Juridification and Standardisation: Two Legal Dimensions Influencing Contemporary Child Protection

Ponnert, Lina; Johansson, Susanna

doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcx150

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…A main argument is that the state should play limited role in providing citizens with welfare services and individuals should be responsible for their own situation (Johnstone, Lee, and Connelly 2017;Kuskoff 2018). One way of implementing a more restrictive welfare policy in a neutral way is to specialize, standardize and juridify social work by changing its structure and routines (Ponnert and Johansson 2018;Bergmark 2014). The City of Malmö has recently been reorganized and subsequently, created new routines with reference to law.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How are children’s rights to housing, safety and protection implemented in practice in Malmö?

Turesson

Staaf

2021

Nordic Social Work Research

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The aim of this paper is to examine how the rights of homeless children to housing and protection in accordance with articles 27 and 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are upheld in Malmö. The two research questions that are of particular interest in relation to this objective are firstly whether the Swedish parliament's decision to incorporate the Convention on children's rights into Swedish law has had a concrete effect on the implementation of children's rights to housing and protection, and secondly how new guidelines that were introduced in Malmö in 2019 have had an impact on the same. The study is qualitative and employs an ethnographic approach based on conversations with 14 girls and 6 boys, which proceeded from photographs the children had taken of their housing situation and daily lives. The results show that homeless children and their needs and rights remain largely unseen in the work of the social services. The situation of this already vulnerable group has also worsened since our conversations with the children, since a majority no longer are part of the social services' target group according to Malmö's guidelines regarding homeless persons. It may be argued that such a result provides an indication both of society's approach to children located on the extreme margins of society and of the way in which welfare provision has developed in Sweden.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How are children’s rights to housing, safety and protection implemented in practice in Malmö?

Turesson

Staaf

2021

Nordic Social Work Research

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“…It is fair to say that social workers do not employ the vocabulary of juridification or standardization (e.g. Ponnert and Johansson 2018). It is mainly the descriptions of writing and documentation that serve as a reminder that the work is done in a statutory context which sets external norms for social workers to follow.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social workers are guided to encounter the complexity of tasks, uncertainty and possible conflicts in different ways. Ponnert and Johansson (2018) recognize that juridification and standardization are two evident yet different approaches to regulating present social work practice. In their view, 'a major challenge for professionals in contemporary child protection practice is to be able to navigate between different legal dimensions, juridification (hard law/legal discourse) and standardization (soft law/organizational norms), without losing their professional characteristics and accountability' (Ponnert andJohansson 2018, 2033).…”

Section: Care Order Preparations As An Arena For Social Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ponnert and Johansson (2018) recognize that juridification and standardization are two evident yet different approaches to regulating present social work practice. In their view, 'a major challenge for professionals in contemporary child protection practice is to be able to navigate between different legal dimensions, juridification (hard law/legal discourse) and standardization (soft law/organizational norms), without losing their professional characteristics and accountability' (Ponnert andJohansson 2018, 2033). Despite attempts to standardize practice, assessments and judgements about families' situations tend to differ -not only across but also within countries (Benbenishty et al 2015).…”

Section: Care Order Preparations As An Arena For Social Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The question whether social work is -or should be -influenced more by professional theories and values than legal and bureaucratic norms has for a long time surrounded child welfare with new topics such as standardization being occasionally brought into the debate (Payne 2000;Burns et al 2018;Ponnert and Johansson 2018). These questions are constantly relevant for child welfare.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Social workers as relational actors: descriptions of care order preparations in Finland

Eronen

Korpinen

Pösö

2020

Nordic Social Work Research

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This article examines what social workers do when preparing the removal of a child into public care in statutory child welfare. The focus is on how social workers describe both their 'doing' and themselves in care order preparations. Care order preparations take place at the crossroads of the different needs and rights of children and their parents as well as those arising from professionalism, law and bureaucracy. They involve the use of professional and public power given to social workers. The thematic analysis is based on interviews with Finnish social workers (29) in which they describe a preparatory process. The analysis focuses on the descriptions of 'doing' and those of the 'doer'. Talking, writing and coordinating form an essential part of social work in the descriptions of care order preparations. When describing their work, social workers speak about themselves as relational actors and very little as agents of the statutory, bureaucratic system. This reflects the non-adversial nature of the Finnish child welfare system with its emphasis on consensus as well as the current dominant discourse on what 'good' social work in child welfare is. Given the nature of care orders and the restrictions on family life likely to arise as a result of the preparatory process, other approaches to describe 'doing' care order preparations could be expected as well.

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Diffusion and Translation of the Barnahus Model Through the Lens of Institutional Tensions

Johansson,

Stefansen,

Kaldal

et al. 2024

Justice and Recovery for Victimised Children

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Since the Barnahus model was first introduced in Iceland in 1998, it has spread to a number of European countries, both within and beyond the Nordic region. This introductory chapter has two main objectives: The first is to describe the further diffusion of the Barnahus model throughout Europe and to exemplify various translations at local levels; the second is to set the framework for the book by introducing the concepts of institutional tensions and logics. We introduce the concepts involved in understanding the Barnahus model in the light of its ongoing implementation within different institutional contexts and related to this book’s four main themes: (1) legal tensions, (2) organisational tensions, (3) professional-ethical tensions, and (4) balancing institutional tensions.

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Juridification and Standardisation: Two Legal Dimensions Influencing Contemporary Child Protection

Cited by 12 publications

References 29 publications

How are children’s rights to housing, safety and protection implemented in practice in Malmö?

How are children’s rights to housing, safety and protection implemented in practice in Malmö?

Social workers as relational actors: descriptions of care order preparations in Finland

Diffusion and Translation of the Barnahus Model Through the Lens of Institutional Tensions

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