Nav-reformen har ført til endringer for landets sosialtjenester. I Trondheim er det valgt en minimumsmodell, bare en liten del av den tidligere sosialtjenesten ble med inn i Nav, og so-sialfaglig personell som gikk inn havnet i mottaket. Oppgaven handler om Nav-mottaket og det som foregår der, sett fra et sosialfaglig ståsted. Nav som organisasjon, sosialfaglig teori, og mottaksarbeidernes erfaringer ses på i sammen-heng for å si noe om sosialt arbeid og dets eventuelle plass i mottaket. Formålet er å finne ut av om fagområdet sosialt arbeid er aktuelt i Nav-mottaket. Gjennom observasjonsstudie og dybdeintervju av ni mottaksansatte er det hentet inn empiri omkring temaet, og dette er analysert og sammenført med teoristoff fra sosialt arbeid. Videre er grunnlagsdokumenter for Nav-etableringa og lovverk trukket inn for å komplettere bildet. Sosialarbeiderne synes i praksis å trekke sterke veksler på sosialt arbeids teori, men denne koblingen er mindre tydelig når de selv skal si noe om hvorvidt sosialt arbeid er relevant for dem. Problematikk omkring hvordan Nav-systemet fungerer i et mottaksperspektiv tas opp, og bekymring omkring rommet for godt sosialt arbeid likeså. Oppgaven går inn på rammer for mottaksarbeidet, og viser at det gis utydelige signaler til de som sitter i første linje og skal utøve arbeidet. Denne tvetydigheten påvirker mottaksarbeide-rens yrkesutøvelse og, ikke minst, yrkesfølelse. Samtidig synes det klart at det foregår sosial-faglig arbeid både i et avgrenset prosessorientert faseperspektiv, og mer overordnet på bak-grunn av kunnskap, ferdigheter og holdninger hentet fra sosialt arbeids teoritilfang. / The Nav-reform has changed social services in Norway. In the city of Trondheim, they have chosen to integrate only a small part of the social services in Nav (a so called minimum solu-tion). The social workers who were transferred to Nav, ended up in the front line service of the office. This thesis is about this front line service and its tasks, seen in a social work perspective. Nav as an organization, social work theory and the experiences of the front line employees (FLE) are seen in connection to explore social work and its potential position in the front line service of the Nav-office. The intention is to explore whether the field of social work is relevant in this front line service. The empirical data is collected through qualitative methods; an observation study, and inter-views with 9 FLE’s. The results are analyzed and discussed in light of social work theory. Founding documents, laws and regulations regarding Nav are drawn in to supplement the pic-ture. The social worker seems to be leaning heavily on social work theory regarding how they per-form their work, but this connection seems less obvious when they present their views upon whether social work is relevant for them. Problems regarding how the Nav-system functions in a front-line-focus are addressed, as well as worries about the space available for doing a good job. The thesis discusses the constraints of front line service in Nav, and shows how the signals given the FLE’s are obscured by the many stakeholders involved. This ambiguity influences the FLE’s practice and their vocational esteem. At the same time, it seems obvious that social work is being performed, with a clear phase-perspective, but also more generally on grounds of knowledge, skills and attitudes familiar to the theoretical field of social work.

I forbindelse med Nav-reformen har sosialtjenesten i alle landets kommuner vært igjennom større eller mindre endringer. Det som er felles for alle er at hele eller deler av tjenesten nå inngår som en del av Nav-kontoret. Kommunene har valgt ulike løsninger for hvordan de skal organisere sosialtjenesten i Nav. 26 av landets kommuner, deriblant Trondheim Kommune, har valgt minimumsløsningen, som innebærer at kun de lovpålagte kommunale oppgavene inngår i Nav. De øvrige sosiale tjenestene forvaltes av Trondheim Kommune, organisert i en bestiller-utførermodell. Sosialtjenestens oppgaver er derfor fordelt mellom flere ulike enheter i Nav og kommune, og vi ser en fragmentering av sosialtjenesten. Målet med denne oppgaven er å gi en oversikt over sosialtjenesten under ny organisering, samt finne ut hvordan de ansatte opplever å drive sosialt arbeid under nye rammebetingelser. Oppgavens teoridel starter med en gjennomgang av organisasjonsteori og organisering av offentlige velferdsorganisasjoner, samt de siste års reformer i Nav og sosialtjeneste i Trondheim Kommune. På grunnlag av analyse av litteratur og dokumenter som omhandler temaet, besvares første del av problemstillingen; Hvordan er sosialtjenestevirksomheten i Trondheim Kommune organisert? Oppgavens analysedel besvarer punkt 2. av problemstillingen; Hvilke erfaringer har sosialarbeidere med å drive sosialt arbeid i en fragmentert sosialtjeneste, hvilke utfordringer står man overfor og hvilke konsekvenser har organiseringen for målgruppen sosialklienter? Det er først og fremst foretatt analyse av intervjudata for å svare på denne delen av problemstillingen. Informantene erfarer at det kan være utfordrende å drive sosial arbeid i Nav ved valg av minimumsløsningen. Minimumsløsningen gjør at kommunen utgjør en liten del av Nav-kontoret, noe som gjør at det vanskelig å videreformidle og opparbeide sosialfaglig kompetanse i Nav. Videre diskuteres konsekvensene av kommunens valg av minimumsløsning og bestiller-utførerorganiseringen samtidig, noe som bidrar til en omfattende fragmentering av tjenesten. Informantene er særlig opptatt av de barrierene som oppstår for å kunne arbeide helhetlig og koordinert, når mange enheter er involvert i forhold til en og samme bruker. En effekt av organiseringen ser ut til å være at jo større hjelpebehov en bruker har, desto flere kontaktpersoner må han forholde seg til. Informantene opplever videre utfordringer knyttet til rolle- og ansvarsfordeling mellom samarbeidende enheter, når mange er involvert i forhold til felles brukere, og et omfattende behov for samarbeid, som er ressurskrevende. For å kunne yte helhetlige og koordinerte tjenester er man avhengig av at samarbeidet fungerer. Informantene opplever at dette kan by på utfordringer. Tid brukt på koordinering av de fragmenterte tjenestene og samarbeidsprosesser går på bekostning av tid brukt i direkte kontakt med brukere Til slutt i oppgaven videreføres en diskusjon om organiseringen av sosialkontorene, der utviklingen har gått fra at sosialarbeidere opptrer som "generalister" som jobber med alle deler av livet til brukeren, via diskusjoner om spesialisering innad på sosialkontoret, til at sosialtjenestens oppgaver i dag fordeles mellom flere ulike spesialiserte enheter, slik denne oppgaven beskriver. Oppgaven avsluttes med å diskutere effektivitetsbegrepet som har blitt brukt som en sentral begrunnelse for de reformene som har pågått, og konkluderer med at effektivitetsbegrepet slik det blir brukt i reformene, ikke nødvendigvis samsvarer med effektivitet slik det betraktes i sosialt arbeid. / Due to the NAV-reform, the Social Services in every Norwegian municipality has gone through major changes. In common for all these changes is that all of, or parts of, the social services now is a part of the NAV-organization. The municipalities have chosen different solutions concerning how to organize the social services in NAV. Trondheim has, like 25 other municipalities in Norway, chosen the minimum solution, in which only the tasks imposed by Norwegian law is included in NAV. The rest of the social services are administered by the Trondheim municipality in a purchaser-provider-model. The responsibility concerning social services is divided between different departments in NAV and the municipality, which leads to a fragmentation of the social services. The objective of this thesis is to provide an overview of the social services under a new organization model, and to investigate how the employees experience doing social work under these new conditions. The theoretical part of the thesis provide with an overview of organizational theory and structuring of public welfare organizations, describes the reforms taking place in NAV and investigate how the social service in Trondheim municipality is organized. Based on analysis of literature and documents concerning this subject, the first part of the thesis’ main question is answered: “How are the social services in Trondheim municipality organized?” The thesis’ analytical part focus on answering part two of the thesis’ main question: “What sort of experiences do the social workers have working in a fragmented social service, what sort of challenges do they meet due to this, and what are the consequences for the social clients?” To be able to answer this, social workers has been interviewed (informants) and the interview data has been analyzed in respect to the main question. The informants express that doing social work in NAV under the minimum solution is challenging when facing clients with diverse and complex needs. The minimum solution leads to the municipality being only a small part of the NAV office, which again leads to difficulties in gaining and passing on social work competence within NAV. Furthermore, the consequences of the municipality’s choice of a minimum solution together with a purchaser-provider-model are discussed, since these choices lead to a fragmentation of the social services. The informants are concerned with the barriers that prevent them to work efficient and coordinated due to the fact that several departments are involved with the work concerning one client. Hence, a side effect of the existing organizational model is that a client with complex and diverse needs must relate to many different social workers. Furthermore, the informants experience challenges concerning the split of responsibility between the various departments, when they work with the same clients. The need for coordination requires unnecessary use of resources and induces a risk for loss of vital information and knowledge about the clients. The informants are experiencing great challenges related to the collaboration and coordination between the various departments with respect to the use of unnecessary time and resources. At the end of the thesis, a discussion about the structuring of the social services is continued, focusing on the developement from the social workers acting as “generalists”, that is, working with all parts of the clients’ lives, to a specialized model where the social services are divided between multiple specialized departments. The conclusion of the thesis is that the informants together with documents and other information clearly induce a need to look closer into how the social services are organized between the Trondheim municipality and NAV. There is a potential for use of less resources and to higher the quality of service for the social clients by reducing the number of departments and to look at a more generalized and continuous interface between the social worker and the clients.

Denne masteroppgaven er en kvalitativ undersøkelse om coaching og faglig veiledning i sosialt arbeid. Jeg har intervjuet syv personer som har forbindelse til sosialt arbeid som arbeidsfelt. Formålet med undersøkelsen har vært å utforske hvilke forskjeller og likheter informantene har opplevd mellom coaching og faglig veiledning, samt hvilke tanker de har om bruk av coaching i sosialt arbeid. Resultatene viser at informantene er delt i synet på om coaching utgjør et eget fagfelt som har flere likheter med veiledning, eller om coaching er en del av samlebegrepet veiledning. Faglig veiledning har hovedfokuset på den faglige utviklingen og inneholder mye refleksjon, mens coaching har fokus på hele livssituasjonen og er mer handlingsorientert. Kompetansen til coachen/veilederen oppfattes som en av hovedforskjellene. En coach har ikke nødvendigvis fagkunnskap om feltet til den som blir coachet, slik som en veileder har. En del informanter opplevde at coachingprosessen derfor ikke inneholdt den samme refleksjonen rundt faglige og etiske problemstillinger. Flere merket likevel positive endringer i sin arbeidssituasjon eller på andre områder som følge av coachingen og betraktet det som en fordel at coachen bidro med et perspektiv utenfra. Coachen oppfattes som en pådriver og motivator, mens en faglig veileder er en sentral støtte i arbeidshverdagen som bidrar til å forebygge utbrenthet og sekundær traumatisering. Et fellestrekk mellom faglig veiledning og coaching er at den veiledede går gjennom en prosess. Målet er faglig eller personlig utvikling. Informantene mener at en del av virkemidlene i metodene er like, for eksempel evnen til å stille spørsmål og skape en god dialog. Samtidig brukes virkemidlene ofte på nye måter eller med et annet formål i coaching. Relasjonen oppleves som viktig innenfor begge metodene. Hvis relasjonen er god, tilegges ikke selve metoden så stor betydning. Coaching betraktes hovedsakelig som et supplement til faglig veiledning og noe man kan ta i bruk ut fra ulike behov. De fleste informantene tror at coaching kan være positivt for klienter i sosialt arbeid. For å sikre den faglige kvaliteten ved bruk av coaching i sosialt arbeid, kan en kombinasjon av en grunnkompetanse i sosialt arbeid og et kurs i coaching være en løsning. / The focus in this master thesis is coaching and supervision in social work. The empirical foundation is based on qualitative interviews with seven female social workers. I wanted to explore their experiences of the differences and similarities between coaching and supervision, and their reflections on use of coaching in social work. The results show that one group of the participants believes that coaching constitute a separate field with many similarities to supervision, while the other group see coaching just as one of many word in the concept of supervision. The main focus in supervision is professional development and reflection. Coaching is focused on development in a holistic perspective and is more action-oriented. The required expertise differs in coaching and supervision. The coach does not necessarily have competence in the field he is working in, while a supervisor does. The participants think that this is one of the differences between coaching and supervision with most impact on the experience of the method. Coaching does not include the same reflections regarding ethical and professional dilemmas as supervision. Many of the participants still experienced positive changes in their situation at work or in other life areas and saw the advantage of a perspective from another field. The coach has the role of a motivator and promoter, while the function of the supervisor is to be a support in the daily work and help the social workers prevent burnout and secondary traumatization. Both coaching and supervision means that the supervisee goes through a process. The goal is either personal or professional development. The participants believe that many of the tools are similar in coaching and supervision, for example asking questions and facilitate dialogue. However, the tools are often used in different ways or with different purposes. The relationship between the coach or supervisor and the supervisee is very important in both coaching and supervision. The method becomes less important if the relationship is good. The participants find coaching mainly as a supplement to supervision and believe that the methods can meet different needs. Most of the participants think that coaching can be a positive contribution for the clients. To ensure the professional quality and the ethical assessments using coaching in social work, a combination of a bachelor degree in social work and a course in coaching can be the solution.

The aim of this study has partly been to explore how social work students develop their conception of relevant competence during their bachelor education. This part of the study is based on qualitative interviews with a sample of twelve students from Lillehammer University College interviewed individually focusing on the relationship between theory and practice, competence learned at the university and college and in practice placement and on the personal aspect of professional action. The most significant research finding was the ways in which the students changed their view on relevance after a period of practice placement during the second year of the bachelor program. The students consider competence experienced in practice placement as the "real thing" and competence learned in college as a secondary, but necessary competence for passing the final exam. Competence learned in practice placement was taken for granted and critical reflection on knowledge systems, practices and the relationship between welfare politics and professional action was outside the limits of what the students deemed relevant competence. From these research findings and interpretations I derived new research questions which I have investigated in five articles. Article 1 scrutinizes the strong impact of practice placement, article 2 explores the purpose of ethics in a context where social work tries to mediate between social control and users participation, article 3 is concerned with the necessity of moral competence in order to make good judgements in the application of the mandate given from the welfare state, article 4 asks to what extent the concept of empowerment requires certain techniques of intervention in order to make conform clients to conventional ways of living, while article 5 explores the potentials in Buddhism applied to relevant social work issues. The articles are situated in three different theoretical traditions. I use the traditions partly to challenge core elements within the traditions themselves, partly to challenge conventional viewpoints concerning competences in social work like arguments in favour of scientific knowledge because it contributes to the elevation of the status of social workers The first one draws on the tradition from situated learning and explores learning as participation in two different contexts (college and workplace). I challenge the notion that development of competence is about negotiations between contexts. I contend that the institutionalised practices in social work have a very disciplinary impact on the concept of relevant competence which is rather underestimated by our educational system. Article 2, 3 and 4 profit from Michel Foucault's governmentality-concept. His perspective on the ways in which the population in modern societies is governed. is used to explore how the welfare state uses its professions to combine social control with freedom and self-governing. In my interpretation, ethics is a part of a soft and subtle intervention strategy to transform social and structural issues to individual troubles and make clients cooperative and responsible. I also contend that the mandate given to social workers requires good judgement in their application of individualized strategies which actualize their phronetic competence. I also interpret empowerment as a strategy for intervention that makes clients conform to conventional ideals in society. This interpretation challenges the notion of empowerment as liberation strategy defined by the clients themselves. Article 5 is entirely devoted to the question of moral character, drawing heavily on core values from Buddhism. Buddhism is used to identify and suggest ways to overcome ego-related problems which are frequently occurring in social work (such as the problem of "burn-out" and the ways bureaucratic distance is used as a shield against demanding clients). I also suggest that Buddhism can be used as a strategy for promoting personal social engagement in social work. My empirical study as well as my articles identifies "phronetic competences" in social work as the most important ones. This concept is derived from the aristotelian "phronesis" meaning personal, experienced-based competence for making morally right judgements according to particular situations. I argue that phronetic competence is highly relevant because it includes capacities for actualizing moral aspects of a situation, critical analytical reflection and for scrutinizing knowledge systems, practices and impacts of welfare goals which tend to be taken for granted.  I contend that the education of social workers must make a stronger effort to facilitate phronetic competences among social work students to prevent social work from being reduced to technical skills and social engineering.