No description available.

The Swedish child welfare system allows a possibility to place children in out-of-home-care. In 2016 a new form of placement was introduced: supported housing [stödboende]. The main purpose of a placement in supported housing is to prepare the residents – young people between the ages of 16 and 20 – for an independent life and living. Unaccompanied youths constitutes a category of service-users that has become relevant for placement in supported housing due to the assumption that they are in need of support-oriented rather that treatment- and care-oriented services. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to analyse how supported housing units for unaccompanied youths are organised and how the staff describe working to ensure the independence of the youths. To meet the purpose of the study, supported housing units in three Swedish municipalities have been studied through a total of 15 semi-structured interviews with section managers, unit managers, coordinators and staff. Supported housing for unaccompanied youths has been studied as an organisational idea which has been received and adopted in the municipalities. To understand how external pressure and internal processes influence the units and the work, an organisational perspective has been applied on the empirical material, through new institutionalism and Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracies. From Said’s theory of orientalism the construction of “the other” is used as a complement to also understand how different constructions of residents and work with independency are expressed. The results of the study indicates that the organisation of the units and the work within them are highly affected by external factors, such as reduced economical resources and the situation in which many of the placed youths are still awaiting decisions on their asylum applications due to long processing times at the Swedish Migration Agency. This leads to great challenges both in terms of organisation and work. To meet the needs of the situation informal adjustments of routines and work are often made by both managers and staff. Concerning the work with independency, a division of three becomes visible: practical, societal and emotional/social independency. How the work is conducted seems to be influenced not only by the discretion of the staff, but also by whether or not the youths have received a residential permit. An important conclusion is the emergence of a construction of the “ideal” supported housing unit, where the placed youths can practice on standing on their own two feet in a safe environment. However there is also a parallel construction of “reality”, where challenges beyond the control of the staff and managers highly affect the units and the organisation of the work, including economical resources, the Swedish asylum politics, other social service actors, as well as the mental health of the placed youths.

Huvudsyftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur socialsekreterare upplever barnperspektivet i arbetet inom ekonomiskt bistånd innan och efter inkorporeringen av Barnkonventionen. Vi undersökte även vilken position barn har i socialsekreterarnas utredningar. Föreliggande studie avsåg att vara en kvalitativ intervjustudie där empirin grundar sig på sex stycken intervjuer med socialsekreterare som arbetar inom ekonomiskt bistånd i olika kommuner i Sverige. Empirin har analyserats med hjälp av barndomssociologi samt Michael Lipskys teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater. Analysmetoden som användes för att analysera respondenternas utsagor var tematisk innehållsanalys. Studiens resultat visade att flertalet socialsekreterare ansåg att barnperspektivet är tvetydigt och komplext i praktiken på grund av de många lagar och riktlinjer som präglar arbetet med ekonomiskt bistånd. Trots detta ansåg samtliga socialsekreterare att barnperspektivet är viktigt men att deras arbetsplatser har en del utrymme för ytterligare förbättring. Resultatet visade fortsättningsvis även att barn tenderar att bli mindre uppmärksammade än vuxna samt att socialsekreterarna saknade tillräckliga resurser, i form av tid och vidareutbildning, för att kunna arbeta enligt ett barnperspektiv fullt ut. / The main purpose of this study was to investigate how social workers in the social services’ management of financial assistance experience the use of the child perspective before and after the incorporation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We also examined how children were being positioned in social workers investigations. The method applied is a qualitative interview study and the empirical data lies in six interviews with social workers that work with financial assistance in different municipalities in Sweden. The empirical data has been analyzed through childhood sociology and Michael Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucrats. The empirical data was evaluated through thematic analysis. The results showed that most of the social workers consider that the meaning of the child perspective appears to be somehow ambiguous and complex due to laws and regulations that characterize the work within financial assistance. Although all informants consider the child perspective to be important, they experience that their workplaces have room for improvement. The results also showed that children seem to be noted less in comparison to adults and that social workers don’t have enough resources, in terms of time and further education, to fully commit to the child perspective.

The following study aims to study how social workers in the processing of social assistance relate to child perspective after the incorporation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It has been also examined how organizational guidelines and rules affect the processing of social assistance. This study has a qualitative research approach, and the empirical data has been collected through five interviews with social workers, who are working with social assistance in two different municipalities in Sweden. The empirical material has been analyzed through Michael Lipsky´s theory of street-level bureaucrats and discretion. All the social workers in this study consider that taking into consideration to child’s perspective is very important in the processing of social assistance but it is somehow ambiguous and complex. As a result, sometimes the social workers do not have the opportunity to consider child perspectives, even though there is now a law stipulated after the incorporation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child into Swedish law. Some of these factors that make the work difficult for social workers in the processing of social assistance are lack of time, rules and laws, indistinct organizational guidelines, etcetera. The results of this study also show that the social workers do not want to talk to or meet the children during the processing of social assistance and the working process can differ between the municipalities, where one municipality has much more difficulty in considering child perspectives due to too much workload and lack of time.

I dagsläget finns det forskning om socialsekreterares handlingsutrymme. Men det saknas forskning som besvarar frågan hur socialsekreterare upplever sitt handlingsutrymme givet de organisatoriska utmaningar som tidigare forskning belyser. I relation till detta saknas forskning som mer specifikt analyserar vilka organisatoriska faktorer och sammanhang som påverkar handlingsutrymmet att agera som policy makers. Den här studien bidrar till att fylla detta forskningsglapp genom att genomföra kvalitativa intervjuer med socialsekreterare. För att vidare tolka det empiriska materialet med hjälp av ett teoretiskt ramverk byggt på Michael Lipskys teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater som policy makers och Roine Johanssons vidareutveckling av Lipskys teoretiska ramverk. Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka socialsekreterares upplevelse av vad som påverkar deras handlingsutrymme att utreda och bedöma risk och behov för barn och unga som riskerar att begå eller återfalla i brott. Detta upplevda handlingsutrymme har vidare tolkats och förståtts med hjälp av Johanssons tre teoretiska begrepp grad av regelbundenhet, specialiseringsgrad och avstånd. Begreppen topdown och bottom-up perspektiv används för att förstå hur gräsrotsbyråkratens,handlingsutrymme skapas i mötet mellan organisationens bestämmelser, riktlinjer och praxis (top-down) och deras egen möjlighet att tolka och tillämpa dessa riktlinjer och praxis (bottomup). För att besvara syftet har sex kvalitativa intervjuer med socialsekreterare från den sociala barn- och ungdomsvården genomförts. Studiens resultat visar att det som påverkar socialsekreterarnas upplevda handlingsutrymme är förankrat i vilken grad de ges möjlighet att anta rollen som policy makers eller inte. Vår studie har uppmärksammat gräsrotsbyråkraten, i det här fallet socialsekreteraren, som möter klienten och som samlar in underlaget för en riskoch behovsbedömning. Deras upplevelser är betydelsefulla för att se över det organisatoriska sammanhanget inom socialförvaltningar. Detta för att möjliggöra risk- och behovsbedömningarna som i enlighet med socialnämndens uppdrag verkar för att barn och unga växer upp under goda och trygga levnadsförhållanden.

The purpose of the study is to seek an understanding of social workers experiences in working with children who have witnessed violence. The study aims to study and analyze what efforts the social services offer children who have witnessed violence, and what difficulties there are for social workers to help children who have witnessed violence, with the ambition to increase knowledge about what support children who have witnessed violence receive from social services and whether there are factors experienced that make it more difficult for social workers to work with children who have witnessed violence. To answer this purpose, the following questions were asked: According to the social workers, how are children affected by witnessing violence? How does the social service work with these consequences and what support does the social service offer to children who have witnessed violence? According to the social workers, what are the obstacles to being able to give children that support after they have witnessed violence? To pursue the study, we chose to do a qualitative method and we interviewed five social workers. The essay's results show that the social workers think that the consequences of witnessing violence are very different for each child. But there is a common picture among the social secretaries that children who witness violence are exposed to great psychological stress. It will also have a negative effect on the children's social, mental and physical well-being. Several times the child has their basic safety removed. The study also shows that social workers experience that they can not always help the children although they want to and believe that the children are in need of help. The result has been analyzed using theories about coping and street level bureaucracies. The coping strategies were mainly helpful in analyzing the first question regarding children's consequences. Street level bureaucracies were especially helpful in explaining the support provided by social workers to children and the obstacles that may exist in helping children who have been subjected to violence and who have adopted the various coping strategies.

​Denna studie syftar till att undersöka förutsättningar, hinder och möjligheter att bedriva behandling inom ungdomsvården på Statens institutionsstyrelse. Studien lutar sig mot bakgrund av en samhällsutveckling där allt fler unga begår grova brott och får allt svårare problem. Samtidigt kritiseras Statens institutionsstyrelse av media och andra myndigheter för att inte kunna hantera sitt uppdrag. Samtidigt som SiS behöver tvångsvårda fler ungdomar involverade i grov brottslighet, vilket i sin tur inneburit ett behov av skärpt säkerhet, behöver myndigheten också ge god omsorg och behandling till de ungdomar som placeras utifrån andra behov. Uppdraget är svårt, och i verksamheterna arbetar människor som valt att jobba på SiS utifrån en vilja och ambition att kunna påverka och hjälpa ungdomar med svåra problem. Med hjälp av Lipskys teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater och begreppet handlingsutrymme, undersöks hur personal som arbetar med behandlingsprogram hanterar de dubbla kraven från organisationens riktlinjer och ungdomarnas individuella behov. Med en kvalitativ ansats analyserades intervjuer med tematisk analys. Resultaten visar på organisatoriska hinder men också på en tro på förändring genom professionell erfarenhet och kunskap. Resultaten visade också att rätt kompetens är avgörande för att kunna bedriva behandling för myndighetens målgrupper och att finns en brist på behandlingsmetoder för grovt kriminella ungdomar. Resultaten betonar också ett behov av ökad medvetenhet, utbildning och möjligheter till för en kontinuerlig vårdkedja för att öka kvalitén på behandlingsarbetet. Slutligen belyser resultaten maktaspekter inom tvångsvården som ett hinder för behandlingsarbetet och föreslår ett förändringsarbete mot mer vårdande än straffande och kontrollerande strategier.

This study aimed to examine the reasoning among first line managers concerning the law from 2012 which gives older couples the right to continue living together even when only one of them needs special housing for service and care. We used a qualitative method with data collected through individual semi-structured interviews with six care managers in different municipalities in Sweden. The theoretical approach and interpretative framework for the analysis consisted of Michael Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracy, Roine Johansson’s swedish adaption of this theory and Max Weber’s theory about social actions. We found that there was little variation in how the interviewed care managers used the law and the guidelines to support the work in the organisation rather than seeking individually based solutions for the elderly. The main conclusion of our study was that the law concerning the cohabitation guarantee for elderly has made little difference.

Ridterapi har på senare tid börjat användas som en komplettarande behandlingsmetod för psykosocial problematik. I dagsläget finns ännu inte mycket forskning inom ämnet och behandlingsmetoden är vare sig speciellt känd eller etablerad. I denna uppsats görs en kartläggning av socialsekreterares uppfattning och kännedom om ridterapi. Undersökningen var i form av en enkät och genomfördes i Uppsala län där socialsekreterare som arbetar med placeringar på HVB-hem medverkade. Vi ville se om olika faktorer som exempelvis ett eget djurintresse, kunskap om behandlingsmetoden, kön och ålder kunde påverka deras inställning till ridterapi. Resultatet av undersökningen visade att våra respondenters generella attityd till behandligsmetoden var positiv och att de i hög grad kunde tänka sig att göra sådana placeringar och de olika faktorerna vi jämfört med i undersökningen påverkade inte resultatet nämnvärt. Dock visade det sig att det var många som inte kände till vad ridterapi var. / Recently it has been more common to use Equine assisted therapy (EAT) as a complementary treatment for psychosocial issues. Today, not much research has been done in this area and therapy method is neither known nor established. In this essay a survey has been done in the purpose to get a grip of social workers attitude toward and knowledge about EAT. The survey was performed in Uppsala County and social workers who put clients in care or residence homes (HVB) were queried. We wanted to investigate how different factors such as an interest in animals, knowledge about the therapy method, gender or age could affect the respondents attitude toward EAT. The result from our investigation has shown that our respondents had an overall positive attitude toward EAT and that they to a high degree would make such a placement. The different factors that we compared with did not affect the result in a high degree. However, our results also showed that the majority of our respondents did not know about EAT or what it can be used for.

I Sverige använder socialtjänsten lagar för att tillgodose olika levnadsstandarder till olika grupper av människor. Aktuell studie har syftat till att undersöka hur biståndshandläggare resonerar kring begreppet skälig levnadsnivå och hur det används i praktiken inom äldreomsorgen. En kvalitativ studie har utförts där åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med biståndshandläggare från tre olika kommuner i Sverige. En vinjett med ett fiktivt ärende har även använts för att undersöka om det finns olikheter i bedömningar mellan biståndshandläggare. Utifrån den insamlade empirin så har en tematisk analys genomförts och fyra teman har presenterats i resultatdelen. Dessa teman är vad är skälig levnadsnivå?, god vs skälig levnadsnivå, handlingsutrymme och olikheter i bedömning. Resultatet visar att det finns olikheter i bedömningar och att begreppet skälig levnadsnivå är ett abstrakt begrepp som har ett stort tolkningsutrymme. Parallellt visar studiens resultat att majoriteten av biståndshandläggare upplever sitt handlingsutrymme en lagom nivå. En diskussion förs mellan vikten av att ha handlingsutrymme och ett rättssäkert samhälle där alla behandlas lika av myndigheter. Slutsatsen visar att det är en svår balansgång och att det krävs mer forskning inom ämnet. Resultatet har analyserats med hjälp av tidigare forskning och Lipskys teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater samt Maslows behovspyramid. / In Sweden the social services use different laws to meet different living standards for different groups of people. The current study has aimed to investigate how social workers in elderly care reason about the concept of a reasonable standard of living and how it is used in practice. A qualitative study was conducted in which eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers in the elderly care unit from three different municipalities in Sweden. A vignette has also been used to investigate whether there are differences in assessments between social workers. Based on the collected empirical data, a thematic analysis has been carried out and four themes have been presented in the results section. These themes are what is a reasonable standard of living?, good vs reasonable standard of living, room for maneuver and differences in assessment. The results show that there are differences in assessments and that the concept of a reasonable standard of living is an abstract concept that has a large scope for interpretation. In parallel, the results of the study show that the majority of development assistance officers feel that their room for maneuver is at a reasonable level. A discussion is held between the importance of having room for maneuver and a law-abiding society where everyone is treated equally by the authorities. The conclusion shows that it is a difficult balancing act and that more research is required in the subject. The results have been analyzed with the help of previous research and Lipsky's theory of grassroot bureaucrats and Maslow's pyramid of needs.