The Swedish framework

1. The Swedish framework • Laws and regulations • Recommendations from the National Board of Social Work (Socialstyrelsen) • Recommendations from the Association of the Local Authorities of Sweden (Sveriges kommuner och landsting)

2. General information • Youth become of age at the age of 18 • From the age of 15 you are a part in court proceedings and can apply for assistance without the consent of your custodians e g apply for a support person • The laws concerning compulsory placement of youth applies until the age of 21 • Until the age of 15 you cannot be charged with a crime • The local authority of each city is responsible for child protection

3. Socialtjänstlagen • A general framework that specifies the obligation of the society to meet the public need of social service based on democracy and solidarity • It includes the obligation to provide a good environment and equal opportunities for all children and specifies the assistance they are entitled to if there is a need for public intervention • It specifies how foster carers should be assessed and how placed children should be monitored • It establishes the right to assess and undertake an inquiry of the living conditions and the needs of children at risk with, or without, the consent of their custodians • It establishes that any person who meet children professionally has a compulsory duty to report any suspicions that a child could be at risk to the local social authority

4. Lagen om vård av unga (LVU) • The law that regulates placement of children and youth against the will of themselves and/or their custodians, in foster care or in institutions • The law applies to all children and youth living in Sweden • The law is applicable until the age of 21 • Children and youth can be placed if their health and development is at serious risk to be damaged, either due to the custodians inability to provide a good upbringing or due to the youths own behaviour • It specifies that only the Swedish state can provide facilities where children and youth can be confined, what rules these institutions have to follow, what rights they have and what rights the children and youth that are placed in these special institutions have • Placements against the will of children and youth and/or their custodians can be made by the local authority for 28 days, the decision has to be approved by a court within a week • After that there are court proceedings • The local authority can prolong the placement without court proceedings

5. Protection of unborn children • There is no law that specifically protects unborn children • There is a law that enables the local authorities to use coercive measures to prevent adults from seriously harming themselves or others due to excessive use of drugs or alcohol, LVM (Lagen om vård av missbrukare i vissa fall), with the support of this law an adult can be taken in charge for six months in special state-run institutions under a treatment order issued by a court on behalf of the local authority • This law can in some cases be used to protect unborn children whose mothers are addicted to drugs or alcohol

6. Staff Competence Requirements • There is no registration of social workers in Sweden • There is a recommendation issued by the Swedish National Board of Social Work that the social workers dealing with child protection must have a university degree in social work and experience as social workers

7. Strategic plan 2005-2007 • The social services for children, youth and families decided on a strategic plan in 2004. The plan also includes the services for adult addicts of drugs and alcohol. • The interest of children is always the main priority regardless of what sector you work in. • The plan states that as many services as possible should be open to the public without a decision of assistance from the local authority, and that they should be available free of charge. • The methods that are used should be evidence based, or based on long term experience of practice that is, or can be, subjected to research. • This applies to both general services and assessments/enquires/monitoring of children at risk • The work is based on the needs and the wishes of the users

8. Placement of children outside their homes should be avoided when possible through the accessibility of good service and methods for intervention at home • When there is a need for placement the possibility of finding a carer from the child's natural network should always be considered • If no such carer is suitable a placement in another foster family should be considered • Only if no other solution is possible should a child or youth be placed in institutional care for treatment, and if this is not possible to avoid, it should be for a limited time with a plan for discharge and with a plan for where the child should go after the treatment

9. Methods in use • BBiC ( Swedish version of Looking after Children) • IHF • MTFC • FFT • IFU • The early years (Webster-Stratton) and other educations for parents such as Cope • Different kinds of non-manual based family therapy and family home based treatments

10. Other Resources • Daily occupation for youth at risk • Supervised apartments for youth • Family Centres for younger children and their families • A centre for support and treatment of youth on drugs, and support and advice to their parents • Support persons and families • Foster carers • A special unit for recruitment and training of foster carers and support persons/families

11. EU and Ensa • Since 2005 Västerås is the project leader of the Leonardo da Vinci project DEFT, the project will be terminated before the end of the year • DEFT is a train-the-trainer programme designed to meet the need of training of the trainers of foster carers in Europe • It has been developed in co-operation with the non-governmental organisations IFCO and Our Home (Poland), the Cities of Vienna and Uppsala, the regions of Surrey and Veneto.