In Sweden, the protection of children is part of the Social Services organisation. Child protection is governed by two laws; Social Services Act and the Care of Young Persons Act.
In my research I have shown that the child protection system must change to become more secure.
The construction has several weaknesses:
- Protection of children is difficult to distinguish from other services within the Social Services organisation
- No national register on the reports/surveys conducted in the child protection system
- Lack of specific training for professionals to work in child protection
- Due to lack of specific training for professionals, few methods have been developed
- The decision not to investigate a notification is not reliable
- The decision not to investigate a notification within the child protection system is not reliable
These findings emphasize that very little is known about how the child protection system manages to design a child protection process that is satisfactorily safe for abused children. Further research is required with more refined measurements of several of the child protection processes to know more about how well the system protects children.
