Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera hur socialsekreterare arbetar med aktivering av försörjningsstödstagare och vilka faktorer som påverkar arbetet med aktiveringen. Materialet för studien består av fyra intervjuer med socialsekreterare som arbetar med ekonomiskt bistånd i en kommun i Sverige. Resultaten visar att aktivering av arbetslösa försörjningsstödstagare utförs i form av jobbaktivering eller resursaktivering. Alla intervjuade socialsekreterare ser på aktivering som en bra och nödvändig åtgärd, som både har en stöttande och kontrollerande funktion med tyngdpunkt på stöd. Vidare visar resultaten att det finns faktorer på tre nivåer som påverkar arbete med aktivering: Samhällsnivå: Socialtjänstlagen, arbetsmarknaden, politiska beslut, skärpta regelverk, information och samverkan; Organisationsnivå: otydligt uppdrag, riktlinjer och kriterier; resursbrist, tidsbrist, arbetsbelastning, bristande samverkan, bristande information; Individnivå: socialsekreterarens erfarenhet och utbildning, syn på aktivering; klienteras utbildning, arbetslivserfarenheter, motivation, socialkompetens och eventuella individuell problematik, önskningar, mål och syn på framtid, tidigare erfarenheter av kontakt med socialtjänsten. / The purpose with this paper is to study how social service workers work with activation of welfare receivers, and witch elements that influence the work with activation. The material for the study consists of four interviews with social service workers that work with financial assistance in a municipality in Sweden. The results show that activation of unemployed benefit claimants are carried out in the form of job activation or resource activation. All the interviewed social service workers share a view on activation as a good and necessary line, that have both a supporting and controlling functions with emphasis on support. Furthermore the results show that there are three levels that influence the activation of the welfare receivers: Social aspects: SoL, labour market, political decisions, stringent regulations, information and collaboration; Organization aspects: unclear mission, guidelines and criteria, lack of resources, lack of time, workload, insufficient collaboration and insufficient information; Individual aspects: the social service workers experience and education, view upon activation; clients’ education, working experience, motivation, social competence and eventual individual problems, wishes, goals and view upon the future, earlier experiences of contact with the social service.

Syftet med denna forskningsöversikt är att undersöka hur makt och maktrelationer beskrivs och teoretiseras i forskningen mellan socialsekreterare och klient med fokus på klientens beskrivningar. Denna studie är en integrativ och kvalitativ forskningsöversikt med en abduktiv ansats, där 29 tidigare studier har tematiserats och analyserats med hjälp av maktens fyra ansikten. Studien påvisar att maktbegreppet är ett komplext och svårdefinierat begrepp. Studien visar hur makten kan betraktas utifrån maktens fyra ansikten inom det sociala arbetet i mötet mellan klienten och socialsekreteraren. Vidare diskuteras rekommendationer gällande maktaspekten för det sociala arbetet utifrån olika studier samt rekommendationer för fortsatt forskning. Det är viktigt att klienternas perspektiv, såsom upplevelsen av makt och kontroll, tas upp angående deras möte med de professionella. Eftersom mötet och relationen mellan socialsekreterare och klient är en av de grundläggande faktorerna för ett bra samarbete är studier som denna viktiga att genomföra. Studien påvisar även hur viktigt det är att uppmärksamma maktobalansen, detta för att kunna medföra en medvetenhet hos de professionella inom socialt arbete om den påverkan och upplevelse som klienterna erfar av de ojämlika maktrelationerna. / The purpose of this research review is to examine how power and power relations are described and theorized in research between social worker and client, focusing on the client's descriptions. This study is an integrative and qualitative research review with an abductive approach where 29 previous studies have been thematized and analyzed by means of the four dimensions of power. This study demonstrates that the concept of power is a complex and difficult concept to define. The study shows how power in social work can be viewed with the perspective from the four dimensions of power in the interaction between the client and the social service worker. Furthermore the study discusses different recommendations regarding the power dimensions in social work based on various studies and recommendations for further research. It is important that the clients' perspective, such as the experience of power and control, is noticed regarding their encounters with the professionals. Since the encounter and the relationship between the social service worker and the client are one of the main factors for a good collaboration studies like these are important to conduct. The study also shows the importance of bringing awareness to the imbalance of power, to thenceforth bring awareness to the professionals of social work about the impact and experience which clients experience in unequal power relations.

Occupational burnout is a serious and increasingly discussed topic. Its serious consequences do not affect only workers employed in social services, but also employees of individual facilities. Appropriate prevention could help to stop the loss of qualified workers. This thesis explores possible preventive measures against the burnout focusing among field social workers in the Mladá Boleslav District. The theoretical part of this thesis defines occupational burnout, describes its causes of origin, phases, its disease pattern, treatment, prevention including specific risks related to this profession. The final chapter focuses on the possibilities of personal development aimed at preventing the occurrence of occupational burnout. For the practical part, a combined research method was selected applying the quantitative approach of questionnaires for social service workers together with a qualitative method of conducting interviews with senior executives. The results are presented in verbal as well as graphical form. The aim of this research was to find out about the level of prevention among selected social service workers in Mladá Boleslav. By comparing the results, it was established that the prevention level by both employers and individual workers is satisfactory. Most workers enjoy what they do,...

Abstract The aim of this qualitative case study was to examine social service workers and managers approach towards the implementation of the Signs-of-Safety (SoS) model and their comprehension of working with the model. This study took place at a children and youth unit at a social service office in Stockholm. The empiric is based on three qualitative semistructured interviews and participant observations. The result was analyzed by definitions from Hasenfeld’s Human service organizations (HSO), Lipsky’s and Johansson’s definitions of "street-level bureaucrats", and room for manoeuvre. Lundquist’s definitions of "understand", "want" and "can" was also used, as well as the core-components that Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman och Wallace draw together of a successful implementation. The main result of the study indicates that the SoS-model contributes to the participation of children and parents and that it is complicated to implement the SoS-model in such a specialized organization. The study’s result also shows that the implementation is promoted by the support and the resources of every level in the organization and the fact that the initiative came from the street-level bureaucrats. The documentary system that comes with the BBIC is complicated to combinate with the SoS-model and therefore this might become a restricting effect.

Transpersoner är en samhällsgrupp som i stor utsträckning och på olika sätt missgynnas i förhållande till andra grupper i samhället. Samtidigt som den svenska socialtjänsten enligt lag har i uppdrag att främja människors jämlikhet i levnadsvillkor har transpersoner ett svagt förtroende för socialtjänsten. Detta på grund av upplevelser av dåligt bemötande från professionella. Denna studie fokuserar på socialsekreterare inom den svenska socialtjänsten och ämnar undersöka samt belysa på vilket sätt socialsekreterare förhåller sig till och arbetar med klienter som är transpersoner. Studiens material har samlats in genom tio semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialsekreterare i en region i södra Sverige. Materialet har analyserats med hjälp av tematisk analys för att ta fram mönster i socialsekreterarnas utsagor. Genom kodning och tematisering genererade den tematiska analysen tre teman som i denna studie benämns med människan som utgångspunkt, människokompetens i fokus och som riktlinje och människan bakom rollen som socialsekreterare. Studiens resultat analyserades med hjälp av delar av Butlers queerteori samt tidigare forskning inom det aktuella området. Socialsekreterarnas gemensamma ingång i det enskilda klientmötet är enligt dem själva att bemöta alla klienter lika och att försöka se människan bakom klienten. Det handlar därmed i det specifika mötet med klient med transidentitet i slutändan om att möta en människa, inte en transperson. / Transgender people are in society at large and in many different ways more disadvantaged than other groups in society. Simultaneously as the Swedish social services by law are obliged to promote equality in people's living conditions transgender people have a low trust and confidence in the social services. This is due to experiences of being poorly treated by professionals. This study focuses on social service workers in the Swedish social services and has the purpose to examine and illuminate social service worker´s approach to and way of working with clients who are transgender. The data in this study have been collected through ten semi-structured interviews with social service workers in a region in southern Sweden. The data have been analysed by the use of thematic analysis in order to bring forth patterns in the social service worker´s statements. By coding and thematization the thematic analysis generated three themes that this study labels as with the human as the outset, humancompetence in focus and as guideline and the human behind the role as a social service worker. The result of this study was analysed with the help of parts of Butler's queer theory as well as previous research on the field of concern. The common way of entering a meeting with a client is according to the social service worker's themselves to treat all clients in the same way and to attempt to see the human behind the client. In the specific meeting with a client who have a transgender identity it therefore comes down to meeting a human, not a transgender person.

Socialsekreterare förväntas alltmer interagera med andra organisationer för att utföra effektivt socialt arbete. En lösning har blivit att introducera mer flexibla arbetsplatser i form av aktivitetsbaserade arbetsplatser (ABW) för att förbättra interaktion och kommunikation mellan anställda. Denna studie strävar efter att identifiera positiva och negativa aspekter med ABW i relation till socialsekreterares yrkesroll. Syftet är att kunna presentera resultat som är relevanta för praktikers övervägning av att introducera ABW i Socialtjänsten. En litteraturstudie i form av en ”interactive review” har genomförts med syfte att identifiera positiva och negativa aspekter inom tillgänglig forskning om ABW. De identifierade aspekterna av ABW jämfördes med tidigare forskning i relation till socialsekreterares yrkesroll. Ett rollteoretiskt ramverk har använts för att få en djupförståelse för de förväntningar socialsekreterare har i sin yrkesroll och hur de potentiellt kan förändras inom en ABW. Resultatet av analysen visar att ABW kan stärka socialsekreterare i deras samspel och samverkan med andra organisationer men påverkas av tidigare upplevelser och arbetsuppgifter. Samtidigt som samverkan förstärks med andra organisationer har det visats att samverkan inom organisationen försämrats då anställda minskar kommunikationen med sina medarbetare i jämförelse med tidigare arbetsplats. ABW:s betydelse för socialsekreterare behöver däremot värderas i relation till flera faktorer. / Social workers are increasingly expected to integrate with other organizations to produce efficient work. One solution is the introduction of flexible working spaces knows as activity-based workplaces (ABW) to improve interaction and communication between employees. This study intends to identify positive and negative aspects with ABW in relation to social workers professional role. The purpose is to present relevant results for practitioners considering introducing ABW in Social Services' workplaces. A literature review in the form of an interactive review has been conducted with the purpose of identifying positive and negative aspects of ABW in previous literature. The identified aspects of ABW were then compared to previous literature of the professional role of the social worker. Using role theory as a framework, the study analysed the expectations social workers experience in the work and how the expectations are affected by an ABW. Results show that ABW could strengthen the social worker's teamwork and cooperation with other organizations, however this is affected by the social worker's previous experience and work obligations. While cooperation might increase with other organizations, the opposite is true for cooperation within the organization after transitioning to an ABW compared to the previous workplace. Thus, the evaluation of ABW among social workers need to consider multiple factors.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka socialsekreterares uppfattning av barns delaktighet i socialtjänstens barnavårdsutredningar som använder sig av metoden Signs of Safety. Syftet med studien har även varit att undersöka socialsekreterares reflektioner, möjligheter, svårigheter och funderingar i arbetet med barns delaktighet. Studien har utgått ifrån en kvalitativ metod där sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialsekreterare genomfördes för att besvara studiens frågeställningar. Den insamlade empirin har tolkats och analyserats med hjälp av Johanssons teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater och Shiers delaktighetsmodell. Av resultatet framgår det att socialsekreterarna som intervjuades betonar vikten av att arbeta på ett sätt som främjar barns delaktighet och att det är en av de viktigaste arbetsuppgifter som socialsekreterarna har. Det framkommer att socialsekreterarna använder metoder och verktyg som förutsätter att barn blir delaktiga oberoende av vilka personliga egenskaper som barnet har. Resultatet visar även att det finns många svårigheter i barnavårdsutredningar. Dessa svårigheter har bland annat att göra med föräldrar och barns inställning till utredningen, oklara riktlinjer, arbetsbelastning och tidsbrist. Slutsatsen som togs, med hjälp av Johanssons teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater och Shiers delaktighetsmodell, är att barn inte alltid fullt är delaktiga i barnavårdsutredningar då de inte tilldelas någon konkret makt i beslutsfattande processer. En annan slutsats är att Signs of Safety har bidragit med ett nytt tankesätt kring vad barns delaktighet innebär och strukturerat upp konkreta verktyg för att möjliggöra barns delaktighet. Implementeringen av Signs of Safety i respektive kommun har trots detta inte haft något större inflytande i arbetssättet för barns delaktighet. / The purpose of this qualitative study has been to investigate social workers' perception of children's participation in social services' child care investigations that use Signs of Safety. The purpose of this study has also been to explore social workers' reflections, opportunities, difficulties and considerations in the work with children's participation. The study has been based on a qualitative method where six semi-structured interviews with social workers were conducted to answer the study's questions. The collected empirical data has been interpreted and analyzed with the help of Johansson's theory of street-level bureaucracy and Shier's participation model. The results of this study show that the social service workers who were interviewed emphasize the importance of working in a way that promotes children's participation and that this is one of the most important tasks that the social service workers have. It appears that the social service workers use methods and tools that presuppose that children become involved, regardless of what personal characteristics the child has. The results also show that there are many difficulties in child care investigations. These difficulties have to do with parents' and children's attitudes to the investigation, unclear guidelines, workload and lack of time. The conclusion drawn, using Johansson's theory of street-level bureaucracy and Shier's participation model, is that children are not always fully involved in child care investigations as they are not assigned any concrete authority in decision-making processes. Another conclusion is that Signs of Safety has contributed a new way of thinking about what children's participation means and structured concrete tools to enable children's participation. The implementation of Signs of Safety in each county has, despite this, not had any major influence on the way social workers work with children's participation.

Diploma thesis ,,Personality Traits of Students and Assistant Jobs" The thesis deals with personality characteristics of students and professionals doing a job of a social service worker. The purpose was to find out whether professionals and students doing such job have necessary personality preconditions for their profession. The theoretical part describes personality preconditions required for this profession and, at the same time, warns of features that are unsuitable for it. It also includes information about pitfalls associated with this profession and methods of prevention and intervention that may help social service workers to cope with these pitfalls. Within the framework of the survey, answers to the asked questions demonstrated that students and professionals in this field don't have good preconditions for doing the job. Some of them seem to have been affected by a "syndrome of a helper" when choosing this profession. The conclusion of the thesis emphasises the importance of education, preventive programmes, self-experience training and supervision as prevention of pitfalls.

This diploma thesis deals with workload of social service workers in special regime homes. The aim of this paper is to chart the factors influencing workload of social service workers in special regime homes. The main research question asked is: How do social service workers in special regime homes perceive their workload subjectively? The thesis is divided into a theoretical part and a research part. The theoretical part is divided into five chapters which are based on professional literature. The chapters contain a detailed description of the profession of social service workers including professional qualifications together with the definition of the social service - special regime home. The term strain is defined and divided into workload, mental strain and physical strain in the following chapter together with a mention of the term work-life balance in connection with this topic. The subsequent chapter is dedicated to prevention of inception of strain, more precisely to supervision and mental health hygiene. The last chapter deals in detail with occupational burnout. The research part contains the specifications of the aim of the thesis, of the main research question and of five research sub-questions which have been based on the main one. The data have been collected by means of qualitative research, survey methodology and the semi-structured interview method. A specific special regime home in the Vysočina region has been selected for the purposes of this research. The nine participants in the research are social service workers who have been employed at the facility for a minimum of one year. The research was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, a preliminary research was done to serve as a base for adjusting the research questions. The actual research was realised in the next phase. The acquired data were processed using the clustering method and evaluated subsequently. The evaluated data are ordered in relation to the research questions. The social service workers cope with the workload well. They consider their work to be not only physically but also substantially mentally demanding. Manipulating with bedridden clients is viewed as the most physically challenging operation by the facility workers. The most mentally challenging situations for them are the decease of clients, incessant explaining, dealing with clients, etc. The workers experience stressful situations with clients, however more frequently with clients' families as well. The most common work-related health problems of the workers at the facility are backaches. The results of this diploma thesis can serve the selected special regime home in the Vysočina region or as a study material to the lay and professional public.