«Noen ganger lykkes vi ikke, og det er kjempeleit. Men jeg tenker ikke så mye på meg, -men på det barnet» : En kvalitativ studie av hvordan barnevernsansatte opplever situasjoner hvor beslutningene man tar ikke viser seg å være de rette for barnet

Abstract

The municipal child welfare shall ensure that children and youths living under harmful conditions receive necessaryhelp. Many get improved situations after child welfare intervention, but it happens that the decisions taken prove to be wrong. The purpose of this study was to explore how child welfare workers experiences this, and the research question was: How do child welfare workers experience situations where the decisions made turn out not to be the right for the child? Qualitative interviews with five employees in the municipal child welfare service were conducted. The interviews were analyzed using Giorgi`s descriptive phenomenological analysis method.The results show the informants perceived the situations as emotional burdening. The most burdensome were the consequences the decisions involved for the children. The informants experienced an open culture at their workplace and good support form colleagues and management. Despite openness, not everyone shared everything, and some described challenges of sharing guilt and shame. It varied whether the informants had evaluated and processed the situations. The informants described a good system for following up the employees, but lack of time reduced the opportunities to benefit the system. Lack of time could also go beyond the quality of the work.The study highlights a need for greater focus on how decision errors are experienced by child welfare workers. This is to ensure the care of the employees, but not least to ensure the best possible help for the children.