Child-centredness has become a leading principle in Finnish child welfare social work in recent decades. In accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (60/1991), child-centredness is concerned with fulfilling the child's rights and legal protection as well as taking into account the child's best interest and perspective in all administrative proceedings. In Finland, the Child Welfare Act (417/2007) ensures the child's right to a safe growing environment, balanced and versatile development and special protection. According to Act, the child has the right to have her interests assessed as primary in all matters concerning her. In Finland, assessment has focused on judging the factors that protect and endanger child development. Assessment has required social workers to consider the child during their assessments, identify the child's special needs for development and realise the child's rights. However, various aspects of the assessment of the child's situation, special needs, well-being and interest have been scarcely addressed in recent Finnish child welfare research.

The objective of the study is to examine components of child centred assessment among Finnish social workers. First, the study focuses on the level of child-centredness in assessments performed by social workers. Second, the study examines the components of assessments concerning children. Moreover, the study investigates which components are related to a social worker's child centred assessment. Empirically, the study uses survey data of social workers (N=373) and quantitative methods such as direct distributions, principal component analysis and regression analysis.

According to the results, most social workers are child centred in their assessments. However, child-centredness is related to the social worker's field; there is a higher proportion of child centred social workers in the area of child welfare than in the area of family services. Study revealed five components of the content of assessment: child's characteristics, needs, developmental history, social relationships and risk factors. There are variation in the level of attention given to the components. The child's characteristics and social growth environment are the components most assessed. The child's developmental history and the risk and harm components are least assessed. However, the component of developmental history most strongly predicts the social worker's child centred assessment. The older age of the social worker and having experience in the field of child welfare increases the prevalence of a child centred assessment.

The findings correspond to the image of the Nordic child welfare system and its premise of assessing the child based on needs rather than risks. The results can also be interpreted as indications of the wide scope of the assessment characteristics of the Nordic child welfare system. The five components of the content of assessment  are considered almost always or occasionally. The study results reveal the wide-ranging task of child centred assessment and the social worker’s aim to assess the child's situation by considering several components.