Socialsekreterarnas arbetsmiljö och arbetsbelastning har i flera år uppmärksammats i hopp om förbättring. Detta kan man finna i mängder forskningsstudier och andra rapporter, både från idag, tio år tillbaka och längre. Mot bakgrund av detta är syftet med föreliggande studie att undersöka hur socialsekreterare med beteendevetenskaplig- och socionominriktad utbildning ser på sin arbetsbelastning. Huvudfråga delas in i två subfrågor; hur utbildningar har förberett socialsekreterarna på att hantera arbetsbelastning samt hur arbetsbelastningen hanteras på plats i yrket- med fokus på beteendevetare och socionomer. Ingen tidigare forskning finns att hitta riktad mot dessa examenstyper och mer forskning krävs för att belysa skillnader vad gäller socialsekreterarnas utbildningsbakgrund i denna fråga. Fokus riktas mot att skapa en djupareförståelse för om de skiljer sig åt mellan de två utbildningsbakgrunder med hänsyn till ovannämnda två forskningsfrågor. För att kunna utföra denna undersökning så har semistrukturerade intervjuer används med åtta deltagare sammanlagd; fyra är av respektive utbildning. Det insamlade datamaterialet analyserades utifrån en tematisk analysmetod och resulterade i två teman. Under vardera tema identifierades även subteman. Resultatet visar att samtliga informanter upplever att arbetsbelastningen är hög men hanterbar. Samtliga informanter beskriver att utbildning inte har förberett socialsekreterarna på att hantera arbetsbelastning i det kommande yrkeslivet, dvs inga strategier eller verktyg till hur man kan gå tillväga har informerats om i utbildningen- oavsett utbildningsbakgrund. Fyndet med studien vad gäller hantering av arbetsbelastning på plats i yrket visar sig vara att samtliga informanter är ense om tillvägagångssättet för hur man kan hantera detta stressmoment. Studien bidrar med en ökad förståelse vad gäller vikten av att upplysa om hanteringsstrategier i utbildningen samt att stöd och samverkan i yrkeslivet är en viktig resurs för att bibehålla motivationen och arbetsglädjen på arbetsplats. Inte minst sin psykiska hälsa. / The work environment and workload of social workers has been a topic of conversation for many years, in hopes of improvement. Several studies and reports written on the matter, both recent and older that dates back ten years and more bears evidence of this. With this as a notion, the purpose of this study is to determine how social workers with an education in behavioural science and in social work view their workload. The main inquiry here is divided into two parts:In what way has the social workers education prepared them in handling workload? And how is the workload handled onsite in the workplace- primarily focusing on people with an education in behavioural science and social work. No previous research can be found focusing on these types of degrees and more research is needed to examine the differences between social wokers' educational backgrounds in this issue. The focus is to create a deeper understanding of whether there is a difference between the two educational backgrounds in this issue. To perform this study, qualitative research was used with a semi-structured interview and with a total of eight informants. Four informants from each educational background. The data gathered was analysed with a thematic analysis method and resulted in two different themes. Under each of the separate themes, different subthemes were also identified. The results shows that all participants experience that the workload is high, but manageable. All participants express that their education has not prepared them to manage workload in the coming profession –regardless of their previous education. The findings in this study in regards to handling workload, is shown to be that all participants are in agreement in how to deal with the stress that the occupational workload induces. This study contributes an increased understanding as to the weight of proper information regarding stressmanagement strategies for people undertaking an education or training in this field. It also highlights the importance of collaboration in the workplace to maintain motivation and morale among staff. Especially in regards to the mentalhealth of the workers.

Det sociala arbetet ställer höga krav och medför ofta en hög arbetsbelastning,vilket kan leda till att socialarbetare säger upp sig. Studiens syfte är att få enförståelse för hur chefer och arbetsledare för socialsekreterare som arbetar medbarn eller missbruk erfar att socialsekreterare hanterar stress, faktorer som bidrartill stress och förutsättningar som kan reducera stress. Åtta semistruktureradeintervjuer genomfördes och analyserades med en tematisk analys. Resultatet visaratt stress främst uppstår i situationer eller orsakas av faktorer där brist på kontrolleller resurser finns. Socialsekreterare tenderar att hantera stress genom konkretaförändringar eller känslofokuserade strategier. En god relation till kollegor samtbra stöd från chef och arbetsledare kan minska stress. Slutsatsen är attsocialsekreterare kan utsätts för hög stress och hanterar denna med hjälp av olikametoder som är mer eller mindre effektiva. / Social work sets high demands and often entails a high workload, which can leadto them resigning. The purpose of the study is to get an understanding of howmanagers and supervisors for social workers who work with children or addiction,experience that social workers manage stress, factors that contribute to stress andconditions that can reduce stress. Eight semi-structured interviews were conductedand analyzed with a thematic analysis. The results show that stress mainly occursin situations or is caused by factors where there is a lack of control or resources.Social workers tend to deal with stress through concrete changes or emotionfocusedstrategies. A good relationship with colleagues and good support from themanager and supervisor can reduce stress. The conclusion is that social workerscan be exposed to high stress and handle this with the help of various methods thatare more or less effective.

Inom socialtjänsten används allt mer standardiseringsmanualer och bedömningsmodeller i socialt arbete samtidigt som forskning visar att relationen är en grund och en förutsättning för allt klientarbete. Det finns antydan till att relationen mellan klient och socialarbetare blivit mer administrativ och juridisk till följd av strukturella krav. Det finns därför ett behov av att undersöka hur kraven på standardiseringsmanualer påverkar klienterna och relationen mellan klient och socialsekreterare. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka socialsekreterarens uppfattningar om relationens betydelse i det sociala arbetet samt om standardiseringsmanualer har en påverkan på relationen mellan socialsekreterare och klient. Studien har utgått från en kvalitativ ansats och som datainsamlingsmetod använt semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet visar bland annat att en god relation mellan socialsekreterare och klient är betydelsefull för socialt arbete. I resultatet framkommer också att standardiseringsmanualer, trots att de är viktiga, påverkar möjligheterna att skapa en god relation. / The social services use of standardization manuals and assessment models are increasing at the same time as research shows that the relationship is the foundation and a prerequisite for all client work. There is a hint that the relationship between client and social worker has become more administrative and legal as a result of structural requirements. Therefore there is a need to study how the requirements for standardization manuals affect clients and the relationship between client and social worker. The purpose of this study is to examine the social secretary's perceptions of the relationship's importance in social work and whether standardization manuals have an impact on the relationship between social worker and client. The study was based on a qualitative approach where semi-structured interviews was used as data collection method. The results show, among other things, that a good relationship between social workers and client is significant for social work. The results also show that standardization manuals, despite being important, affect the opportunities to create a good relationship.

Previous research show that there is a knowledge cap in investigations on how social workers are supposed to interpret the nursing needs for children, in which the parent who has custody of the child is responsible for. The same knowledge cap is shown in how ”child's best” is supposed to be interpreted by social workers and be a red thread in the investigations. Which also leads to help interventions being given to children when the parent does not fulfill the nursing needs of the child, which is always not clear. Therefore the purpose of the study was to understand how social services interpret the nursing needs and shed light on how social workers interpret the ”child’s best” and how they work with children when the parents do not fulfill the nursing needs. Therefore in this study 8 interviews have been executed with social workers from different county’s around Sweden. The result shows that the interpretation of nursing needs for children is interpreted by the working model BBIC and that children should feel safe and not be at risk of getting hurt. The ”child’s best” means from the perspective of social workers shows that what is best for the child is to stay with the biological parents and that they are stable and emotionally available. The social workers work with children through family therapy, since focus is on helping the whole family. Help interventions are rarely only given to children alone, unless the child is over 15 years of age.

Background: Previous research shows that openness in the Swedish public sector is limited and the social workers as a professional group rarely speaks out about their work situation. Aim: The aim of this study is to clarify which elements social workers experience enables and limits them to speak out concerning their work situation.  Methods: The study is based on seven individual qualitative interviews with social workers from different municipalities in Sweden. For analysis system theory and coping strategies are used. Results: Different factors are distinguished that both enables and limits social workers to use the coping strategie voice. The management style has been crucial and a democratic management style are preferred since they are more open to dialogue and were more encouraging to criticism. The openness between the levels at the workplaces turned out to be limited. The higher levels of management rarely included the social workers in dialogue and there were clear signs of a hierarchical view of communication.Conclusion: The social workers apply voice as a strategy to a greater extent than previous research shows. Despite the fact that the social workers are good at speaking out, the openness in the workplace turned out to be limited and this is something that needs to be developed and strengthened.

This study has the aim to understand how social workers experience the documentation in relation to their freedom of action in childcare investigations. We also used a moral and work ethic perspective in our analysis. Former research show that social workers feel a lack of time for client relation, heavy workload and different ideas about how to customize their documentation, so it suits with the client and the individual social worker. The study is based on six individual interviews with social workers working in children social services. The main results show that the social workers are driven by their sense of wanting to do the right thing for the children, but a lot of time are spent on documentation. The freedom of action among the social workers in our study is depending on how they use their professional license to balance documentation and client work.

The aim of this study has been to explore how social workers in a Swedish context, who have been on sick leave due to burnout or other stress-related disorders, perceive their occupational role compared to the time before the disorder. The primary focus has been how the social workers view their occupational role after the experience of being on sick leave due to the disorder and if the experience have taught the social workers things they find valuable in their occupational role. This study is based on six interviews with social workers who have the requested experience and have been back to work for at least six months. The theoretical framework used to analyse the results consists of Sense of Coherence (Antonovsky, 2005) and concepts of coping (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). This study concludes that the social workers differentiates the view and approach towards the occupational role. The social workers do not perceive that they have a changed view of the occupational role, but their approach to the occupational role seems to be different. The experience have also taught them useful things that they practice in their occupational role and advise other social workers to also practice these wisdoms.

Titel: Vi måste trolla med knäna- Socialsekreterares erfarenheter av eftervård till unga som lämnar dygnsvården Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka vad socialsekreterare anser attsamhällsplacerade unga har för behov i övergången mot ett självständigt vuxenliv, samtderas erfarenheter av de stöd- och hjälpinsatser som erbjuds de unga eftersamhällsplaceringens avslut. Metod: För att besvara studiens syfte och frågeställningar genomfördes tvåfokusgruppsintervjuer på två olika avdelningar inom en Socialtjänst i Sverige. Resultat: Resultatet av studien visade att socialsekreterarna anser att de unga somlämnar dygnsvården har olika förutsättningar och är i stort behov av socialt stöd ochpraktiskt stöd. Resultatet visade även att de eftervårdsinsatser som erbjuds idag intetillgodoser de identifierade behoven. Socialsekreterarna måste således trolla med knänaoch hitta egna lösningar. Diskussion: Samhället har ett stort ansvar för de placerade barnen även efter avslutadplacering och därför behöver lagen kring eftervård bli tydligare. / Title: Leaving social care in Sweden- Social workers experiences of working with young care leavers Aim: The study aims at examining what social workers consider necessary for youngcare leavers during their transition to adulthood, together with social workers experiences of working with aftercare. Method: To achieve the aim of the study, two focus group interviews were conductedwith social workers from two different sections of social services in one municipality in Sweden. Results: The result showed that according to the social workers, the young care leaversare a vulnerable group and in need of social and practical support. The study alsoshowed that the existing aftercare policies and services offered to care leavers does notmeet the identified needs. The social workers cannot therefore provide for the needs ofthe care leavers thus being forced to make things work out of the impossible. Discussion: The social services within municipalities are solely responsible for care andaftercare of the out of home placed children and youth. Therefore, there is need fordistinct policies and guidelines on aftercare.

The aim of this study is to gain an understanding of what makes people choose to work with children in the context of social work. Thereby deepening the knowledge of what motivates people to work within social services with children. The study uses a qualitative method of semi structured interviews with six social workers who work with children primarily. The social workers were asked questions about their motives, their understanding of what is essential in their work, their notion of children and their thoughts of the meaning of gender in social work. The studies result and analysis is constructed from a thematic analysis alongside a theoretical framework using Erving Goffman dramaturgical perspective and gender as a theoretical concept. The result shows that the reason for entering social work with children is complex and consists of multiple levels. The strongest contributing factor was a wish to help people and having personal experience of needing support from the welfare system or in other ways having personal experience from one's surroundings. Secondary was a wish to have an emotionell rewarding career and at the same time a career that functions with one's personal life. All the factors however correlate with one and other.  It is also concluded that the social workers have a notion that gender plays a role in choosing to enter social work with children in that the stereotypical role of men do not correlate with the stereotypical role of a social worker with children. It is also concluded that the social workers' understanding of their work and work rolls plays a role in their choice.

Socialsekreterares psykosociala arbetsmiljö grundar sig på individens sammantagna upplevelse av allting som omfattar individen på arbetsplatsen. Tidigare forskning och utredningar visar att socialsekreterares arbetsvillkor kännetecknas av hög arbetsbelastning, höga krav, bristande stöd och vägledning, hög personalomsättning och arbetsrelaterad stress. Utifrån tidigare forskning är många idag både medvetna och upplysta om vilka faktorer som bidrar till att skapa friska, välmående medarbetare och organisationer samt hur man bör arbeta för att främja god psykosocial hälsa i organisationerna. Trots medvetenheten påvisar risken för höga ohälsotal att pika i en negativ riktning. Ambitionen med studien är att undersöka och nå förståelse för hur socialsekreterare upplever sin psykosociala arbetsmiljö under den rådande pandemin Covid-19 för att få en inblick i hur arbetsmiljön upplevs i en kris som pandemin bär med sig. De teorier som valts ut för att analysera studiens resultat är Robert Karasek och Töres Theorells krav-kontroll-stödmodell samt modellen känsla av sammanhang (KASAM) utvecklad av Aaron Antonovsky. Studien bygger på en kvalitativ metod i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex socialsekreterare från barn- och ungdomsenheten och har genom en tematisk analys som analysmetod, tolkat och kategoriserat insamlade empirin. Resultatet visar att den psykosociala arbetsmiljön upplevs som avsevärt positiv trots de omställningar pandemin Covid-19 burit med sig. Den främst bidragande faktorn för god upplevd psykosocial arbetsmiljö under Covid-19 är det sociala stödet. Socialsekreterarna omges av ett gott socialt stöd på sin arbetsplats från både kollegor, arbetsledning och chef. Sammanfattningsvis visar resultatet att det föreligger en rimlig kravnivå på arbetsplatsen, kontroll i och över arbetsuppgifterna samt en hög nivå av socialt stöd som bidrar till skapandet av tillfredsställelse och en god psykosocial arbetsmiljö under pandemin Covid-19. / Many different studies have been made about social workers, their working conditions and working environment. Previous studies show that high workload, high demands, low social support and employee turnover is very common for the social services and indeed for the social workers. These working conditions tend to lead to stress and illness among the social workers. Today most organizations are aware of methods that build a healthy organization and healthy employees. Despite this, illness and stress tend to increase. The purpose of our study is to examine and gain an understanding of how social workers experience their psychosocial work environment during the current pandemic Covid-19. To investigate this, we chose a qualitative method and used semi structured interviews. Six social workers were interviewed. Two theories have been selected to analyze the results of the studie, Robert Karasek and Töres Theorell’s demand-control-support model and Aaron Antonovsky’s sense of coherence model. The result of our study shows that the psychosocial work environment among the social workers is perceived as significantly positive despite the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. The main contributing factor that tends to create a good psychosocial work environment during the Covid-19 pandemic is social support, both from colleagues, the management and managers. In summary, the results show that there is a reasonable level of demands in the workplace. The social workers have a high control over and in their work and experience a high amount of social support. This leads to a good psychosocial work environment and high work satisfaction among the social workers during Covid-19.