The aim of the study was to investigate social workers and managers experiences of ending child welfare investigations within the statutory period of four months. We also investigated their experience of investigation time is used in practice. To get answers for our purpose, we conducted a qualitative study. We strategic selected three social workers and four managers to our interviews.

The results showed that both social workers and managers have experience with child welfare investigations that are not completed within the statutory time. A township that departed had no experience. Reasons for child welfare investigations not being completed within four months were high case load, staff shortages and that the documentation was neglected due to new urgencies. This was due to an organizational problem. The results showed that there was a distinction between the reasons for an extension of the investigation which is legal with what is stipulated in practice. Our conclusions are that high workload leads to child welfare investigations prolonged longer than the statutory period and that investigations may have lower quality. When laws are not followed and documentation are neglected that affects the client's legal security.