The aim of this study was to examine the view that officials involved in youth unemployment have on the significance of collaboration between organizations working with unemployed youth. The study was based on nine qualitative interviews with officials from PES offices and from municipalities such as job coaches. The results were analyzed based on qualitative content analysis. The analysis led to two different themes: conditions and the individual. In the analysis two different theories were used, new institutionalism and Lipsky's theory about street-level bureaucrats. The analysis led us to the conclusion that these officials find collaboration important both for their work and for the unemployed youth and that they collaborate with the individual’s interests in mind.

User involvement is generally regarded as something positive within social work, and is something social authorities in Sweden (as in many other countries) propagates for. This study aims to highlight social workers perceptions and experiences of user involvement within the specific context addiction treatment. A context where users individual status has proved needed to be strengthened. Five social workers, all working within Swedens national government-funded social service agency, are given a voice on the subject. By using semi-structured interviews, the results show how broad and ambiguous the concept of user involve-ment is, when the respondents is asked to define it. This found is supported by earlier studies results, in which researchers also declare the concept unclear. This studys result includes se-veral examples of what the social workers comprehend the involvement consists of in their daily work. The conditions for user involvement to take place in this study’s specifik practice, shows to be closely associated with factors such as the bureaucratic regime, organizational framework agreements and with assessments of the client in question knows its own good (on the basis that drugs affect the human cognitive system in different ways).

General practice emerged as a distinct medical discipline in the nineteenth century. As independent contractors, General Practitioners (GPs) have however largely been 'untouched' by centrally derived policy. As a result, the profession has possessed wide discretion in relation to the way they dealt with their patients. However, due to increasing concerns over the cost and quality of care within the NHS, general practice increasingly became a focal point for the attentions of central policy makers who sought to control aspects of frontline practitioner behaviour. In order to do attempt to align the frontline behaviour of GPs with such policy aims, policy makers turned to their main tool, the contract. In this thesis I am concerned with the most recent contractual changes (and its later variants) introduced in 2004. In particular, the study is concerned with the impact of the large element of Pay-for-performance (P4P) known as the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) contained within the new contract. QOF rewards practices on the basis of meeting a number of targets in relation to clinical, organizational, and patient experience indicators. As a result of the scale and prescriptive nature of the targets, QOF had the potential to change the nature of GP work at the micro-level should GPs choose to follow this voluntary policy. Previous evidence in relation to GP responses to other prescriptive policies such as National Service Frameworks (NSFs) and clinical guidelines suggests that GPs responded as workers, specifically as street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) by selectively by choosing aspects of policies based upon the on the criteria of whether or not they made the practicalities of processing their daily workload easier. However, the evidence suggests that there were also instances of GP principal (those that (part-) own their practices) behaviour that did not conform to expected SLB behaviour but instead resembled behaviour that would be expected of those managers who are 'results oriented.' Based upon this evidence and the analytical possibilities the SLB framework provided, the theoretical view of GPs as frontline public sector workers or street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) was employed to understand the continuing perceived impact and responses of GPs to the new contract and in particular QOF. Unlike previous analyses of GPs as SLBs however, this study distinguished between GP principals and salaried GPs employed by the GP principal counterparts. Ultimately, the aim of the thesis was to address the question of whether or not the conceptualization and responses of GPs as SLBs was still relevant and useful post-contractual change. Data was collected (between Feb 2008 and Sept 2009) via semi-structured interviews. In total 62 first round interviews and 24 second round interviews were conducted and analysed thematically. The findings indicate that the financial incentives within the QOF appear to strongly influence the responses of GP principals and reflect their priorities as owners of, rather than workers in their organisations. In addition, it appears that the Evidence Based Practice (EBP) movement means that salaried GPs priorities are also aligned to those of their organisations as they believe most of the QOF to be evidence-based. As a result, the application of Lipsky's SLB framework to explaining GP behaviour in relation to QOF is less useful than previous applications.

Today the Swedish education system faces major challenges. This research deals with school segregation and the differences in and among Swedish municipalities, more specifically between Kalmar and Karlskrona. There are well-established national goals with the aim to reduce and counteract school segregation, however we tend to find huge differences in the system and performance of schools. All schools have different grounds, conditions and needs and it forces the local government, principals and teachers to act according to factors as resources, priorities, goals and expected behavior within institutions. Deficiencies create the prerequisites for conducting, completing and maintaining the business to the extent that it can be based on the design of the requirements on national level. That brings a great decentralized responsibility and gives room for maneuver and freedom of action for street-level bureaucrats, that may not maintain national standards. The purpose of this research is to analyse how enforcement of national goals in each municipality, at local schools,  that either are segregated or may become and then compare them to see the difference. In conclusion the analysis show that national goals are used as guidelines in municipalities, but all municipalities establish their own goals according to the conditions and needs of the school. The difference that exist between schools depends on local circumstances.

Insatsen kontaktperson används flitigt inom socialtjänsten, trots det finns det ytterst lite forskning kring insatsen och dess effekter. Detta arbete strävar efter att få en ökad förståelse för socialsekreterares användande av insatsen kontaktperson för ungdomar samt hur socialsekreterares handlingsutrymme har påverkat det användandet. För att nå en ökad förståelse kring detta har en kvalitativ intervjustudie genomförts där socialsekreterare från olika socialkontor fått berätta om sina erfarenheter och upplevelser kring insatsen. Utifrån de uppgifter som framkommit under intervjuerna har olika teman skapats som beskriver skäl att använda insatsen, vilka effekter som ses av insatsen samt skillnader och likheter mellan olika handläggares agerande. Resultatet visar att kontaktperson kan beviljas av många olika anledningar och att de upplevda effekterna varierar. Det blir också tydligt hur fritt det är för varje socialsekreterare att själv utforma insatsen, vilket gör att det går ifrågasätta klienters rättssäkerhet då detta skiljer sig mellan olika kommuner. / In Swedish social services work with youths one of the most common ways to help is to grant the youth a sort of grownup mentor, a contact person. Despite of this, there is very little research about this kind of mentoring and its effects. In this study, we wanted to increase our understanding of the use of contact person for youths and also how the social workers discretion affects the use of contact person. To be able to do that a qualitative interview study was made where social workers from different social service offices shared their knowledge and experiences about contact person. Based on the information that was given during the interviews we were able to identify different themes that describe reasons to use contact person, which effects the social workers can see and also the differences and similarities between the different social workers way to use it. The result shows that social workers can provide youths with a contact person for a variety of reasons, and that the experienced effects differ between the social service offices. The result also makes it clear how the social workers in a free way are allowed to form the setup and implement of the contact person, which makes it possible to question the client’s rights to receive the same help no matter where you live or who you meet with.

The aim of this study was to examine how foster-care workers use their discretion, also how they evaluate foster-care investigations and which criteria affects the outcome of the investigations. Our focus group were social workers from four middle-sized municipalities and two social workers from the private sector. Two overall themes were identified after our interviews, both with underlying themes: discretion during investigation and criteria for foster-care takers.The analysis was based on previous research and theory. Our main conclusions were that social workers’ discretion is affected by the guidelines and methods established at their workplace. Also that the criterias for foster-care takers depends on the situation, but the foster child needs his or her own room in the home and the foster parent can not appear in criminal records.

When a person is forced to flee their home due to violence or the fear of persecution, they must seek refuge elsewhere – either within the borders of their home country or in a new country. Those who travel to another country in search of safety and protection are known as refugees, and as world conflicts continue, the number of refugees around the world is steadily increasing. As refugees integrate into their new communities, they often receive support from nonprofit organizations once government assistance has ceased. This mixed method study uses 60 open-ended, first-person interviews with refugees and nonprofit service providers, participant observation, and a secondary data analysis of nonprofit mission and goal statements to explore the needs of refugee populations in a southeastern city in the United States, compare and analyze how nonprofits in this area are interacting with and providing services to their refugee clients, determine the extent to which the refugees being served perceive the nonprofit’s services to be effective, and determine the extent to which refugees feel that their needs are being met. Findings indicate that refugees and nonprofit service providers typically gauge the effectiveness of nonprofit services in very different ways, with refugees measuring effectiveness as the extent to which a nonprofit helps its clients, and with service providers measuring effectiveness as the extent to which a nonprofits meets its mission and goals; thus, creating specific mission statements that are aligned with client needs is crucial for nonprofits. Findings also showed that refugees may be hesitant to fully express their needs to service providers due to cultural barriers and/or the fear of being a "burden", and that informal methods of soliciting refugee perspectives may help service providers better assist their refugee clients. The data also indicate that nonprofits that engage in collaborations with other nonprofits and governmental agencies, provide refugees with increased access to ESL classes, and ensure that refugees have ample opportunities to engage with other members of their community typically see more positive outcomes as their refugee clients seek to integrate.

<p>I denna studie analyserar vi handläggares upplevelse av samverkan mellan två stora välfärdsmyndigheter, Försäkringskassan och Arbetsförmedlingen. Genom sju kvalitativa intervjuer undersöker vi möjligheter och hinder med samverkan utifrån den s.k. nya arbetslinjen och rehabiliteringskedjan. Vår teoretiska referensram utgår ifrån gräsrotsbyråkratin, sektoriseringsteorin samt olika idéer om samverkan och domänkonflikter. För att få underlag för studien tar vi också del av aktuell forskning som berör ämnet. Resultatet från vår studie visar att det finns flera gemensamma upplevelser av hinder och möjligheter hos respondenterna. Bland annat lyfter alla respondenter fram att samverkan är någonting positivt som klargör myndigheternas ansvar inför klienten. Resultatet visar även att majoriteten av respondenterna upplever att rehabiliteringskedjan motverkar passivitet som de anser råder inom rehabiliteringssfären.</p> / <p>In this study we analyze handling offices experience of cooperation between two major welfare authorities, the social insurance office and the employment agency. With the help of seven qualitative interviews we investigate the opportunities and the hindrance for cooperation on the base of the new so called workfare and rehabilitation chain. Our theoretical frame takes its starting point in particularly the theory of street level bureaucracy, sectorisation within the public sector and different ideas about cooperation and domain conflict. To build a platform for the study, we also take part of topical science that is relevant for the study. The result showed that there are several common experiences of opportunities and hindrance of cooperation. All of the respondents brought up the fact that cooperation is something positive that, from the client perspective, elucidates the authorities’ responsibility. The majority of the respondents also experienced that the rehabilitation chain counteract passivity, which existed within the rehabilitation sphere.</p>

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the implementation of a political aim – formulatedfrom a context of sustainable development. In 2006 both the Swedish national Parliament andthe municipality of Växjö (among others) stated that 25% of publically served food wouldstem from organic production by the end of 2010. The thesis investigates the outcome of theimplementation of this policy in a local perspective - looking at one part of the public sectorby focusing on four differently organized schools within Växjö municipality. School food in Sweden has a specific institutional setting. It holds the almost unique statusas a non-charged, legal right to all pupils in the compulsory school system. School food as apublic good is affected by the EU legislation of public procurement. The thesis studies theoverall institutional framework (i.e. legislation and regulations) fundamental to school food.With the institutional framework in mind the thesis also describes different organizationalactivities connected to school food. Thus the thesis involves four geographical levels: Theregional (EU), the national, the local and the individual level. The latter is defined in theorganized context from a number of individual professionals. Some of these individuals arefurther considered as so called street level bureaucrats – officials sandwiched between superiorsand their clients. The thesis builds a conceptual framework based on institutional, organizational and streetlevel theory together with policy analysis. Methodologically the thesis is formed around andcarried out as a local case study through a number of semi-structured qualitative interviews.The empirical and analytical part of the thesis is further structured around the three theoreticalconcepts. From the thesis´ purpose three guiding questions were outlined. The main implications of the thesis are that a number of factors were found to be involvedin the policy implementation. The most significant factors for the policy implementation arefirstly the formulation of the political goal, and secondly the individual professionals actuallybuying the food for the schools. As long as the policy of the school food is non-forcing (i.e. anaverage aim of the public sector, and not included in the legislation) the final outcome of thefood depends on the decisions made by the buyer. There is disagreement of the policy intention and of whether organic food is more sustainablethan other food. Thus I end the thesis by suggesting a change of concepts if the politicalaim is to reach sustainability. I encourage a system to control the food´s total ecological footprint.This would be achieved by formulating the policy around a suggested level of the ecologicalfootprint. The level would be calculated and set where experts say it´s in accordancewith sustainable development. From this the street level bureaucrats can sum up the componentsof the lunch they buy and serve. No matter if the individual product is labeled organic,local, conventional, or… This would – according to me – improve the chances for Växjö actually to live up to itslogo: the greenest city in Europe. At least this idea could awake a debate. / Opposition kl. 13.15

I denna studie analyserar vi handläggares upplevelse av samverkan mellan två stora välfärdsmyndigheter, Försäkringskassan och Arbetsförmedlingen. Genom sju kvalitativa intervjuer undersöker vi möjligheter och hinder med samverkan utifrån den s.k. nya arbetslinjen och rehabiliteringskedjan. Vår teoretiska referensram utgår ifrån gräsrotsbyråkratin, sektoriseringsteorin samt olika idéer om samverkan och domänkonflikter. För att få underlag för studien tar vi också del av aktuell forskning som berör ämnet. Resultatet från vår studie visar att det finns flera gemensamma upplevelser av hinder och möjligheter hos respondenterna. Bland annat lyfter alla respondenter fram att samverkan är någonting positivt som klargör myndigheternas ansvar inför klienten. Resultatet visar även att majoriteten av respondenterna upplever att rehabiliteringskedjan motverkar passivitet som de anser råder inom rehabiliteringssfären. / In this study we analyze handling offices experience of cooperation between two major welfare authorities, the social insurance office and the employment agency. With the help of seven qualitative interviews we investigate the opportunities and the hindrance for cooperation on the base of the new so called workfare and rehabilitation chain. Our theoretical frame takes its starting point in particularly the theory of street level bureaucracy, sectorisation within the public sector and different ideas about cooperation and domain conflict. To build a platform for the study, we also take part of topical science that is relevant for the study. The result showed that there are several common experiences of opportunities and hindrance of cooperation. All of the respondents brought up the fact that cooperation is something positive that, from the client perspective, elucidates the authorities’ responsibility. The majority of the respondents also experienced that the rehabilitation chain counteract passivity, which existed within the rehabilitation sphere.