This research explored the experiences and perceptions of the performance appraisal systems in place and its value to social workers within the Department: Social Services and Poverty Alleviation: Provincial Government of the Western Cape.

The aim of this study is to investigate how social services handles and experiences threats in the workplace with focus on prevention and how follow up work is conducted. Data collection involved six qualitative interviews with four social workers and two unit managers. The results indicate that social workers normalizes threats at the workplace and that the leadership is crucial for both prevention and follow up. Routines at work are important but social workers are rarely informed or updated about these routines. Social workers experience that follow up is not a priority by their unit managers and after a threat social workers have a lack of time to take care of themselves. Unit managers experience the importance of routines for prevention of threats in the workplace. As unit managers they have the biggest responsibility when threats occur in the workplace and follow up should include an individual plan for every social worker. Both social workers and unit managers agrees that the experience is enough when determining if a threat is real or not.

This study examined the attitude, academic preparation, and practice competence of social workers in relation to substance use disorder in the state of Georgia. Three hundred and one (301) survey participants responded to the study for which they were selected, utilizing non probability convenience sampling. The survey participants were composed of bachelor-, master-, and doctoral-level students and professionals who currently live in the state of Georgia. The survey questionnaire titled A Study of Social Workers in Relation to Substance Use Disorders consisted of 35 closed-ended questions. The findings of the study indicated that although there was a statistically significant difference in the attitude of BSW, MSW, and DSW/PhD social workers overall, there was no statistically significant difference found with regard to academic preparation or practice competence.

Socialarbetare använder sig av flera typer av kunskap för att hantera komplexiteten av deras arbete, en del får man via utbildning men en del behöver förkroppsligas utifrån ett eget utforskande. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur fronesis kommer till uttryck bland socialarbetare som jobbar med ungdomar med missbruksproblematik. Med inspiration från hermeneutik har i denna studie utforskat hur socialarbetare översätter deras tidigare erfarenheter till praxis. Empirin består av sex intervjuer med praktiserande socialarbetare som har flera års erfarenhet i behandlande arbete med ungdomar. Datat analyserades utifrån fronesis teori vilket är uppbyggd ur tre subkategorier: praktisk handling, moralen och personlig utveckling. Fronesis i denna studie är förmågan att anpassa sig till sammanhanget hos en situation och förmågan att handla i enlighet med en målsättning. Resultatet visar att subkategorierna gick att identifiera hos informanternas utsagor samt hade påverkan på varandra. Analysen visar att behandlarens målsättning kunde påverka både arbete samt möjligheter till vidare utveckling. / Social workers use several types of knowledge to get about in their complex work, some of which is given through education but some you have to embody on your own. The aim of this study is to use phronesis as a theory and see if this theory can explain some of the nature behind social workers experience-based knowledge. Using an approach inspired by hermeneutics this study aimed to explore how social workers translate their experience into praxis. The data consists of six interviews with practicing social workers with several years of experience in caring work with adolescents. The material was analyzed with phronesis theory which is built up by three subcategories¨: practical action, morals and personal development. Phronesis in this study is the ability to adapt to the context of the situation and the ability work towards a goal. The results show that the subcategories were identifiable in the data and had an influence on one another. Analysis shows that one’s goals could have effect on work and possibilities for further growth.

The purpose of this study is to understand the collaboration between the head of unit, coordinators and accommodation supervisors in a residential care homes for children. It also aims to critically analyze how the staff experience the effects of an increased workload which caused the organization to the reorganize. This requires good interaction between the different functions in the organization which is the primary focus of this study. The study analyzes how the reorganization affects collaboration between the professions and examines what effect the organizations’ different functions have on collaboration. The coordinator has a new function in the organization and that involves a new condition that needs to be emphasized. The study is based on seven semi-structured interviews. Theories that have been the basis for the analysis is Lipskys theories of street-level bureaucracy and discretion as well as interaction based on i.a. Danemarks theories. The result of the essay shows that the professions are effected by the increased work overload. They therefor request clearness in their function and role in the organization. Simply the time is not enough and major difficulties occur for the personal to handle the lodge and at the same time have time for the children living there. The reorganization is also an effect of the collaboration between the professions.

The aim of the study is to understand how the construction of honor-related violence is interpreted by the social worker and the individual on the basis of risk assessment and support. The study was conducted using semi-structured interviews and informants consisted of nine social workers at eight interview sessions. All the social workers had expertise in honor-related violence but had different positions as social workers. Some were children administrators and others were adult handlers. The information was processed by the encoding of the text for theoretical concepts. The results showed that it is relevant to make a difference in the risk assessments of honor-related violence compared to other violence. This is because honor-related violence often involves greater restrictions than partner violence. The phenomenon of honor-related violence can include a wide age range and cannot be reduced to the girls and young girls but also affects older women, depending on what context it is interpreted. Furthermore, higher requirements on protection strategies and coordinated action are demanded. The result shows that it differs greatly between municipalities how to work out with honor-related violence. Violence has scales and it may be different how the individual perceives the violence. Honor based repression often leads to very subtle expression control which makes the problem difficult to identify. This as well as the starting point for the analysis assume their own words to be aggravating factors. There could be a conflict of identifying honor-related violence and social secretary's approach to risk assessment and support can be crucial.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur socialsekreterare arbetar med barnavårdsärenden där en förälder har intellektuellt funktionshinder. Studien utgick från två frågeställningar; hur socialsekreterarna upplever mötet med dessa föräldrar och var de hämtar kunskapen inom detta område. En fokusgruppsintervju genomfördes med sex deltagare. Studiens resultat visade att socialsekreterarna upplevde osäkerhet i bemötande och bedömning av familjer med intellektuellt funktionshinder. Denna studie visade också att det finns brister i samverkan och osäkerhet mellan myndigheter, och att socialsekreterarens kunskapsbas främst är erfarenhetsbaserad. Slutsatsen är att det saknas evidensbaserade metoder och att kunskapsområdet präglas av osäkerhet. / The aim of the study was to investigate how social workers, within the social child care, work with parents with intellectual disability. Two questions were investigated: how the social workers experienced meeting the parents and what was their knowledge base. A focus group interview was conducted with six participants. The results of the study showed that social workers experienced uncertainty in meeting and assessment the families with intellectual disability. Further, the study showed that there were weaknesses and uncertainty in cooperation between authorities, and that the knowledge used by the professionals was mainly experience based. The conclusion is that there is a lack of evidence based methods and the field is characterised by uncertainty.

The aim of this thesis is to study whether the Swedish state’s efforts to govern the professional practice of social workers (SWs) by knowledge to achieve an evidence-based practice, address the difficulties that SWs encounter in their practice. The Swedish state’s ambition is to govern the practice of social work by ideas and methods originating from medicine. The thesis therefore compares, through four different studies, the professional practice of SWs with general practitioners (GPs) as the most comparable sub-profession in medicine. The research questions that the thesis seeks to answer are: What situations are perceived as problematic and non-problematic by SWs and GPs? How does the professionals’ relationship with clients affect the performative aspects of these occupations’ enactment of their practice? How do SW and GPs experience the state’s efforts to govern their professional practice by knowledge? What problems can arise when the Swedish state builds its knowledge governance of social work practice on a comparison with medicine, even though these professional fields exhibit a number of important differences? The empirical material in the first and second studies consists of 52 narratives, written by SWs and GPs on problematic and non-problematic situations. The third study is based on vignette-based focus group interviews with 25 SWs and GPs. And the fourth study is based on a literature review, consisting of 54 articles about SWs’ and GPs’ practice. A first finding is that professionals rarely describe lack of knowledge or difficulties with knowledge use as problematic. A second finding is that non-problematic situations are connected to professionals’ control of the intervention process. SWs gained control of the relationship with the client either by use of coercive means or by the client’s active co-operation. GPs gained control of the intervention process by the use of professional knowledge. A third finding is that an understanding of professional practice as a linear process consisting of diagnosis, inference and treatment reflects GPs’ practice but not all aspects of SWs’ practice. A fourth finding is that both professions hold ambivalent positions towards evidence-based risk reductions technologies. The responses towards organisational risk reductions technologies differ in that GPs are sceptical, whilst SWs take a more pragmatic view. A main conclusion is that the Swedish state’s efforts to govern the performative aspects of SWs’ practice by knowledge, runs the risk of becoming a insufficient strategy since they tend to exhibit two main blind spots. The first is that these efforts tend to ignore that the relationship with the client has a crucial affect on and conditions SWs’ and in problematic situations also GPs’ knowledge use. The second is that the efforts also tend to ignore that control of the intervention process is not always maintained through control of knowledge use. For SWs control of the relationship with clients represents another mode of professional control of the intervention process. / Hur använder socialarbetare och allmänläkare kunskap i praktiken?, FAS/FORTE dnr 2009-0251

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur socialsekreterare förhåller sig till barnets bästa i arbetet med familjer där föräldrarna har en intellektuell funktionsnedsättning. För att kunna besvara studiens syfte har en kvalitativ metod använts. Intervjuer har genomförts med fem socialsekreterare från fem olika kommuner i Mellansverige, verksamma inom barn- och ungdomsenheten. En kvalitativ innehållsanalys genomfördes för analys av intervjumaterialet och två huvudkategorier; "Hur långt kan vi sträcka oss innan vi säger stopp?" samt Rädsla och osäkerhet med sex tillhörande subkategorier framkom. Den första kategorin visar på en osäkerhet hos socialsekreterarna kring vad som är barnets bästa i familjer där föräldrarna har en intellektuell funktionsnedsättning. Andra kategorin tyder på att det finns en rädsla inför socialtjänsten hos de föräldrar som har en intellektuell funktionsnedsättning vilket kan försvåra arbetet med familjerna. Resultatet visar likt anknytningsteorin att en förälder kan vara hämmande för sitt barns utveckling om det brister i förmågan att se och förstå barnets signaler. En intellektuell funktionsnedsättning i sig är dock enligt denna studie inte avgörande för om barnet kommer få en trygg anknytning. En ökad kunskap kring barn som växer upp i familjer där föräldrarna har en intellektuell funktionsnedsättning kan hjälpa socialtjänsten och socialsekreterare i frågor om vad som är barnets bästa och ge en vägledning i vad som kan tänkas vara barnets bästa uppväxtmiljö. / The purpose of this study was to investigate how social workers relates to the child's best in the work with families where the parents have an intellectual disability. To answer the purpose of the study a qualitative method have been used. Interviews were conducted with five social workers from five different municipalities in central Sweden, active in the child and adolescent unit. A qualitative content analysis was used for analysis of the interview material and two main categories were found; "How far can we stretch ourselves before we say stop?", Fear and uncertainty and six associated subcategories emerged. The first category shows an uncertainty among social workers about what is the child's best in families where the parents have an intellectual disability. The other category indicates that there is a fear of social services from parents who have an intellectual disability which may hamper the work with the families. The result shows, like attachment theory, that a parent can be a disincentive to their child's development if it lacks the ability to see and understand the child's signals. An intellectual disability in itself is not, according to this studie, decisive in determining whether the child will have a secure attachment. An increased knowledge about children growing up in families where the parents have an intellectual disability can help social services and the social secretary in the questions about the child's best and provide a guide to what might be the child's best growing environment.

Theoretical part of this thesis deals with description of substitutional family care and its types. Importance of family care for child's development is emphasized at the beginning of the thesis. Further legislation of the substitutional family care and also terms of its mediation are described. The theoretical part deals with history of the substitutional family care in our country and also in other countries. Then some weaknesses of the substitutional family care and its system are mentioned. Second part of the thesis contains research with several chosen caseworkers who work in branch of the substitutional family care. Detection of respondents' opinions about education and personality predispositions for good practise of profession is the aim of the research.