Are social service interventions of help to the child? Applying a follow-up tool as a methodology for improving children’s participation and their care

Research problem and specific questions: There are many vulnerable children at risk of abuse and neglect who are in need of support and protection from the social services, but we know next to nothing whether the support given are of help to the child.

A follow-up tool is designed to ensure that the child’s account of the problem is carried over to the open care unit, and that the child is heard during the intervention to follow up if it leads to an improvement of the identified problems and in the child’s situation – that is, the core mission of the social services.

Research findings suggest this is not the case today.

The purpose of this study and the research questions are to examine if applying the follow-up tool in the social services contributes to closing important information gaps between the assessment unit and the open care unit; improving children’s participation throughout the process and in particular in their care; and supporting professionals to make a well-founded assessment if the intervention has been of help to the child.

In the center is the process of change over a longer period of time.

If, after examination, it is shown that the follow-up tool has contributed to these changes, the success factors and obstacles to the continuation of applying the follow-up tool will be explored.Data and method: Data consists of written documentation, and interviews with family workers and heads of open care.

Both quantitative and qualitative analysis are carried out.

A comparison between a time period before the follow-up tool was applied and a time period during it is applied will be made.Plan for project realisation: Five municipalities and urban districts which have applied the tool for one year or longer and four new municipalities who will begin applying the tool participate in the study.

The participating municipalities are in different phases of the process and make it possible to study change over a longer time.Societal relevance and utilisation: There are many actors in society who want to know if children at risk receive appropriate help.

The vision behind the follow-up tool is that children shall receive the right protection and support, based on the child’s account of the problem and their view on what support they need.

The follow-up tool offers a methodology to improve children’s participation, based on an assumption that it will increase the chances of well-matched care, and to follow up if the situation of the child has improved.