Providing safe spaces for sensemaking in Swedish child welfare services: team leaders’ perspectives of their role in facilitating assessment work

Social work supervision plays a vital role in supporting professional development, enhancing practice and addressing bias. In Swedish child welfare services (CWSs), team leaders often provide daily supervision, positioning them to influence assessment quality, especially in cases involving violence against children. This article explores team leaders’ perspectives on their supervisory role through semi-structured interviews with 15 leaders from one Swedish region. Using an abductive approach and the concept of sensemaking, the analysis reveals that team leaders strive to create safe spaces for reflection and shared deliberation. These spaces help caseworkers recognise and challenge biases, particularly those related to gender norms and stereotypes about migrant families. Team leaders emphasised the importance of slowing down decision making to avoid premature judgements and to support fair, evidence-based assessments. Despite these efforts, challenges remain. Some leaders acknowledged not actively addressing bias, while others highlighted the need for more structured, ongoing work. The findings underscore the need for broader awareness and a systematic, continuous approach within CWSs to ensure equitable treatment of all children and families. Achieving this requires time, safety, courage and commitment.