Social services in cooperation

The importance of a well-functioning collaboration between social services and schools in identifying children living in social vulnerability is also well-documented in previous studies. The circumstances described above raise several urgent questions regarding the conditions for social services in geographically peripheral areas, which cannot be answered based on the current research available in Sweden.

Apart from a few studies (e.g. Nordström 2015), research on social work in sparsely populated municipalities is conspicuously overlooked in Sweden, which also seems to be in sharp contrast to the international research situation where the field of rural social work' appears to have been well established for many years (e.g. Lee 2017; Pugh & Cheers 2010). In other words, there is an obvious need for knowledge development based on empirical research, in order to examine and analyse social services work in geographically peripheral areas with a focus on children in need.

The aim

The aim is to carry out a feasibility study to gather basic information on social services work in geographically peripheral areas, with a focus on interventions targeting children in need. The overall objective of the feasibility study is to develop informed research questions and then design a qualitative research project to investigate social services in geographically peripheral areas, with the following two focus areas: social services' work with children in need of protection and social services' cooperation with schools regarding these children.