The aim of this essay was to study how social workers work with clients who suffer from addiction problems. The study enlightens how the legal framework concerning the legislation of social services can be seen as either a possibility or restriction in terms of processing social welfare. Furthermore the purpose with the study was to examine what demands that are set at clients with addiction problems. To work with the clients motivation is a reacurring theme that contains both social workers latitude and the demands that are made on the clients. The empirical data is based on interviews with four social workers within the administration of social welfare in commune X. The data in the study was transcribed and organized to be able to analyze. The outcome of the study shows that the legislation fills a fundamental importance in the daily work of the social workers. This is set into seeing that the assignments in the daily work of the social workers appear to be relatively complex. It is shown to be clear that the legislation entails problems regarding differences in the social workers decision making which can raise dissatisfaction among the clients. Additionally, the result in the studie shows the importance of good relations between social workers and clients to promote the work and use the good prerequisites. Consequently, the study does also illuminate some positive aspects in relation to the social workers ability, within their authority, making individual assessment.

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka hur socialsekreterare verksamma på ekonomiskt bistånd upplever sitt handlingsutrymme med hänsyn till verksamhetens ekonomiska krav samt ur ett rättssäkerhetsperspektiv. Som utgångspunkt i studien tillämpas det teoretiska perspektivet New Public Management som menar att offentlig sektor under de senaste årtiondena har formats efter företagsliknande strukturer. Sju socialsekreterare på socialtjänstens avdelning för ekonomiskt bistånd i en kommun i Sverige intervjuades enligt semistrukturerade intervjuer. I resultatet framkommer det att centrala påverkansfaktorer av handlingsutrymmet såsom personliga värderingar, det kollegiala stödet samt omgivande aktörers ageranden identifieras. Vidare påvisar resultatet att samtliga informanter upplever sitt handlingsutrymme som stort samt att ekonomiska krav inte påverkar handlingsutrymmet då det alltid föreligger en individuell bedömning. Något intressant är att det tycks råda en motsägelsefullhet eftersom informanterna ändå identifierar begränsningar i handlingsutrymmet. Vidare tycks den individuella bedömningen, som ger stort utrymme för tolkning, möjliggöra att rättssäkerheten kan äventyras. / <p>2019-01-15</p>

Title: [Frontline bureaucrats discretion in the transition to Establishment Reform]This essay aims to study discretion among frontline bureaucrats as an important factor in the integration of immigrants. In contrast to other studies of discretion this essays has its focus on a new establishment reform that has been recently legislated. The theoretical frame is based on the concept of frontline bureaucracy developed by M. Lipsky (2010). In the analysis of the discretion in this specific area I have been inspired by I. Schierenbecks (2003) comparative study based on three different relationships a frontline bureaucrat has to take into account: regulations, the dual role and a relationship to the immigrant client. I have used a qualitative approach where I interviewed workers in two different employment exchange offices in the country. The results show that there is an opportunity to adapt the law to individual needs which meets the criteria for an extensible and flexible framework. All frontline bureaucrats find the dual role as debilitating where they feel torn between the organization's goals and the applicant's needs. When these needs conflict, the majority chooses to follow the employment services directives. Frontline bureaucrats in the study are sharing a disposal, problem- solving approach towards the immigrant clients. There is a perception among frontline bureaucrats on new immigrant clients as carriers of specific cultural characteristics, however, there is nothing saying that these perceptions affect the exercise of authority. This study expands further through the dimension of newcomers' opportunities in achieving active citizenship. In the essay I discuss the usage of discretion among workers at the employment exchange office and the new establishment reform as two factors playing a significant role in the activation of active citizenship for the new immigrants as well as in the integration of the same.

This study regards the Swedish documentation system, BBiC, which is translated from the English version LACS. BBiC is created to make sure that the children’s needs are put in centre of attention in child protection investigations. The BBiC-system becomes problematic regarding unaccompanied refugee children because of the parent-perspective which is a keystone in the system. Therefor BBiC creates discretion for the social worker which is not BBiC: s original intension. The study’s aim was to understand how BBiC: s creates discretion for the social worker that works with unaccompanied refugee children. In the results of the study we show that the social workers discretion expands when using BBiC in the work with unaccompanied refugee children. Because of the lack of guidelines from Socialstyrelsen, BBiC is used differently in different municipalities. The social workers sees BBiC in different ways, some see BBiC as a complete system and has adapted BBiC well to the work with unaccompanied refugee children and therefore the discretion increases. Some has only adapted BBiC as a way of thinking and still has a large discretion. We use Lipskys theory about street-level bureaucracy and discretion. We selected the theory and its concept because it is relevant to analyze how BBiC has created discretion for the social workers that work with unaccompanied refugee children. With a large discretion there is also a risk of injustice safety for the unaccompanied refugee child. Therefor the legitimacy of municipality can be questioned. We preformed semi-structured interviews in eight municipalities in southern Sweden and had twelve interviewees. We have also done literary studies regarding Socialstyrelsens reports about BBiC and the research that concerning the implementation of BBiC.

The aim of this study was to shed light on the phenomenon of sex purchase amongst men from the perspective of professionals working at KAST*. Our main research questions concerned who the sex-purchasing men are, what their incentives are and furthermore how the professionals depict their work with these clients. In order to examine this we conducted three qualitative research interviews. The theoretical framework used to examine our results consisted of social constructivism and professional acting space. Main results show, contrary to research, that the “typical” sex buyer does not exist, nor do specific motives. Instead, our interviewees prefer to speak of a mutual pattern amongst the sex buyers, referred to as an obsessive-compulsive sexual behaviour. In addition, our interviewees emphasize the importance of distinguishing between the act and the individual. Other findings show that although none of the units use evidence-based practice, all interviewees claim their methods are effective and moreover they all describe their professional acting space as almost unlimited. With our interviewees’ testimonies differing in several ways from the image of sex buyers common amongst the public and some researchers, we hope our findings can contribute to a more nuanced view of sex buyers.   * Abbreviation for the unit within the social services working with sex buyers

The overall purpose of this essay was to provide a better understanding of the importance of discretion for social workers in direct social services. To answer the purpose three questions were formulated: (1) How do social workers define and describe their discretion and their ability to independently accomplish their work? (2) How do social workers experience that workplace organization, policies and economic conditions interact with their discretion and (3) How do social workers experience that the interaction with the client can affect how they use their discretion in the individual case? The method used was qualitative interviews. The theoretical framework was Michael Lipskys (1980) Street-level bureaucracy and the four themes organization, professional role, skills and interaction. The results showed that the respondents, although they did not consider themselves to be affected by the economy still adapted to budget restrictions when they said that they were cost conscious in their work. This adjustment to budget framework could possibly be what made them not feel limited in their work. The organization around the direct social work varied, in spite of this showed the result a broad consensus in the experiences of discretion in direct social work.

Den här studien tar sin utgångspunkt i genusteorier och de naturvetenskapliga och tekniska ämnesområdena i skolsammanhang. Syftet är att undersöka vad flickor tänker om ämnena biologi, kemi, fysik och teknik och hur det påverkar valet av fortsatta studier. I undersökningen deltar flickor i grundskolans årskurs 9 och gymnasiets årskurs 3. I undersökningen användes intervjuer, fokussamtal och enkäter. Resultaten visar att ett personligt ämnesintresse, den egna förmågan och förebilder i familj och kamrater bidrar till att flickor väljer naturvetenskapliga och tekniska studier. Betydelsefullt är att ämnesintresset på något sätt finns i flickornas vardagsliv exempelvis ett naturintresse. Av vikt för att flickorna väljer dessa studier är att de befinner sig i en omgivning, ex familj, som stödjer och främjar naturvetenskapliga och tekniska intressen och studier. Resultaten visar också några av de egenskaper som behövs för att göra gränsöverskridande studieval. Däremot visar resultatet att arbetssätten påverkar i mindre grad till ett personligt intresse för fortsatta studier. Identifieringen med en grupp för att känna tillhörighet är av betydelse i val av ämnesstudier.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka vilka former av psykisk ohälsa som skolkuratorer mötte samt hur de arbetade med detta. Vi har därför utfört en kvalitativ studie och intervjuat sex skolkuratorer som arbetar med högstadieelever. Resultatet visade att psykisk ohälsa var ett mångtydigt begrepp, men att de mest centrala formerna av psykisk ohälsa i skolan var stress, prestationsångest och självskadebeteende. Skolkuratorernas arbetsuppgifter upplevdes som diffusa, men de tre mest framträdande arbetsuppgifterna i samband med psykisk ohälsa var kartläggning, enskilda samtal samt att remittera elever vidare till andra aktörer. Skolkuratorerna fokuserade främst på akuta insatser vilket resulterade i att det förebyggande arbetet att motverka psykisk ohälsa blev eftersatt. Deras samverkan inom elevhälsan beskrevs vara betydelsefull för att upptäcka och hantera psykisk ohälsa. / The aim of this study was to explore what kind of mental illness school counselors encounter and work with in school, we have therefore conducted a qualitative study and interviewed six school counselors who work with high school students. The results showed that mental illness was an ambiguous term, but the most significant forms of mental illness encountered were stress, performance anxiety and self-harm. School counselors work was perceived as vague, but the three most prominent tasks associated with mental illness were charting, individual counseling and to support students to other professionals. The school counselors focused primarily on acute interventions which resulted that preventive work to avoid mental illness being neglected. Their collaboration in student health care was described to be important for detecting and managing mental illness.

The purpose of this study is to highlight some aspects of the increased usage of tablets in preschool environments by answering the questions: what does the tablet become in the preschool environment, how much freedom does the children have over its usage. To answer these questions a series of observations were made at two different preschools. The observations were then complemented by interviews with teachers at the same preschools. This qualitative study focuses on some of the didactic questions regarding the tablets, based on a theoretical framework that is within the design-oriented perspective; which addresses the children's’ autonomy, the institutional framework and affordance. Our conclusion is that the tablet’s introduction in the preschool has helped the teachers in numerous parts of their documentation, but we can also see that the children's opportunities to make choices regarding the tablet are more limited than with any other resource on the preschool. In our results we also see that when the children get access to the tablet they receive a learning experience, which among other things, strengthens their language skills and their social interaction with each other.

The aim of this study has been to highlight how school social workers experience their discretion, and furthermore how they feel about working in a context mainly dedicated to teachers. The study is executed with a qualitative research method where ten interviews with school social workers, in eight schools in the area of Stockholm have been conducted. The theoretical framework used to analyze the results was discretion, street-level bureaucracy and human service organizations.The main findings of this study imply that the most important ambition of the social work that was conducted in the schools was to help the students reach their knowledge goals. The assignment is, however, not clearly defined, which has lead to school social workers defining the mission and goals themselves. They all have wide discretion and great possibilities to decide how to execute their work, but how they use the freedom that was given seems to vary among them. An additional finding was that being a school social worker is often a solitary role in the organization, and therefore most of them highlight the importance of enjoying independent work and having a co-worker to discuss their work with.