16-year-old Tim had eleven placements in two years – and SVT’s review shows that there were shortcomings in several of the emergency and family homes.
Botkyrka municipality used external intermediaries, so-called consulting companies, to find accommodation for him. A more expensive solution that Botkyrka usually pays between SEK 75,000 and 90,000 a month for when it comes to young people with more difficult problems.
On one occasion, an emergency home consultant who had previously been convicted of assault, illegal threats and vandalism was hired. The man has also been convicted of accounting offenses after running a care company that lost its license from the Inspectorate for Care and Care, Ivo.
The case is not unique.
Warning signals in many companies
SVT Nyheter has reviewed the players in the industry. In total, there are 359 companies that in October had permission to conduct consultant-supported operations – in 99 of them there were various types of warning signals. In some of them links to organized crime.
– These actors go between different industries, they are smart. It is tax funds that finance these activities, says Anette Nilsson, head of unit at the supervisory authority Ivo.
Criticism in investigation
The industry is singled out as full of problems in the investigation “Children and young people in society’s care” which was recently handed over to the government.
– It’s a lottery if it works, because there are so many different flaws, says investigator Carina Ohlsson (S).
She proposes, among other things, that a national family home register be introduced and that the municipalities’ compensation should go directly to the family homes and not via the consulting companies.
Tip SVT’s investigative reporters.