Care Order Decisions—in the Domain of Social Work or the Courts? Social Workers’ Frontline Views

Abstract

Abstract This article examines social workers’ views on care order decisions in Finnish child welfare where the decision-making procedure takes place in either the social work or court domain depending on the parties’ consent or objection to the care order proposal. Exploring this parallel decision-making system provides insights into the less studied characteristics of non-adversarial decision-making compared with those of adversarial decision-making. Based on the interviews of twenty-nine social workers, the findings present a binary view of social workers: the court domain is mainly seen as being an arena for the legal safety for families whereas the social work domain is a psychosocial, fluent and smooth arena for making care order decisions important to family members. The study points out potential misuse of the social work domain. Additional safeguards are suggested to complement the existing legal, professional and ethical safeguards as well as the re-evaluation of the role and nature of consent as a divider of the decision-making procedures.