What are they doing? A programme theory of the Swedish social services interventions Contact Person and Contact Family for children

Research problem and specific questions Every year, 10-15,000 children in Sweden receive a contact person or contact family from the social service. These are means-tested interventions that are preceded by a decision after application by the child and/or the parents.

Knowledge of the interventions is local and based on experience and in the traditions and routines developed in social services. There are no statistics and very few studies, and none on their results or effects.

The aim of this study is to reconstruct the tacit programme theory for contact persons and contact family, for children and young people up to 18-years of age.

The theory will be built with support from data from practice, with knowledge of the content of the interventions and analysis of existing practice. Data and method The study is structured as a case study with four sub-studies. First, a national survey from all social services.

Then two local studies, a document analysis in three to four municipalities and an interview study with children, parents, volunteers and social workers in twelve cases. In each sub-study, strategic selections are made for gaining a high degree of generalizability. In the fourth sub-study, all results are combined so that the program theory can be reconstructed step by step.

Social relevance and utilitisation  The contact person and contact family interventions are flexible and can be designed for each individual child´s needs. That flexibility places great demands on the individual social workers to find solutions. Currently, they lack both support from research and methodological support.

This study will give a base for facilitating the work, which we will convey in both written and oral form.

The results of the study provide an important contribution to method development of the work, but also to further studies in the area.

By clarifying the programme theory, a basis has been created for following up, evaluating and developing effect studies in the area.

Plan for project realisation The study is carried out by three researchers in close collaboration, each of whom adds their specific knowledge and experience to the implementation of the project. Project assistants are engaged in periods of extensive data collection.

The sub-studies consistently build on each other and are all carried out in close collaboration with SKR and social services. The project is characterized by a rich material and extensive publication, in Swedish and in English.