More reports of concern for children during the pandemic

Closed schools and leisure centers create problems. Stock Photography.Image: Robin Haldert / TT

This is demonstrated by a study by the National Board of Health and Welfare that examined how the pandemic has affected work with reports of disturbances in 56 municipalities and districts.

In general, however, the higher number of complaints is not due to the pandemic but to an increase in the propensity to report, according to the authority. But some types of reports are directly related to the pandemic.

They often affect children from families that are already vulnerable and children from socio-economically vulnerable areas, the clearest example being school. In the spring, a new type of report emerged about students with high absenteeism after parents kept their children at home for fear of infection.

According to the National Board of Health and Welfare, it is mainly the municipalities that have problems with, for example, overcrowding that describe this.

– We see that it can be families in which they have received information from relatives and friends in their countries of origin and have acted based on how the guidelines looked there, for example, with quarantine, isolation and where schools may also be closed says Therese Olmsäter, a researcher at the National Board of Health and Welfare.

Another type of report concerned children who were already known to social services and who had previously been absent from school.

– In this group, both young people themselves, as well as parents who may have other types of problems, perceived that the pandemic could be seen as another excuse to stay at home, says Therese Olmsäter.

Several municipalities also note an increased number of reports of young people arguing, using drugs or committing crimes when upper secondary schools and leisure centers are closed, or activities and summer jobs are canceled.

Many times this is a trend that the municipality has seen over time, as part of broader social development with an increase in gang crime and juvenile delinquency. But in some cases, municipalities consider it to be a pandemic effect.

– Municipalities describe that it could be partly due to the interruption of activities and other things, that young people get bored and then it leads them to do things that they would not have done otherwise, says Therese Olmsäter.

TT: Do you draw any conclusions from this when it comes to how Sweden should act in the future, precisely when it comes to the restrictions affecting children and young people?

– No, we haven’t looked at that here. It is also difficult to say how long this type of notification is.

The pandemic has also changed the work of social services. More conversations have had to take place on the phone, which has been challenging in the work of involving children. In some municipalities, younger children have not been mentioned as often in so-called ex ante assessments, which are a first estimate of the need for help from vulnerable people.

But overall, social services have been able to handle the work of receiving and evaluating reports, according to the National Board of Health and Welfare.