The father of the family home has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping a girl for several years.
He has had several children placed with him, including one from Lycksele municipality.
When the suspicions against the man were discovered, the social welfare board in Lycksele municipality made a lex Sarah report to IVO to investigate the risk that the child could have been abused.
More frequent child talks
IVO considers that the social welfare board has not reported sufficient measures to prevent the same thing from happening again.
The Social Welfare Board has stated that they will initiate more frequent and better child interviews when it comes to family home placements, but IVO lacks an account of how the Social Welfare Board has violated current child interviews in the current case.
After pointing out this shortcoming, IVO closes the case.
Seriously looking at the incident
David Isaksson, unit manager for children and families at the social welfare committee, explains that he does not understand how IVO believes that the municipality has failed when it comes to reporting measures to prevent similar situations from occurring again.
- After this situation, we have reviewed our routines and where we are lacking.
What we do now, and as we have also reported, is to have more frequent follow-ups with the children we place in family homes, he says and continues:
- We need to pay more attention to the children's vulnerability, and get a more continuous contact between children and social workers.
We also need to become better at making it clear to young people that they can contact their contact person whenever they want.
What do you think about having a child placed with a man who has been convicted of child rape?
- It is completely unacceptable.
We see it as a serious incident.
Children who are placed in family homes should not go from one difficult situation to another difficult situation.
They must be safe, says David Isaksson.