Delegationsordningen påverkar socialsekreterares handlingsutrymme att leva upp till barnets bästa. Socialsekreterare styrs dagligen i sitt yrkesutövande av politiska beslut som utgörs av lagstiftning. Det politiska landskapet avser att bidra till en demokratisk process med avsikt att leda till likabehandling och rättssäkerhet för att stärka legitimiteten inom välfärden. Samtidigt är individer i behov av individuella lösningar och behovsanpassade insatser, något som lämnar socialsekreterare med ett handlingsutrymme att agera efter egen yrkesprofessionalism i försök att leva upp till barnets bästa. Socialsekreterare lever i ett mellanting mellan dessa två världar där organisationsprofessionalism och yrkesprofessionalism möts. Studiens resultat visar på svårigheter att definiera barnets bästa vilket medför en prövning av socialsekreterarens handlingsutrymme och flexibilitet i varje enskilt fall. Dessutom framgår det av det empiriska materialet att tillit utgör grundval för att handlingsutrymme ska bli önskvärt hos socialsekreterare. På barn- och utredningsenheten där studien utfördes upplever socialsekreterare generellt att de har tillit från ledningen på arbetsplatsen. Däremot framkommer det att delegationsordningen upplevs som ett ekonomiskt styrmedel för att reglera de offentliga utgifterna. Slutligen visar resultatet att socialsekreterare är oense om vem som ska vara yttersta beslutsfattare och efterfrågar expertkunskap i socialnämnden där de tyngsta besluten fattas. / The delegation of authority affects social workers discretion to live up to the best interests of the child. Social workers are affected daily by political decisions. The political landscape contribute to a democratic process with the intention of leading to equal treatment and the rule of law. At the same time, individuals are in need of individual solutions and needsadapted efforts, which leaves the social worker with the discretion to use occupational professionalism in an attempt to live up to the child's best of interests. Social workers act in between two worlds where organisational professionalism and occupational professionalism meet. The results of the study show difficulties in defining the best interests of the child, which challenges the social workers discretion in each single case. Trust is the foundation for making discretion desirable amongst social workers. At the child welfare unit, social workers feel that they have trust from their management. On the other hand, the delegation of authority is perceived as an economic instrument for regulating public expenditure. Finally, the results shows that the social workers disagrees on who should be the ultimate decisionmaker and demand expertise among the politicians in the social committee where the toughest decisions are made.

The honor killing of Fadime Sahindal in 2002 sparked a debate in Swedish media about honor-related violence and oppression. As a professional social worker, it is important to have knowledge in the field to help young women who are exposed to honor-related violence and oppression. The aim of this study is to analyze the working methods and attitudes of social workers and their discretion in the work of honor-oppressed young women. The study is based on six qualitative interviews conducted with professional social workers. Through the interviews, the social workers' experiences, thoughts and opinions about the social service's way of working with honored young women were highlighted. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis and interpreted by the theory of honor and discretion. The results show that social workers do not have the right knowledge about honor problems and that they do not have the right tools to meet these young women who are exposed to violence and oppression. / <p>I samband med rådande situation (Covid-19) hölls presentationen via Zoom. </p>

Familj har historiskt sett konstruerats och framställts som mamma, pappa, barn, vilket har standardiserat en samhällsnorm om den ideala familjen. Det finns normer och föreställningar om vad som är ett bra föräldraskap och vilka förmågor en förälder ska ha. En kärnuppgift för socialsekreterare i barnutredningar är att göra riskbedömningar och bedöma föräldraförmåga. En kartläggning från 2021 visade att det fanns brister i två tredjedelar av ärendena gällande barn. Syftet med denna studie är att få en fördjupad förståelse för socialsekreterares tolkningar av det goda, det bristande och det ”tillräckligt bra” föräldraskapet i barnutredningar. För att besvara studiens frågeställningar har sex socialsekreterare fått ta del av en vinjett att resonera kring i enskilda intervjuer. Datamaterialet har sedan analyserats i relation till tidigare forskning och med socialkonstruktivism som teoretisk utgångspunkt. Resultatet visade att bedömningar av föräldraförmåga är ett komplext arbete. Deltagarna lyfter svårigheterna med att applicera begreppet ”tillräckligt bra” i praktiken. Det arbete som görs då föräldraförmåga bedöms kategoriseras som ett socialt hantverk. Resultatet belyste även en organisatorisk komplexitet som innebär att utredningar görs av socialsekreterare men fastställande om ingripande insatser beslutas av annan part baserat på socialsekreterarnas subjektiva utredningar. / Historically family has been constructed and presented as mother, father, child, which has standardized a societal norm as the ideal family. There are norms and perceptions of what constitutes good parenting and what abilities a good parent should have. A core task for social workers in child investigations is to make risk-assessments and assess parenting ability. A mapping from 2021 showed that there were shortcomings in two thirds of cases concerning children. The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of social workers' interpretations of the good, the deficient and the "good enough" parenting in child investigations. To answer the questions of the study, six social workers were given a vignette to resonate about in individual interviews. The collected material was analyzed along with previous research and social constructivism as a theoretical perspective. The results showed that assessing parental abilities is a complex work. The participants highlight the difficulties of practically applying “good enough” in their work. Assessing parental abilities is categorized as a social craft. The results also highlighted an organizational complexity, as assessments are performed by social workers whereas decisions about interventions are decided by another part, however based on their subjective investigations.

The aim of this study is to examine what working methods and active measures there are tomanage the ethnic discrimination of care staff working within elderly care, and how the unitmanager of nursing homes and home care in Kalmar county uses them. This objective is tocreate a deeper understanding of how the unit managers work to manage ethnic discriminationin elderly care. This study was done with a qualitative research method performed with semi-structured interviews where unit managers in their own words described their experiences oftheir complex work, their professional discretion and the occurrence of ethnic discriminationin the working place. The results show that unit managers identify different types of ethnicdiscrimination such as derogatory comments and a refusal to receive help from staff born inother countries than Sweden. The unit managers perception of their professional discretionvaries. Factors such as budget, organizational conditions, the personality of the unit managersand working experience can affect the management of ethnic discrimination of the care staffby the caretakers. Through the interviews, we have also observed the unit manager’spercieved lack of clear guidelines and aids that could support them in dealing with ethnicdiscrimination in their workplace. This also means that it becomes difficult to workpreventively to counteract ethnic discrimination. Unit managers can thus find their ownstrategies and working methods to support their staff and strengthen individuals. The unitmanagers have been shown to use methods such as increased participation and conversationswith the vulnerable person and the elderly, which are strongly linked to empowerment.

The aim of this study was to understand what meaning the discretion of swedish social workers has for how support is given to pregnant women with alcohol or substance abuse. Initially in the work with this study we searched for previous research about social workers professional experiences in contact with pregnant women with alcohol and/or substance abuse. The previous research that we present in this study describe the subject from different point of views such as custodial care, working methods, cooperation and discretion. We also learned the theoretical meaning of discretion. To achieve the aim we also did our own research on how professional social workers work with these women by completing qualitative interviews with seven different social workers with varied professional roles. Our choice of interviewing seven professionals within social work was based on the aim to understand the meaning of their discretion in cases with the defined target group. Based on the answer of our respondents we identified four themes; pregnancy as a motivation factor, impact of the pregnancy on professional work, cooperation and interpretation of laws. We analyzed these themes against previous research, our theoretical take-off and our aim and issues. The main conclusion of our research was that social workers discretion while working with support for substance abusing pregnant women can be defined as wide, and with that comes both advantages and disadvantages. A wide discretion leaves room for individual-based judgements and support, but it also brings high demands for social workers to make fair and valid decisions.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka skolors och skolkuratorers arbete med att uppmärksamma, förebygga och motverka hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Intervjuer genomfördes med sex skolkuratorer i en kvalitativ intervjustudie. Resultatet visade varierande erfarenheter gällande skolans arbete med och kunskap om problematiken. En stor del av skolkuratorerna beskrev en avsaknad av en handlingsplan och riktade insatser specifikt mot hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck medan ett fåtal beskrev ett mer utvecklat och inriktat arbete mot problematiken. Mänskliga rättigheter och barnkonventionen visade sig vara grundläggande beståndsdelar i det förebyggande och motverkande arbetet och att kunskap och relationen till eleven är av vikt för att kunna uppmärksamma och upptäcka problematiken. Samverkan, organisatoriska faktorer samt sociala konstruktioner ansågs påverka handlingsutrymmet och arbetet med hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Resultatet visade även ett behov av ständig kompetensutveckling samt att det förebyggande och motverkande arbetet alltid måste utvecklas och uppdateras. / The aim of the study was to examine how schools and school counselors pay attention to, prevent and counteract honour related violence and oppression. Six school counselors were interviewed in a qualitative study. Results showed varying experiences regarding the school’s work with and knowledge of the problem. A majority described a lack of an action plan and specific interventions against honour related violence and oppression while a few described a focused work against the problem. Human rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child were fundamental components of the preventive and counteracting work and that knowledge and the relationship with the student are important to be able to pay attention to and identify the problem. Collaboration, organizational factors and social constructions affected the work and discretion. The results demonstrate a need for constant competence development and that preventive and counteracting work must always be developed and updated.

This study aimed to investigate how social workers within the domestic violence team in the city of Stockholm experience their knowledge and discretion. To answer the purpose, three questions were formulated: 1. How do social workers experience their competence in matching interventions with client's needs? 2. How much discretion do social workers experience regarding designing interventions? 3. Which organizational challenges do social workers recognize in their work with domestic violence? This study is based on a qualitative method where six semi structured interviews were conducted with professional social workers. The theoretical point of departure were Lipsky's theory of street level bureaucracy, the term discretion and previous research in the field. The results showed that social workers experienced good knowledge, however they were limited in their interventions which affected the help they could offer. The social workers described their discretion as wide, but the delegation system and limited interventions were factors that restricted their discretion. Economy and cooperation were described as organizational challenges. The economy limited the help social workers could offer. Cooperation was described as necessary but difficult to achieve, both because it required a lot from oneself and because other social work units lacked knowledge about domestic violence.

Vårt huvudsyfte med denna studie var att öka kunskapen om hur socialsekreterare förhåller sigtill barnperspektivet i sitt arbete med ekonomiskt bistånd. Vi undersökte hur socialsekreterarnaupplevde det nuvarande arbetet, samt hur de önskade att arbeta med barnperspektivet. Studienvar en kvalitativ intervjustudie där empirin grundade sig på sju respondenter, vilka alla varverksamma inom ekonomiskt bistånd som socialsekreterare. För att bearbeta och analysera detinsamlade materialet gjordes en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Vi har analyserat empirin med stödav Lipskys teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater och handlingsutrymme. Resultatet visade på attbedömningar utifrån, och beaktande av barnperspektivet skedde på olika sätt och i olika storutsträckning av socialsekreterarna. På flera av respondenternas arbetsplatser fanns det enavsaknad av kunskap i tillämpningen av barnperspektivet. Det uttrycktes, utifrån avsaknad avkunskap kring tillämpningen, ett önskemål om att utöka den. Resultatet visade också på attrespondenterna sällan hade någon direktkontakt med barnen, vilket bekräftade den tidigareforskningen. Därmed framkom ett behov av ett utökat underlag och forskning kring hur man påbästa möjliga sätt bör arbeta med barnperspektivet inom ekonomiskt bistånd i Sverige. / The aim of this study was to contribute to the knowledge of how social workers approach thechild’s perspective in their work with financial aid. We investigated how the social workersexperienced the current ways of work, and how they wished to work, with the child’sperspective. The study was a qualitative interview study where the empirical data was based onseven respondents, which all were operating within financial aid as social workers. To processand analyze the gathered material a qualitative content analysis was done. The data wasanalyzed with the support of Lipsky's theory about street-level bureaucrats and discretion. Theresults showed that the social workers made assessments from, and took consideration of, thechild perspective in different ways. In several of the respondent’s workplaces, there was a lackof knowledge in the application of the child’s perspective, which many of the social workersexpressed a desire to expand their knowledge about. The results also showed that therespondents rarely had any direct contact with the children, which confirms previous research.The conclusion of the study was therefore that there was a need for an expanded basis andresearch on the best possible way of working regarding the child’s perspective in financial aidin Sweden.

Föreliggande arbete kommer att behandla problemet barnfattigdom, vi kommer att belysa problemet genom att se på hur barnkonventionen format beslutsfattandet av ekonomiskt bistånd. Syftet med uppsatsen är titta på hur socialsekreterares handlingsutrymme har formats sedan barnkonventionen blivit svensk lag 1 januari 2020. De centrala frågeställningarna vi vill besvara är för det första hur använder socialsekreterare det relativt nyförvärvade handlingsutrymmet, för det andra har socialsekreterarnas handlingsutrymme formats för att möjliggöra bedömningar utifrån tillämpningen av barnperspektivet? För det tredje har barnkonventionen nått en handlingsmässig tyngd i det arbete som en socialsekreterare på ekonomiskt bistånd utför i ärenden som rör barn? Resultatet visar att socialsekreterarnas handlingsutrymme har förändrats genom att de kan bevilja ekonomiskt bistånd utifrån barnkonventionen men också att handlingsutrymmet är begränsat utifrån organisationens riktlinjer och att professionens ansvar läggs över på föräldrarna. Handlingsutrymmets förändring ligger också på den yrkeserfarenhet och kunskapen en socialsekreterare har. Resultatet visar också att barnkonventionen inte har nått en riktigt handlingsmässig tyngd för att den inte tillämpats tillräckligt i handlingsutrymmets olika delar. Arbetets resultat visar på en önskan om tydligare riktlinjer och en konkretisering av barnkonventionen som verktyg för att beslut om ekonomiskt bistånd ska vara kunna tas som den kräver. / The present work will address the problem of child poverty. We will discuss the problem by looking at how the Convention on the Rights of the Child is shaped by the decisions on financial assistance. The purpose of the essay is to look at how the discretion of social workers has been shaped since the Convention on the Rights of the Child became Swedish law on the 1st of January 2020. The key questions we want to answer are firstly how social workers use the relatively newly acquired discretion found in the convention, in the practice of using a child perspective? Thirdly, has the Convention on the Rights of the Child reached a weight of action in the work carried out by a social worker in financial assistance in matters concerning children? The results show that the social worker’s use of discretion has changed in a way in which they can grant financial assistance based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. But also, that the discretion is limited based on the guidelines of the organization and that the responsibility is transferred to parents rather than onto the responsibility of the professional. The change in the discretion is also based on the professional experience and the knowledge a social worker has. The results also show that the Convention on the Rights of the Child has not reached a real weight of action because it is not yet applied sufficiently in the various parts that make up the discretion of a social worker. The results of the paper show a desire for clearer guidelines and a concretization of the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a tool for decisions on financial assistance. This is required if we are to use the convention to the extent it needs.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how social workers experience their cooperation in childcare investigations, how they experience their discretion and what happens emotionally with social workers in relationship with child care investigations. The study is based on a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews. The interviews have been analyzed via a thematic analysis and have been interpreted with the theoretical frameworks, human service organizations, street level bureaucracy and power. The results show that work linked to childcare investigations arouses feelings of the social secretary. Feelings like hopefulness, fear, stress and powerlessness. Further results show that the social secretary prefers parents to accept voluntary efforts compared with imperativ efforts and cooperation is of the greatest importance to bring child care investigations forward. The study shows that the social secretaries consider themselves to have discretion in their work but their work is also controlled by the organization. Especially when it comes to imperative care, something that the law also prescribes.