IVO criticizes Borlänge for "Sofie case"

- In this case, we think that the child should have had a deputy so that he could have made his voice heard in such an important issue, says the administrator Rose-Marie Eriksson to SVT Nyheter.

The Sofie case provoked strong reactions this summer when SVT Nyheter published a review of how a 13-year-old girl, as we call Sofie, was picked up from school and torn from the family home where she has lived since she was born.

Since then, she has sat more or less isolated in an HVB home in southern Sweden.

Ivo initiated an investigation

Following SVT's reporting, the Swedish Health and Care Inspectorate, Ivo, began an investigation into the social services committee's handling of the Sofie case.

- We will of course follow IVO's decision, they can give us advice, Kenneth Persson (S), the social committee's chairman, told SVT in July.

Ivo believes that the social welfare board in Borlänge municipality has failed on several points.

Sofie did not want to leave her family home but could not appeal the relocation decision herself due to her age.

Did not get a deputy

Although Sofie sought help by writing to a lawyer, the municipality did not give her any right to receive that help by reporting that she needed a deputy, and Ivo now criticizes that.

Normally, children are represented by guardians, but since they did not appeal the relocation, she was left without someone to take her position on the issue.

On that point, Ivo relies on a RA statement (Government Court Yearbook) made in a similar case from 2006.

Telephone and mail were taken away

Sofie has also been deprived of her information right without legal support, Ivo believes.

Among other things, by taking away his mobile phone.

They have limited the child's ability to communicate with relatives without justifying the decision, says Ivo.

For a period, she has also not been allowed to take part in her post.

- We think it is an excessive encroachment on the child's personal integrity, we can not see how it is justified, you have to listen to the child's own opinion, says Ivo's administrator Rose-Marie Eriksson.

- It is a great joy anyway that it feels like she is being listened to and that this opens up opportunities for her, says Sofie's foster mother, who has taken care of her since BB.

- We just want her best and her mood and will is the most important thing, she says to SVT after today's announcement.

Separated from the foster family

After SVT's review, Sofie got her phone back so she could call her foster family, but a few days before Christmas they took the phone away from her again.

This is how she wrote to SVT:

and

She has also not been allowed to meet her foster parents, siblings, cousins ​​or friends since she was moved to the HVB home against her will this spring.

The municipality must report measures

Ivo wants the social services committee to report what measures they intend to take to rectify the shortcomings by 26 February.

SVT has sought the social committee's chairman Kenneth Persson (S) who can not comment on the case today, he asks to return when he has read IVO's statement.