According to the municipality's own routine and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a so-called child impact assessment, which ensures children's rights and looks after their best interests, must be made in all decisions concerning children.

In this case, the decision basis contained a short paragraph entitled "Child impact assessment":

"The work of continuing to develop partnerships with landlords to counteract unreasonable subleases increases the chances of more families becoming self-sufficient, which has a positive impact on the child's current situation and future."

"Not an in-depth analysis"

When SVT requests the entire documentation from the labor market administration, we get the answer that there is nothing to disclose.

Director of Public Administration Lena Winterbom says that the short paragraph was preceded by oral deliberations that were not documented.

- This was exactly when we started writing child impact assessments.

Today we have improved our ability to write such, she says and continues:

- It is not an in-depth analysis.

Instead, individual assessment and child impact assessment is done by the social secretary when the family seeks assistance.

A social secretary that SVT has been in contact with confirms that child impact assessments are made prior to individual decisions, but believes that the administration should also have made an overall analysis prior to the new way of working.

- It's sad.

That I as an administrator should sit and justify my rejection decision based on a child impact assessment feels like a joke when you have not done such an analysis before the introduction of the routine itself, says the social secretary, who wishes to remain anonymous.

"A shame"

SVT's review shows that at least two families with children needed to move shortly after rejection.

People who have been denied assistance due to the new rules also testify to great concern that they have nowhere to live.

Lisa Skiöld, operations manager for the Children's Ombudsman in Uppsala, does not believe that the municipality's child impact assessment prior to the decision was sufficient.

- If there is any case where you should have done an analysis, it is when it comes to children's right to housing.

It would have been said from the beginning that this does not apply to families with children.

We can not punish children for a choice their parents have made.

It is a shame for Sweden that we are there, she says.

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The children's representative Lisa Skiöld thinks that Uppsala municipality's actions are "embarrassing".

Photo: Christoffer Urborn / SVT

Enough for a decision

Mohamad Hassan (L), chairman of the Labor Market Committee, is satisfied with the data.

- The administration has an obligation according to the municipal council's regulations to make a child impact assessment, but in order not to be essays, summaries are made.

There should be one longer.

According to the administration, there is nothing more than the sentence that is in the documentation.

- The administration may consider that it is work material that they do not want to disclose.

But was the basis enough for you to make a decision?

- Yes, that was enough for me, no matter how hard it sounds.