Abstract
Parents of children in out-of-home care receive little support from social services. Drawing on qualitative data collected in the project ‘Parent at a distance’, in which social services in seven municipalities in Sweden aimed to improve support to parents whose children are placed in foster care, this paper explores social workers’ discourses about parents to children in care. The analysis is based on focus group data in which a total of 52 social workers reflected on parents to children in care and how they can be supported by social services. The concept of interpretive repertoires was used to analyse how social workers in interaction construct parents and their support needs. The identified repertoires of change, acceptance, permanency, biology and non-biology may contribute to the understanding of why so few parents receive support, even though legislation stipulates that placements should be temporary. The paper concluded that discourses may shape support practices and thus it is crucial that social workers reflect on and develop their awareness about their constructions of parents and their role for children in out-of-home care.
Highlights
A decision to place a child in foster care is usually preceded by interventions by social services with parents, and the removal of children from parents is seen as a last resort
The analysis of the focus group discussions identified five interpretive repertoires that the social workers made use of and moved between when they talked about parents to children in foster care: Change repertoire, Acceptance repertoire, Permanency repertoire, Biology repertoire, and Non-biology repertoire
Our findings confirmed results from previous international studies that indicate that support to parents to children in foster care is surrounded by vague and less structured support practices, despite legislation and UN Conventions that stress the importance of supporting parents
Summary
A decision to place a child in foster care is usually preceded by interventions by social services with parents, and the removal of children from parents is seen as a last resort. Social workers should assess what kind of support parents need after the child has been placed in care in order to improve their parenting capacity. Parents with children in foster care in Sweden do not receive enough support (SOU, 2015: 71). This paper builds on data from the research project Parent at a distance in which social services in seven municipalities in Sweden intended to improve support to parents whose children are placed in foster care. The aim of this paper is to explore how support practices are shaped by social workers’ talk about the parents. We investigate the interpretive repertoires in use by social workers and whether these repertoires legitimise social work action and support
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