation is necessary to facilitate the application of the law and to reduce the risk that the wrong children are taken into custody.
Hollander further explains that the study of a number of child custody cases has made obvious the importance of recognising the evidence and interpretation problems in child custody cases: "It can not be considered sufficient to confirm that there are documented bad conditions in the home. Facts concerning the connections between these conditions and the "danger" for the child's health and development must be clarified."
The different parties in an LVU case can have different conditions and assumptions. Hollander (1985, p.299) explains: "Both parents and children have a weak position in child care cases. It is hardly a lack of formal legal safety guarantees that can explain this, and instead a composition of parties that characterises these cases. The individual parties, parents and children, are socially and economically weak. They are not familiar with legal regulations and do not know how to act strategically." Hollander (1985) found in her doctoral thesis that facts in child care cases had primarily to do with the guardian, generally the mother, and with her weaknesses. Evidence issues were concentrated around these facts, while few factors in the child's environment were reported. Hollander points out that facts about the children were always few and did not agree with the requirements for analysis of the child's need for care and prognosis for development that the legislation states. A conclusion that Hollander draws is that the legislation is more a coercive law for the parents than a law acting to the advantage of the child.
Heap (1983, p.156) points out: "According to the child care legislation, it is the task of the authority to judge the conditions in which the child lives, judge whether these conditions imply a danger to the child's health and development. The authority's treatment has however been characterised by showing evidence, while the child's total situation and needs have been lost."
Hagbard & Esping (1992, p.20) believe that "The increasing professionalisation in child care in the last decades brings with it risks that the social worker ideal takes over the parents' role as model for upbringing and for judgements about the child's good."
They feel that the increasing professionalisation instead should be directed toward looking for the child's perspective and understanding the child's experiences and feelings. This would give a better guarantee that the child's interests and good are being safeguarded.
Anita Cederström (1990, ref. I Holmberg, 1990) followed 25 children that were placed in foster homes in her thesis "Foster children's adjusting relations problems". Her belief is that it is not the quality of the foster homes that are decisive for the children's development but how the children's relations with the parents have been. The starting point for Cederström was that the children's relations with the parents were completely decisive for how they would develop in the foster home. This was also demonstrated. The results showed that children whose parents were not able to see and accept their needs developed in a negative way. It went best for the children who had been seen by the parents and not been drawn into their internal conflicts.
A conclusion that Cederström draws is that if one identifies the child's relation to the parents, one can get a better understanding of the child's situation.
"However, it is clear that one must place greater importance on trying to understand the psychological situation that the child exists in to be able to determine whether a placement in a foster home is possible at all or whether other measures must be taken. And to be able to support the foster parents so that they understand what is happening with the child."
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child
In the convention concerning children's rights that was adopted by the UN in 1989 and that Sweden ratified, Article 12.1 states: "State Parties shall assure the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age at and maturity of the child."
2: For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard, in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly or through representatives or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law."
Article 25 states: " State Parties recognize the right of a child who has been placed by the competent authorities for the purpose of care, protection or treatment of his or her physical or mental health, to a periodic review of the treatment and all other circumstances relevant to his or her placement." (Hagbard & Esping, 1992, p.16)
The UN's child convention is also applicable for children taken into care in a foster home.