Listening to children, holding parents accountable: Social workers’ perspectives on children and parents in child welfare services

This article explores social workers’ perspectives on children and parents in child welfare services and discusses how these understandings may influence the participation of these actors in the casework process. Based on vignettes discussed in focus group interviews with thirty social workers in Denmark, the article employs a social constructionist framework to investigate how social workers construct children and parents in child welfare services. The findings reveal that children are often viewed as vulnerable and innocent, while parents are seen as responsible and accountable. The analysis demonstrates how these constructions can impact how social workers articulate engaging with children and parents in casework. While the social workers prioritize listening to children’s perspectives, there is a risk that children’s participation becomes symbolic if their views are not meaningfully integrated into the case. Further, the social workers prioritize ensuring parents understand their parental responsibility from the perspective of the social worker, which risks marginalizing parents’ perspectives and entails a focus on participation as governance rather than partnership. Thus, the perspectives on children as innocent and parents as accountable position them differently in the casework process and can result in divergent opportunities for and limitations to participation.