The aim of this study was to examine the definition and meaning of a relationship-based social work, and what conditions are required for the professional to manage such. Based on seven qualitative interviews with professional social workers who work with children and adolescents, a thematic analysis was conducted based on the theoretical frameworks of Symbolic Interactionism and the organisational theories of Human Service Organisations and Street-Level Bureaucracy. The main results confirm the importance of the relationship between the client and the professional according to the respondents. Role clarity and empathy through self-awareness were seen as important qualities of the professional to maintain a good relationship with the child, for whom this might lead to a sense of security through the relationship continuity. Mentioned conditions that facilitated the possibility of relationship based client work were mostly organisational variables such as time and discretion. These were variables that varied depending on the organisation that the professionals worked within, leading to a comparative discussion between the organisational conditions of social services and schools. Another theme identified was experience which seemed to matter as a personal skill. These conditions affect the professional’s ability to create and maintain relationships with the children.

The aim of this essay was to describe how school social workers can help and support students with parents who abuse alcohol or other drugs. We wanted to see how school social workers room for action is presented and how it affects their work with students living with parents who are abusing. We used a qualitative method to elucidate how school social workers handle this issue in a more profound way. By conducting semistructured interviews with six school social workers in one province in southern Sweden we gained exhaustive and detailed answers. In the analysis we used street level bureaucracy and theory of recognition. The result showed that the school social workers regard their overarching room of action as very wide inside school but limited outside. At school the school social worker can support the students with supportive counseling and adapted school attendance. One important task of the school social worker is to help the student to get in contact with other organizations for example, support groups for children. We also found that cooperation is an important part as the school social workers describe themselves as “the spider in the web” with the task of connecting and sharing knowledge with other personnel and organizations. The relation with the student is important to be able to support the students or guide them further. School social workers also regard school as a good place to detect and identify these students, but that it can be difficult to know who these students are. If a specific plan for working with students whose parents abuse alcohol or drugs would affect the school social workers work is difficult to say since none that we interviewed in this study had experience of one.

There are few studies done on the work of social services on women exposed to violence. The work of social services with women exposed to violence has been a hot topic in the social policy debate. There have also been legislative changes to strengthen the work and help around women who are exposed to violent. The overall issues of the study focus on investigating the importance of social workers experiences in the work around the womens exposed to violence with the different types of policies, guidelines, action plan and regulations? We also wanted to explore how we can understand the importance of policies, guidelines, action plan and regulations and how it works when social workers use these in their work around women exposed to violence?                                                                   The empirical study has mainly been gathered through qualitative semistructured interviews with professional social workers in the Swedish municipalities social services. We have interviewed six different social workers in four different municipalities all in the southern part of Sweden. Previous research has also been studied, national and international. The collected empiricism has been analyzed using the theory developed by Michael Lipsky, and we have also used Roine Johansson's interpretation of grassroots bureaucracy to gain a deeper understanding of our data material. We received data showing that the social worker decides on actions motivated by the policies, guidelines, action plans and regulations they relate to. We saw that the policies, guidelines, action plan and regulations that the social workers worked with were very different in their design, which meant that there were different structured structures within the organizations in the different municipalities, which resulted in differences in how to work. We also saw that the social worker had different experiences of how far and wide the use of these documents was, and that we could see the significance of social workers who experienced the documents in their work. The study depicts how social workers perceive that policies, guidelines, action plans and regulations affect their work around women exposed to violence, and how we can understand the importance of policies, guidelines, action plan and regulations and how it works when social workers use them in their work around women exposed to violence. The main conclusion in this study is that the social worker provides assistance, support and assistance to the woman as she fits into what the social worker's policies, guidelines, action plans and regulations describe. If the woman exposed to violence does not comply with the criteria such as policies, guidelines, action plans and regulations, then there are reasons for granting the victim of violence to receive support and assistance. The study also shows how clients are categorized to fit into the organization, they are interpreted renegotiated and adapted to fit the social services organization. The study also shows that some of the social workers use and follow the policies, guidelines, action plan and regulations more than others and it is also clear that they can be used in order to give more specialized efforts to the victim of violence. / Det finns få studier kring socialtjänstens arbete med våldsutsatta kvinnor. Socialtjänstens arbete med våldsutsatta kvinnor har utgjort ett hett ämne i den socialpolitiska debatten. Det har även skett lagförändringar för att stärka arbetet och hjälpen kring de våldsutsatta kvinnorna. Studiens övergripande frågeställningar fokuserar på att undersöka vilken betydelse socialarbetaren upplever att olika typer av policy, riktlinjer, handlingsplan och föreskrifter har i sitt arbete kring de våldsutsatta kvinnorna. Vi ville även undersöka hur vi kan förstå betydelsen av policy, riktlinjer, handlingsplan och föreskrifter och hur det går till när socialarbetaren använder sig av dessa i sitt arbete kring våldsutsatta kvinnor. Studiens empiri har huvudsakligen samlats in genom kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer med yrkesverksamma och professionella socialarbetare inom Sveriges kommuners socialtjänster. Vi har intervjuat sex olika socialarbetare inom fyra olika kommuner alla inom området södra Sverige. Tidigare forskning har även studerats, nationell och internationell. Den insamlade empirin har analyserats med hjälp av teori som har utvecklats av Michael Lipsky och vi har även använt oss av Roine Johanssons tolkning av gräsrotsbyråkrati för att få en djupare förståelse för vårt datamaterial. Vi fick fram data som visar att socialarbetaren beslutar om insatser begrundat i den policy, riktlinjer, handlingsplaner och föreskrifter som finns att förhålla sig till. Vi såg att de policys, riktlinjer, handlingsplan och föreskrifter som socialarbetarna arbetade utefter var väldigt olika i sin utformning och det gjorde att det blev olika uppbyggda strukturer inom organisationerna i de olika kommunerna vilket resulterat i att det är skillnader i hur man arbetar. Vi kunde även se att socialarbetaren hade olika upplevelser av hur stor och bred användning dessa dokument har samt att vi kunde se vilken betydelse socialarbetarna upplevde att dokumenten hade i sitt arbete. Studien skildrar hur socialarbetare upplever att policy, riktlinjer, handlingsplaner och föreskrifter påverkar deras arbete kring våldsutsatta kvinnor. Studien skildrar även hur vi kan förstå betydelsen av policy, riktlinjer, handlingsplan och föreskrifter och hur det går till när socialarbetaren använder sig av dessa i arbetet kring våldsutsatta kvinnor. Den huvudsakliga slutsatsen i den här studien är att socialarbetaren ger insatser, stöd och hjälp till kvinnan när hon passar in i det som socialarbetarens policy, riktlinjer, handlingsplaner och föreskrifter beskriver. Om den våldsutsatta kvinnan inte stämmer överens med de kriterier som policy, riktlinjer, handlingsplaner och föreskrifter har så krävs det motiveringar för att bevilja att den våldsutsatta kvinnan ska få stöd och hjälp. Studien visar även hur klienterna kategoriseras för att passa in i organisationen, de tolkas omförhandlas och anpassas för att passa in i socialtjänstens organisation. Studien visar även att en del av socialarbetarna använder sig och följer de policy, riktlinjer, handlingsplan och föreskrifter mer än andra och det är även tydligt att de kan användas i syfte att ge den våldsutsatta kvinnan mer specialiserade insatser.

To use standardized questionnaires for questions about domestic violence within the social services' elderly units Intimate partner violence (IPV)and the way women are  exposed to violence in close relationships has been recognized in recent decades as a problem at a societal level, both nationally and globally. As a result, work on IPV has  received new laws and regulations to strengthen women's right to protection in society, which has also led to work with these issues is being developed and prioritized at a  municipal level. While IPV has gained more visibility, IPV that affect older women also has received greater attention. IPV and aging can mean a special vulnerability as aging  can mean more isolation, greater need for care by or for a violent partner and that the violence may have lasted for a longer period of time. Research on the subject also shows that there is a knowledge gap about the elderly's exposure to violence and the work to discover it, and that there are no specific figures that show how widespread the problem is. Despite the increased focus on older women's exposure to IPV, interest in skills development regarding elderly is lower in comparison with other categories within the group  of women exposed to violence in Sweden's municipalities. At the same time, the development of welfare has moved in a direction towards an evidence-based practice and  developed standardized assessment instruments. Based on an attempt to combine work against violence in close relationships with evidence-based practice, the assessment  instrument FREDA was developed, which social workers and social service agents can use to detect and identify violence and make protection assessments, which is considered  an important part of violence prevention and violence protection work. Nevertheless, several studies and evaluations show that there are several obstacles to asking questions  about violence, such as insecurity and lack of knowledge. The purpose of our study has been to investigate how social workers at social agencies that works with elders ask  questions about violence in IPV and whether underlying factors such as knowledge, experience and supervision affect the tendency for social service agents to ask the question  about violence. The purpose is also to investigate the extent to which social service workers use standardized assessment instruments in matters of violence and whether  standardized assessment instruments is experienced as a support in their work. With a quantitative method and with a survey design to collect data, we have created a web survey with 49 statements and questions that we have sent via link to social service agents who work with development assistance and the elderly. The survey received a total of 79 respondents and the results have been processed in SPSS and to some extent in Excel. To present the results we have used SPSS to create graphs and crosstabs and through using Cramres V we report the strength of the relationships between the  variables. We have also developed a significance measure based on Cramers V. The results of the study shows that a significant proportion of the respondents do not agree that they ask questions about domestic violence to their clients and that there is a connection between not asking questions about domestic violence and not feeling that you have  enough knowledge of the subject. The results of the study cannot show where the knowledge about violence comes from, but it shows that within our sample there is a slight  tendency for the use of FREDA-short questions to have a positive impact on the experience of knowledge about IPV. The results of the study show that approximately one third  of the study respondents use FREDA-short questions at their workplace. The study also shows that of the respondents who stated that they fully or partially agree that they ask questions about violence in close proximity to a greater extent use FREDA-shortquestions. In conclusion, our study shows that there was a tendency for respondents who  stated that they did not agree that they ask questions about domestic violence also had the opinion that older people find it more intrusive to talk about IPV.

Several quantitative studies show a significant association between the experience of childhood maltreatment and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Some researchers argue for the need of a more psychosocial approach in ADHD assessment of children partly because of the relationship between these variables. The purpose of the present study was to focus on psychologists working with ADHD assessment of children in Sweden and to examine their psychosocial approach and discretion.This study was based on six qualitative interviews which were analysed through thematic analysis. The theoretical framework used were Lipskys theory of street-level-bureaucracy as well as the Power Threat Meaning Framework. The results show that a psychosocial perspective is present during the assessment for instance when looking at the child’s history and when the ADHD-symptoms arose. However, the psychosocial focus is dictated by the amount of time and discretion the psychologist’s experience that they possess. The assessment is further affected by the psychologists characteristics such as knowledge and experiences. One of the main conclusions is that factors such as time, personal characteristics and a flexible discretion influence whether a more medical or psychosocial focus dominate the ADHD assessment.

This paper aims to investigate how needs assessors in the municipality experience their work with elderly people who experience loneliness, and what different types of support measures they can offer. In addition the paper looks into the discretion which the needs assessors use to provide the elderly people with care that is adapted to individual needs. This qualitative study has been carried out conducting semi-structured interviews with seven needs assessors from five different municipalities. The findings indicate that the work with elderly people experiencing loneliness is very much a question of interpretation. Loneliness can manifest itself in different ways and is not always easy to talk about, nor to interpret. The study also shows that individual assessments can be difficult to implement due to strict guidelines and a tight budget. However, the work towards helping-and supporting elder people and acknowledging the issue of loneliness in later life is an important matter for both older people and needs assessors.

Sexual and reproductive rights, like other human rights, are to be respected, protected and fulfilled by the state. Public authorities and welfare organizations thus have an obligation to conduct a work practice accordingly. Social services' supportive and promotive mission for individuals' living conditions should include SRHR in general, not least in the work with children and youths. Yet previous research points out many obstacles that obstruct a practice grounded in sexual and reproductive rights within different social work environments. This in turn makes it difficult to achieve better sexual and reproductive health. The aim of this study is to obtain a deeper understanding of how professional​​s at residential care centers within Malmö Stad experience the work related to youths sexual and reproductive health. Additionally the aim is to highlight the challenges involved in incorporating sexual and reproductive rights of placed youths. In order to achieve the purpose, a qualitative method was applied. Semi structured interviews have been conducted with six employees within said organizations. These objects of study all had professional experience in working close to the clients on behalf of social service's assignments. The empirics has been analyzed and interpreted based on theoretical concepts such as street-level bureaucracy and discretion. The findings are also related to previous research and state of knowledge presented in the study. The result indicates that all of the informants experience difficulties in executing a social work practice grounded in SRHR. These difficulties are experienced at different levels such as in relation to clients, colleagues, management and the mission itself. Unclear or lacking of priorities, different normative attitudes among staff, deficient or various knowledge and ambiguity seem to be prevalent factors. These results suggest that discretion plays a substantial role in regards to the SRHR grounded practice within residential care.

This essay will address the topic of child abuse through healthcare interventions, ormore precisely medical child abuse - which is also called Münchausen syndrome byproxy. A social problem that is quite unusual, and therefore creates complexity. Witha quantitative method, the essay is based on a web-based survey, which social workerson the Swedish social services at the children- and family units in Småland haveresponded to. The questions in the survey processes the social workers' knowledgeand preparedness which will be analyzed by their discretionary space and reasoning.These themes are also linked to Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracy which isused to analyze the empirical data of the study. The results from the essay are analyzedand tested through the statistics program SPSS. The results and analysis show forinstance that the longer the social workers have been working at their units and insocial work in general, the more knowledge they considered themselves to have. Theyalso possessed a higher readiness the longer they worked at the unit. They are morerecon with the term “Münchausen by proxy” than “Medical child abuse”. Regarding guidelines and legislation, they feel uncertain, which we connect to the knowledge-gaps that comes with the social problem. Medical child abuse in the Swedish social services is quite unexplored and with this essay we want to contribute to a betterresearch, to help the children who are victims of medical child abuse.

I denna studie har nio semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts utifrån en kvalitativ studie med yrkesverksamma på kvinnojourer runt om i Sverige. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur yrkesverksamma på kvinnojourer har upplevt det att arbeta på en kvinnojour samt hur deras bemötande och kommunikation gentemot våldsutsatta kvinnor har påverkats under tiden för pandemin. Resultatet har analyserat med hjälp av tidigare forskning, Lipskys teorier om gräsrotsbyråkrati och handlingsutrymme samt utifrån begreppen bemötande och kommunikation. Med en tematisk analys visar resultatet på att de yrkesverksamma på kvinnojourerna har fått göra omprioriteringar i sina arbetsuppgifter i samband med de implementerade restriktioner och rekommendationer på arbetsplatsen som smittspridningen av Covid-19 har medfört.  De har även bidragit till att en del kvinnojourer har fått en hög arbetsbelastning som lett till en sliten personal. Vidare framkommer det i resultatet att opinionsbildning och föreläsningar som är en viktig del i deras arbete, inte har kunnat bedrivas såsom önskat under pandemin. Resultatet visade även på att yrkesverksamma på kvinnojourer inte har sett en ökning av stödsökande kvinnor under Covid-19, vilket de tror sig kommer att se efter pandemins slut. / In this study, nine semi-structured interviews were conducted based on a qualitative study with ten various women’s shelters representatives around Sweden. The aim of the study was to investigate how representatives in women's shelters have experienced working in a women's shelter and how their treatment and communication towards abused women has been affected during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results have been analyzed with the help of previous research, Lipsky's theories of street-level bureaucracy and discretion and the concepts of treatment and communication. Using a thematic analysis, the results show that the representatives at the women's shelters have had to re-prioritize their work tasks because of the implemented restrictions and recommendations in the workplace that the spread of Covid-19 has entailed. They have also contributed to several women's shelters having a high workload, which has led to a worn-down staff. Furthermore, the results show that opinion formation and lectures, which is an important part of their work, have not been able to be conducted as desired during the pandemic. The results also showed that the representatives at the women's shelters have not seen an increase in women seeking support during Covid-19. They do however believe that they will see it when the pandemic has come to an end.

Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att undersöka vilka faktorer som styr socialsekreterares arbete med barns rätt och delaktighet samt vilken betydelse barnkonventionen har i socialsekreterarens arbete och om det har skett någon förändring sedan barnkonventionen inkorporerades som lag.  Studien baserades på fem kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Tre av intervjuerna genomfördes med personer som arbetar som socialsekreterare och två intervjuer med personer som i dagsläget arbetar som biträdande enhetschefer på en familjeenhet. Resultatet av studien har bearbetats utifrån en tematisk analys, för att sedan analyseras utifrån de teoretiska perspektiven systemteori, ekologisk systemteori och gräsrotsbyråkrati samt de teoretiska begreppen barnperspektiv och barns perspektiv. Det som framkommit av studien gällande våra frågeställningar om faktorer som möjliggör och hindrar socialsekreteraren i arbetet för barnets rätt och barnets bästa, har summerats i två huvudteman med tillhörande subteman. Resultatet av studien har visat att barnkonventionen länge varit en självklar del i socialsekreterarens arbetssätt, både praktiskt och teoretiskt. Därför har lagförandet av barnkonventionen inte gjort någon större skillnad hos socialsekreterarna på familjeenheten. Däremot visar studien att de större förändringarna som skett efter att barnkonventionen blivit lag snarare handlar om andra aktörers arbete, vilket i sin tur har medfört en betydande skillnad i socialsekreterarnas arbete för barnets rättigheter och bästa. Studiens övergripande slutsatser kan sammanfattas i följande punkter; Samhällssystemen styr socialsekreterarens förutsättningar att utföra sitt arbete, Barnkonventionen har gett verktyg för andra aktörer att inta ett barnrättsperspektiv, De organisatoriska förutsättningarna på varje enhet spel en stor roll samt Politikens prioriteringar påverkar socialsekreterarens förutsättningar i stor utsträckning. Avslutningsvis visar resultatet av vår studie att det är många andra faktorer än bara lagar som påverkar förutsättningarna för att socialsekreteraren ska kunna utföra sitt arbete på ett adekvat sätt och att det i nuläget finns fler hinder än möjligheter för en socialsekreterare att arbeta för barnets rättigheter och bästa. / The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate the factors that are influencing govern social workers' work with children's rights and participation and the importance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the work of social workers and whether any changes has occurred since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was incorporated into law. The study was based on five qualitative semi-structured interviews, three of which were conducted with social workers and two with current assistant unit managers in a family unit. The empirical data was analysed using thematic analysis, and the analysis was guided by the theoretical perspectives of systems theory and street level bureaucracy, as well as the theoretical concepts of child perspective and children's perspective. The study has shown that the Convention on the Rights of the Child has always played a natural part in the social workers' working methods, both practically and theoretically. However, the study also reveals that the major changes that have occurred since the Convention on the Rights of the Child became law are more related to the work of other actors rather than the social workers encountered in this study.  The overall conclusions of the study can be summarized in the following points; Social systems determine the social worker's ability to perform their work, Political priorities affect the social worker's conditions to a great extent, The Convention on the Rights of the Child has provided tools for other actors to adopt a child rights perspective, The organizational conditions in each unit play a major role. In conclusion, the results of our study show that there are many factors other than just laws that affect the conditions for the social worker to be able to perform their work adequately, therefore there are currently more obstacles than opportunities for a social worker to work for the rights and best interests of the child.