VALITSIJA in English

Title of the research project 

Social worker as a service selector, decision-maker and monitorer in child welfare open care services 

Goals of the research project

In this project, we study how and under what conditions social workers use discretion when deciding on services and support measures in child welfare open care. The role of child welfare open care services is changing in Finland due to child welfare client allocation and health and social services reform. As the service needs and costs of the child welfare open care increase, it is vital to know what arguments social workers use to justify their service choices, what information they base their decisions on, and what they perceive the services to achieve. In this project, we also view how social workers carry out child-specific monitoring in child welfare open care. 

Research questions

The project is divided into two sub-studies. In the first, we will examine how social workers in child welfare open care choose interventions and services, such as intensive family support or family rehabilitation, and how they monitor and evaluate the effects of these interventions. In the second sub-study, we focus on how social workers in child welfare open care implement child-specific monitoring. 

The project provides knowledge on how and under what conditions social workers use discretion when deciding on child welfare services and interventions. The research questions of the project are:  

*How do social workers choose the child welfare open care services and support measures for their client families, and what kind of information do they base their decisions on? 

*How do social workers monitor and evaluate the effects of the services and support measures? And how do social workers implement child-specific monitoring in child welfare open care services? 

*Which (macro-, meso- and micro-level) factors are related to the conditions under which social workers act as decision-makers, monitorers and users of discretion in child welfare open care? 

Research data and methods

Qualitative data is collected by focus group interviews of social workers in several wellbeing services counties in Finland. In addition, quantitative data will be collected with a survey sent to the social workers of the partnering wellbeing services counties. 

Schedule 

The project has started in September 2023 and it will be ending in August 2025. 

Outputs 

In addition to scientific articles, we will produce models on the factors to be considered in child welfare open care decision-making and child-specific monitoring. Our results can be used in social work training and in the orientation of social workers. We will also present the results in the form of blog posts and podcasts. 

Funding and implementation  

The Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has granted the project two years of funding, totalling 441 945 euros. This project is actualized by the researchers from University of Turku, University of Eastern Finland and University of Helsinki. 

Contacts 

Professor Johanna Kallio, University of Turku (research group leader), jomkall@utu.fi