<p>Family centres are established to serve families with children and the personnel usually consists of units of social-workers, preschool staff, paediatric nurses and midwives. The purpose of the study was to examine the social-workers preventive work with families at the family centre. To fulfil the purpose, a qualitative interview with five social-workers was conducted. The theoretical framework referred to attachment and empowerment theory. The results of the study showed that the main part of the work consists of giving advice and support to parents. The social-workers do also organize different group activities. One example of group-work was about teaching parents to interplay with their children. Some work is also carried through in a structural level. The target groups are very varying, and consist of parents with different income, origin and social networks. Furthermore the study showed that the social-workers apprehend that most of their visitors are satisfied with their work. The important possibility united with the social work in a family centre is to meet the families in the beginning of parenthood, and to offer help early. The difficulties consist among other things to collaborate with the paediatric nurses and midwives, and also to claim the importance of their work towards employers and politicians.</p>

<p>The aim of this study is to look how the Social Service has handled custody issues. The study has a legal and social aspect with a purpose to investigate how the law affects the social administration as well as the family. During a period of one year a quantitative and qualitative study was performed within the social administration in a nearby community. The study focus is partly on the relationship between the law, family and society. The main questions have been: Which one of the parents, mother or father, did in fact get the custody and why? How has the children’s point of view been reported in the inquiry? A child needs a well organized everyday life in a preferably conflict free environment. The result shows that the mothers are most often presented as the child’s main provider but it´s not related to gender. The main reason is the child´s need to stability, security and structure in everyday life and therefore the authority often chose to not change the child´s existing resident and surroundings. We have also found out that more focus must be put on the child’s wish, they need to be considered. For the best interest of the child!</p>

<p>The aim of this study is to look how the Social Service has handled custody issues. The study has a legal and social aspect with a purpose to investigate how the law affects the social administration as well as the family. During a period of one year a quantitative and qualitative study was performed within the social administration in a nearby community. The study focus is partly on the relationship between the law, family and society. The main questions have been: Which one of the parents, mother or father, did in fact get the custody and why? How has the children’s point of view been reported in the inquiry? A child needs a well organized everyday life in a preferably conflict free environment. The result shows that the mothers are most often presented as the child’s main provider but it´s not related to gender. The main reason is the child´s need to stability, security and structure in everyday life and therefore the authority often chose to not change the child´s existing resident and surroundings. We have also found out that more focus must be put on the child’s wish, they need to be considered. For the best interest of the child!</p>

<p>The purpose with this study was to examine six caseworkers and two clients’ experiences of interaction in the investigative work of social assistance. Moreover, how the interaction between caseworkers and clients are affected by the structure of the social assistance unit. The study also wanted to show how interaction rituals contribute to the change in assessment procedure in the investigative work. The study even aimed to highlight the ways in which social exclusion occurs in investigative work from caseworkers and client’s capital and gender. Finally, the study intended to look at how caseworkers and client’s positions as superior and subordinate affect the interaction of the investigative work and what roles are shaped during their meeting and how the roles form the interaction. The questions were examined using qualitative methodology in the form of semi-structured interviews. I´ve based the paper on social exclusion processes and applied organizational sociology. The theoretical perspectives used in this thesis work is moreover Ahrne’s organization theory, Collins’s theory of interaction rituals, Goffman’s role theory, Bourdieus’ theory of distinction and capital concept and Mulinari and de los Reyes intersectionality concept. Main conclusions I could draw from the survey results and analysis are that the caseworkers and clients’ experiences tend to resemble each other in many aspects. Overall the caseworkers and clients experience that the interaction is multidimensional; however, the interaction is founded in the authority structure. The interaction is represented by the caseworker’s dominant position, where their overall superior role exists in which the underlying dual roles as helpers and personal authorities also occur. Unlike the caseworkers the clients hold a dominated position, where their overall subordinate role exists in which the underlying dual roles as clients and as individuals occur. This means that the interaction is primarily governed by the caseworkers and client’s freedom of movement is restricted. Clients welfare and their meaningfulness of everyday life including their financial situation are thereby affected by the interaction of the investigative work as a result of the interaction leading toward that the client is justified social assistance or not.</p>

<p>Many social services cases have been reviewed in the media during the last years. One of those cases is “Lasse and Karin”, handled by the Social Services in Oskarshamn in 2002. Lasse and Karin had their son taken into custody by the Social Services and the case was reviewed in national media. Through this case the Social Services received much attention, of which most was negative, and their handling of the case was greatly criticized. From this particular case as well as others alike it, our interest developed into this study. This is a qualitative study, based of sex depth interviews with Social Welfare Secretaries in three different municipalities. Our aim with this study is to examine how the Social Welfare Secretaries are influenced by media coverage of their work, focusing on their handling of cases. We also compare how these influences vary between Social Welfare Secretaries who have personal experience of media reviews, and the Social Welfare Secretaries who have not yet been reviewed by the media. The study has a sociological and social psychological perspective. Our purpose with this study is to learn more about how the Social Welfare Secretaries experience the media coverage of social service cases, how the Social Welfare Secretaries relate to media articles and how they, in their occupational role, handle the pressure of being reviewed by media. Some of the people we interviewed have personal experience of media reviews while others only have experienced the reviewing of colleagues through media. The result of the study shows that the Social Welfare Secretaries experience media reviewing as tiring, strenuous and one-sided. Because of this, their trust in the media was low. However, they all agreed that media could be used to promote the Social Services in a positive way. </p>

<p>The purpose of this study is to investigate preschool personnel experiences concerning their obligation to report existing and suspicions of child maltreatment. This is a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews that can provide a good understanding of the subject and of the informants’ views. The theoretical starting points we used were the communication theory, Kelly’s personality theory and the role theory. We carried out eight interviews with pre-school personnel who work in four different counties in Sweden. The interviews lasted between 45 to 60 minutes. The result from our study shows that the pre-school personnel have a positive view upon their obligation to report child maltreatment. In contradiction to this, the result also shows that there is a fear and concern about making a report. The main reasons for not reporting, is the relationship with the preschool children’s parents, lack of knowledge to identify the children who suffer the abuse, previous bad experiences from the social services and poor feedback from the social services.</p>

The present dissertation is based on a phenomenological study on undocumented Mexican immigrant mothers of high school students who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years and received social services. Most of these mothers have emigrated from rural areas of the central and southern Mexican States of Guanajuato, Michoacan, Queretaro, among others. According to the participants, socio-economic conditions forced them to leave their homelands hoping to find a better life in the U.S. Ten undocumented mothers of high school students living in the U.S. were interviewed from a phenomenological perspective. They were monolingual Spanish speakers (only one mother spoke a native Mexican dialect as a first language and Spanish as a second language), parents of several children, and unskilled laborers with little formal education. This research explored the experiences of these mothers, their beliefs and values, and their relationship with their children’s school and the community in general. The study confirmed some of the outcomes presented in the literature review and revealed other findings that are critical to the development of school and social service programs.

Die sozialen Sicherungs- und Fürsorgesysteme in Deutschland befinden sich in einem radikalen Umbau im Sinne eines neoliberalen Gesellschaftsmodells mit der Folge, dass sich die gesellschaftlichen Widersprüche und Konflikte zuspitzen. Gleichzeitig weisen die aktuellen Debatten in der Sozialen Arbeit darauf hin, dass die gesellschaftlichen, und damit strukturellen, Widersprüche in deren Mitte angekommen sind. Sie manifestieren sich u.a. in Handlungsdilemmata, mit denen die Sozialarbeiter/innen in ihrem Berufsalltag und in ihrer pädagogischen Praxis konfrontiert sind und auf die sie reagieren (müssen). Hier liegt auch der Ausgangspunkt der vorliegenden Arbeit. Es wird der Frage nachgegangen, welche Strategien die in der Jugendberufshilfe tätigen Sozialarbeiter/innen bei der Konfrontation mit sich widersprechenden Handlungsanforderungen entwickeln, die sich aus den institutionellen und gesellschaftlichen Rahmenbedingungen einerseits und der sozialpädagogischen Berufspraxis andererseits ergeben. Von besonderem Interesse ist die Frage, welche Probleme und Handlungsdilemmata überhaupt von den Sozialarbeiter/innen wahrgenommen werden. Der Fokus dieser Arbeit liegt auf der Jugendsozialarbeit, und insbesondere auf der Jugendberufshilfe, als demjenigen Teil des sozialen Sicherungssystems, der sich speziell an individuell beeinträchtigte und sozial benachteiligte Jugendliche richtet und an ihrer Übergangsproblematik ansetzt. Dem qualitativen Forschungsansatz der grounded theory folgend werden zwei Fallanalysen von Sozialarbeiterinnen durchgeführt, die als Beraterinnen am Übergang Schule – Beruf tätig sind. Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass die Umgangsformen mit Handlungsdilemmata in einem engen individuellen, institutionellen sowie gesellschaftlichen Kontext stehen, da sie stets gleichsam eine individuelle, institutionelle und gesellschaftliche Funktion erfüllen.

The purpose with this study was to examine six caseworkers and two clients’ experiences of interaction in the investigative work of social assistance. Moreover, how the interaction between caseworkers and clients are affected by the structure of the social assistance unit. The study also wanted to show how interaction rituals contribute to the change in assessment procedure in the investigative work. The study even aimed to highlight the ways in which social exclusion occurs in investigative work from caseworkers and client’s capital and gender. Finally, the study intended to look at how caseworkers and client’s positions as superior and subordinate affect the interaction of the investigative work and what roles are shaped during their meeting and how the roles form the interaction. The questions were examined using qualitative methodology in the form of semi-structured interviews. I´ve based the paper on social exclusion processes and applied organizational sociology. The theoretical perspectives used in this thesis work is moreover Ahrne’s organization theory, Collins’s theory of interaction rituals, Goffman’s role theory, Bourdieus’ theory of distinction and capital concept and Mulinari and de los Reyes intersectionality concept. Main conclusions I could draw from the survey results and analysis are that the caseworkers and clients’ experiences tend to resemble each other in many aspects. Overall the caseworkers and clients experience that the interaction is multidimensional; however, the interaction is founded in the authority structure. The interaction is represented by the caseworker’s dominant position, where their overall superior role exists in which the underlying dual roles as helpers and personal authorities also occur. Unlike the caseworkers the clients hold a dominated position, where their overall subordinate role exists in which the underlying dual roles as clients and as individuals occur. This means that the interaction is primarily governed by the caseworkers and client’s freedom of movement is restricted. Clients welfare and their meaningfulness of everyday life including their financial situation are thereby affected by the interaction of the investigative work as a result of the interaction leading toward that the client is justified social assistance or not.

The aim with the study was, that through a qualitative research approach, to examine in which way social services employees perceive information about children with incarcerated fathers and how they furthermore relates to the child's right to both parents in these situations. Seven interviews were implemented with social workers in the Stockholm County to obtain informa-tion on the following questions; how the children's needs are noticed at the social services, how employees discuss the child's right to their incarcerated father and which possibilities and obstacles social workers experience to promote contact between the child and the father. The ecology of human development theory was used in the analysis. The conclusions are that chil-dren with incarcerated fathers seldom is noticed at the social services as a result of inadequate cooperation between authorities but also due to whether the social services should be respon-sible for the children. Furthermore, children always have the right to maintain contact with their incarcerated father, with exceptions for situations where physical or sexual abuse have occurred. Social workers may contribute to contact by awarding a contact person, in cases where the mother is insufficient. Finally, individual assessments must always be done with considerations to the individual child.