På 1800-talet var fattigvårdslagstiftningen uppdelad i en obligatorisk och en frivillig del och så är det fortfarande. I denna uppsats är det paragrafen i nutida lagstiftning om socialbidrag, som kan jämföras med den frivilliga delen från 1800-talet, som ställs i fokus. Syftet har varit att undersöka vad paragrafen används till, om där är någon variation gällande demografiska variabler eller ändamål, och vilka riktlinjer kommunerna ger till beslutsfattarna. Urvalet av kommuner till undersökningen av bifall till bistånd uppgår till fem kommuner. När det gäller riktlinjerna som ges till beslutsfattarna, har jag samlat information från 47 kommuner i varierande kommungrupper över hela landet. De blev utvalda av praktiska skäl efter vilka som hade publicerat sina riktlinjer på internet. Resultatet av denna studie är att användningen av paragrafen inte är så omfattande och det finns indikation på att det finns en större variation när det gäller riktlinjerna för beslutsfattare. Studien gav även en indikation på att det finns problem i det svenska samhället när det kommer till att få tillgång till ett ställe att vara på, både när man lever och när man dör.

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.

The purpose of this study was to examine how the needs of social assistance for people with substance abuse are assessed in accordance to The Swedish Social Services Act 4th chapter 1§. The purpose was also to examine how substance abuse is assessed as a social problem by social workers, how the municipal guidelines concerning social assistance for substance abuser were constructed in relation to the Social Service Act and finally how social workers made their assessments of the need of social assistance to people with substance abuse in relation to the legislation. The sample was made among the municipalities in the county of Stockholm. Municipal guidelines were studied in 18 municipalities by content analysis. A sample of 11 social workers was chosen from 5 municipalities. A vignette study was used as method. The results have been analyzed by using a sociology of law approach, based on the theory of the law as mainly a ruling function. The results of the study show that both the construction of municipal guidelines and social workers’ assessment of the need of social assistance to people with substance abuse were based on restrictions with no connection in The Social Service Act. Social workers who did work in a municipal, where there were no special guidelines regarding social assistance to individuals with substance abuse, more frequently made their assessments according to the law. The result was the opposite for social workers working in municipals with special guidelines regarding social assistance to individuals with substance abuse. The results also indicated that social workers, as well as municipal politicians, showed little knowledge and ability to align the social work to current legislation and legal practice.

Förutsättningarna mellan Sveriges kommuner skiljer sig, till följd av urbaniseringen, alltmer och skapar olika utmaningar och varierande möjligheter att tillhandahålla välfärden, däribland äldreomsorgen som sedan ädelreformen 1992 åligger primärkommunerna. 2019 beräknades cirka en fjärdedel av Sveriges kommuner att gå med underskott vilket resulterar i neddragningar och sparåtgärder inom välfärden eftersom välfärdens nivå används för att balansera budgeten. Trots att andelen äldre i Sverige ökar så visar forskningen att platserna på särskilt boende har minskat sedan 1980-talet och att allt färre äldre får stöd och hjälp i hemmet. Enligt en granskning utförd av Inspektionen för vård och omsorg kan kommunala riktlinjer, för handläggning av bistånd till äldreomsorg, användas som ett sätt att kontrollera kostnader genom att anpassa kriterier och ambitionsnivåer för äldreomsorgen samt genom att minska skillnader i beslut. Justitieombudsmannen har riktat kritik mot kommunala riktlinjer som är oförenliga med gällande rätt och trots att tidigare forskning visar att kommunala riktlinjer används vid handläggning och bedömning av beslut till bistånd av äldreomsorg så är kommunala riktlinjer ett förhållandevis outforskat fält. Syftet med studien har därför varit att förstå vilken funktion kommunala riktlinjer har med avseende på lagstiftningen och tillämpningen samt vilken funktion riktlinjer har för politiker. För att besvara detta har följande undersökts: 1) riktlinjernas utbredning och innehåll, 2) hur politiker motiverar deras tillkomst och hur de skapas och 3) vilken inverkan biståndshandläggare anser att riktlinjerna har på deras beslutsfattande. Tre metoder använts i studien; dokumentgranskning, semi-strukturerade intervjuer och en enkätundersökning. Resultatet visar en omfattande utbredning av kommunala riktlinjer som finns i 274 av Sveriges 290 kommuner och att riktlinjerna är politiskt antagna i majoriteten av kommunerna. Granskningen visar att riktlinjerna innehåller vägledande information, om exempelvis lagstiftning och rättspraxis, men det är också vanligt att kriterier för att bevilja insatser eller nivåer för insatsernas omfattning i den aktuella kommunen anges. Resultatet indikerar vidare att riktlinjernas funktion är att överbrygga otydligheten i SoL genom en återgång till byråkratisering. Genom att minska handlingsfriheten syftar riktlinjerna också till att skapa trygghet och möjlighet till politiskt ansvarstagande för nyttjande av kommunala resurser, ansvarsutkrävande i relationen mellan politiker, medborgare och biståndshandläggare samt att kompensera för bristande kompetens. Standardiseringen som görs i syfte att uppnå likabehandling och rättssäkerhet riskerar dock att gå emot intentionen med SoL och den individuella prövningen. Studien synliggör vikten av att nödvändiga resurser investeras i de riktlinjer som skapas så att de utformas för att vara lagenliga, rättssäkra och tillgängliga men att förutsättningarna för detta skiljer sig kraftigt mellan kommuner. En möjlig väg framåt är att Socialstyrelsen eller en annan statlig myndighet ansvarar för att ta fram en mall till riktlinjer som kontinuerligt uppdateras med aktuell lagstiftning och rättspraxis. Sammanfattningsvis visar studien att riktlinjer har en utbredd inverkan på biståndshandläggarnas beslutsfattande. Riktlinjerna får därigenom en central roll i tillämpningen av välfärden med en inverkan på enskilda äldre och det bistånd som beviljas. / Cutbacks and austerity measures were in 2019 estimated in a quarter of the Swedish municipalities because of financial deficit. Due to the urbanization the conditions of the municipalities vary creating different challenges and possibilities to provide for the necessary welfare service such as elderly care. Despite a growing population of elderly previous research shows a decline in residential homes since 1980 as well as a decrease in caretakers receiving home help service. According to an inspection of the Health and Social Care Inspectorate (Inspektionen för vård och omsorg) local policy guidelines, for elderly care assessment, are being used to reduce the dissimilarities in decision-making within the municipalities’ and to control the financial costs by adapting criteria’s and care limits for the needs assessment. Critic has by the Swedish Ombudsman been directed towards municipal guidelines for not being in accordance with the law and case-law. Despite previous research indicating usage of municipal guidelines in the need’s assessment and decision-making process, municipal guidelines are still a quite unexplored field. The aim of this thesis is therefore to understand the role of municipal guidelines, for elderly care assessment, with regard to the law and the application of the law as well as the role municipal guidelines play according to politicians. In order to achieve this the following has been examined: 1) the spread and content of the municipal guidelines, 2) the creation and political motives for establishing the guidelines and 3) how the care managers view their impact on the decision-making process. The methods used are semi-structured interviews, a survey, and a documentation review. The result shows that municipal guidelines are politically established, that they are widely spread and can be found in 274 out of 290 Swedish municipalities. According to the survey the guidelines contains guidance of law, case-law and the like, as well as criteria’s and limits for the needs assessment and decision-making of elderly care service. The result indicates that the role of the local guidelines is to compensate for the ambiguity of the social Services Act (socialtjänstlagen 2001:453) by reinstating bureaucracy. By limiting the discretion, the guidelines aim to compensate for the lack of competence as well as creating certainty and enable political responsibility for the usage of municipal resources as well as accountability between politicians, care managers and citizens. By standardizing, the aim is to achieve equality and legal certainty despite risking the fundamental intentions of the social Service Act as a framework law designed for individual needs assessment. This study makes the need for investing necessary resources into creating guidelines more visible for them to be lawful and ensure legal certainty as well as accessible. The conditions, however, vary noteworthy between the municipalities. As a solution, the National Board of Health and Welfare, or some other authority, could be held responsible for developing a national guideline, regularly up to date and based on current law and case-law. In summary the study shows that municipal guidelines have a widespread impact on the decision-making of the care managers. The municipal guidelines thereby have a central role in the application of the law with the consequence of a noteworthy impact on the individual elderly and the help warranted as a consequence.

This study explores how municipalities in Sweden interpret and apply the Social Services Act in their provision of eldercare, specifically in their original place of residence, which has been their responsibility since the 1992 elder care reform. Despite a national ambition for equal eldercare provision, municipalities have significant flexibility in shaping their own guidelines based on local conditions. The study contains a content analysis of 23 communal guidelineswhich were selected based on the municipalities’ size, geographic location, and population patterns. The guidelines were analyzed using Max Weber's concept of bureaucratization and identity theory. Notably, a significant proportion of the analyzed guidelines contain explicit time intervals for the home care interventions that are typically provided within the municipality. The study's key findings highlight substantial variations in these interventions across municipalities, encompassing differences in the types of interventions offered, as well as variations in their frequency and designated time intervals. It is reasonable to assert that the variations in home care interventions identified in this study bear significant consequences for older adults that seek home care, depending on their municipality of residence. This paper highlights the significant importance of guidelines in shaping the variations in home care services across different municipalities. It also seeks to promote further research and encourage broader discussions on the governance of eldercare in Sweden.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the municipal guidelines regarding the construction of the prerequisite "other living expenses", and how the construction of the prerequisite was constructed in relation to the legislation. The sample of the thesis was the municipalities in Stockholm’s county. The empirical result was compiled with the hermeneutical method, and analyzed through a legal perspective and three different theoretical perspectives, as well as compared with previous studies. The theoretical perspectives were legal pluralism, bureaucracy, legitimacy and rule of law. The results of the thesis pointed out differences between the municipalities concerning the assessment of social assistance to purposes included in "other living expenses". The differences that appeared in the thesis was due to that the social services act is as a framework law, which allows local adjustments and has a general construction with vague concepts. The differences between municipalities make the administration of the social assistance turn out different for the client depending in which municipality he/she lives in. The results of the thesis showed that municipal guidelines did neither contribute to uniform the assessment of social assistance in Sweden, as intended nor raised the rule of law.

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.

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