The aim of this study was to examine in what way municipal guidelines affect care managers aid assessments process. The study also examined if it is possible for care managers to make aid assessment decisions that exceed references in municipal guidelines and whether there was a resistance from colleagues or managers when care managers make those decisions.   The method used for this study was a qualitative method and the empirical data was obtained by semistructured interviews with 5 care managers. The interviews were conducted in Sweden in a medium sized municipality in Skåne. The results from the study were then analyzed with the help of Michel Foucault's concept of Governmentality. The results were also analyzed with Michel Foucault's concept of the normalization process as well as power and knowledge with the help of Magnus Hörnqvists (2012) elaboration of Michel Foucault's original concepts.  The results of the study showed that there is a possibility for care managers to make aid decisions that exceed references in municipal guidelines because of their full delegation which results in autonomy. Furthermore, an individual assessment may result in an aid decision which requires the care managers to exceed references in municipal guidelines in order to meet the individual needs. The results also showed that municipal guidelines affect the care managers work in several ways. The guidelines can be just that, a guide for care managers in their aid decisions in both what the municipality can offer and at what frequency. The results show that municipal guidelines can be both beneficial and inhibitory for care managers. They can be used as support in cases that are complicated for the care managers and they can be used in a way to strengthen the customers position and their rights. Guidelines are also a way for the municipality to organise their organisation. But they can also be inhibitory if they are diffuse and doesn’t clearly describe the meaning of what is stated in the guidelines, which results in the aid officer having to define the guidelines themselves. Guidelines are also inhibitory if they don't correspond to customers specific needs. Lastly, the result of the essay shows that there is no resistance from colleagues or managers if care managers make aid decisions that exceed references in municipal guidelines, however there is resistance from the aid providers if they have to execute an aid decision which exceeds references in guidelines.

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.

The aim of this quantitative study was to statistically test empirical knowledge that supports the idea of the existence of restrictive rationing and inequality in the distribution of resources for social support by variables of age, gender, marital status and number of nursing hours in the home care system. The material was obtained from internal records from the municipality of Karlskrona which constituted a population study, with which we performed regression analyzes to test the effect of the variables age and nursing hours on the variables escorting hours and  hours for social activation. An independent samples t-test were made to reveal any differences in mean values between the sexes, and a One way Anova analysis was made to check for differences of variance between each marital status. We found that men was rationed less hours of social support than women, that age had a positive effect on hours for social activation but a negative effect on escorting hours, that nursing hours had a positive effect on hours of social support and that there was a difference in mean hours of social activation between the married and the widowed, in the laters favour. We conclude that there is a restrictive practice in the home care system and that there is a difference in distribution between social categories, though it is not an unjust distribution of social support but rather an outcome of husbanding resources that points towards fairness, but we can recognize elderly of good health to be categories of attention as our analysis shows that they are are at risk to be overlooked.

This dissertation examines how perceptions of competence affect the care of older persons, and the values ​​and vocational conceptions of care work and care recipients that are tied to the perceptions of what skills that are needed and why. Competence is defined by three parts with relevance for the content of care work: what knowledge the care workers should have, what tasks they should perform and how they should respond to care recipients. The aim of this dissertation is to analyse how the care managers' and care workers' perceptions of competence form the direction of the care work and how that direction relates to the care recipients’ perceptions of and expectations on the care work.   The care work is characterised by what is analysed as an activation of the recipients - that the recipients themselves should perform as much of the care work as possible. The activation aims at managing the decay of the aging body and is motivated by a vocational conception of the care recipients as different from others, with designations as grateful and passive. This conception is analysed as generation character based on an idea among the care managers and care workers that the society in which the recipients grew up gave them certain cognitive prerequisites that have to be managed in the practical care work.   The care recipients in the study have opposing conceptions and perceptions of care work compared with the care managers and care workers. The recipients’ central objective with the care work is to prevent what has been interpreted as the disrepair of the home. The care recipients’ position in the organisation raises the problem of loyalty towards the care workers and in some sense the care managers. Their loyalty reduces their ability to complain and to influence their situation to the better.   Keywords: care of older persons, care needs, care work, care relationship, care receivers, care workers, care managers, competence, technologies, activation, generation character

Att det i lagstiftningen inte finns en tydlig definition av vad skälig levnadsnivå är, medför bland annat en risk att behov av stöd för äldre bedöms på olika grunder. Syftet med studien är att undersöka biståndsbedömningar kring äldre i olika kommuner i Mellansverige för att se om det finns likheter och skillnader. Studien synliggör vilka bedömningsgrunder biståndshandläggare har samt fångar eventuella samband mellan biståndsbedömning och olika faktorer, till exempel arbetslivserfarenhet och kommun. Detta undersöktes genom en enkätstudie och analyser gjordes sedan i dataprogrammet IBM SPSS Statistics. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna för studien var handlingsutrymme, organisatorisk struktur, behovstolkning och åldrande. En av studiens slutsatser är att arbetslivserfarenheten är en individuell faktor som kan tänkas påverka tolkningen av vad skälig levnadsnivå faktiskt innebär, och att handlingsutrymmet hos dem med längre arbetslivserfarenhet och mer professionell kompetens upplevs begränsat då de upplever sig styrda av kommunala riktlinjer. Vidare är en slutsats att det finns skillnader i hur ofta biståndshandläggare beviljade insatsen städ och att detta grundar sig i den rådande politiska diskursen inom kommunen kring äldres behov samt vilket arbetssätt som råder. Studien kan bidra med att utveckla det sociala arbetets praktik till en mer likvärdig biståndsbedömning för de äldre / The fact that there is no clear definition of what a reasonable standard of living is in the legislation entails, among other things, implicates a risk that the need for support for the elderly is assessed on different grounds. The purpose of the study is to examine aid assessments for the elderly in different municipalities in the middle part of Sweden to see if there are similarities and differences. The study presents the basis for assessment aid administrators have and captures possible connections between aid assessment and various factors, for example work experience and municipality. This was investigated by a survey study and analyzes were then made in the computer program IBM SPSS Statistics. The theoretical starting points for the study were room for action, organizational structure, interpretation of needs and aging. One of the study's conclusions is that work experience is an individual factor that can conceivably influence the interpretation of what a reasonable standard of living actually means, and that the room for action of those with longer work experience and more professional competence is felt to be limited when they feel governed by municipal guidelines. Furthermore, a conclusion is that there are differences in how often aid administrators grant the cleaning contribution and that this is based on the prevailing political discourse around the needs of the elderly within the municipality and the working method that prevails. The study can contribute to developing the practice of social work towards a more equal assistance assessment for the elderly