Two departments at Sis youth home Långanäs in Eksjö municipality are being closed since it has emerged that staff have subjected children to severe violence.
If there have been incidents where we have not been able to rule out that crimes have been committed, then police reports have been made, says Birgitta Dahlberg, youth care director at Sis, to TT.
The Health and Social Care Inspectorate (Ivo) has decided to temporarily ban the operation following information about serious misconduct.
"There are very serious misconduct in the operation that have emerged. Among other things, there are reports that staff have subjected the placed children to severe physical violence," says Peder Carlsson, department head at Ivo, in the press release.
We take the reports seriously, but they are not new to us. We have ongoing investigations in several of the cases, however, we have not been able to confirm the reports in these investigations, says Birgitta Dahlberg.
Ivo assesses that the measures taken or intended to be taken by Sis are not sufficient. The decision means that the operation must be closed no later than Friday and applies for a maximum of six months. The children at Långanäs will be relocated in the meantime.
We see it as an opportunity to investigate the incidents in a controlled manner while we have the departments closed and get to the bottom of what we need to take action on to be able to reopen, says Birgitta Dahlberg.
Since March, the other three departments have also been closed as the rescue service found serious deficiencies in fire safety.