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In this paper we present a profile and analysis of children in the out-of-home care system in Sweden. We describe the conditions of three age groups of children and young people prior to their entry into care, the reasons for placement as given by social workers and documented in the children's case files, and analyze their movements in and out of care drawing attention to the issues of placement instability and breakdown. Our analyses reveal that there are important differences between age groups in rationales for placement, that a significant majority of children who returned home from care did so before social workers considered care no longer necessary, and that significant numbers of placements are notable in their instability. This study points to the need to develop participatory frameworks for practice beyond the rhetoric of solidarity and democracy that underlies Sweden's Social Services Act. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper analyzes stability in out-of-home care for children in Sweden. The study has focused on placement breakdown but also used planned movements and re-placement to study placement stability. The sample consists of 213 children who started 317 placements during 2005 and 2006. Social work case files were examined to follow every placement for, at most, two years from the day that the placement began. Those children who finished their period of care during the study’s follow-up period were monitored for one year after completion of placement to see if "returns home" were stable or if the child was re-placed in care. The analyses reveal that a significant majority of children who returned home from care did so before social workers considered care no longer necessary. The most common reason for end of a placement for preschool aged children was placement movements and for teenager’s placement breakdowns. This result indicates that type of instability depends on children’s age. As in other research, our study revealed teenagers or children with aggressive behavior had an increased risk of placement breakdown. The risk for re-placement increased if the child’s last placement ended because parents withdrew their consent for placement or if the child was placed in institutional care. This study points to the need to discuss the importance of consent, particularly parents of younger children and with youths themselves. It also indicates that if social service wants to increase placement stability they have to take the age of the child in consideration.

This paper investigates how children who have experienced instability in substitute family care describe their sense of belonging and relationships with adults who share responsibility for caring for them. Using an interpretive phenomenological methodology, we interviewed twelve children in Swedish foster and institutional care. Our study found that the children craved a close relationship with consistent adults and an opportunity to feel that they belonged somewhere. These needs were difficult for them to receive due to their parents' problematic life histories, instability in care which repeatedly placed them in new care situations and a lack of continuity of social workers. These children endured a repeated disconnection to those adults who were supposed to share the role of raising them and, at the same time, an incredible ability to adapt to new care environments was demanded of them. After continually losing relationships, some children finally decided to ‘hold off adults’ in order to not get hurt. Working with and caring for children who have experienced unstable care puts great demand on adults to develop relationships that children feel will be consistent and that they can trust.