The aim of this study was to examine the view that officials involved in youth unemployment have on the significance of collaboration between organizations working with unemployed youth. The study was based on nine qualitative interviews with officials from PES offices and from municipalities such as job coaches. The results were analyzed based on qualitative content analysis. The analysis led to two different themes: conditions and the individual. In the analysis two different theories were used, new institutionalism and Lipsky's theory about street-level bureaucrats. The analysis led us to the conclusion that these officials find collaboration important both for their work and for the unemployed youth and that they collaborate with the individual’s interests in mind.

This study examines implementation from national law in to local practice in the district of Kalmar to assure newly arrived immigrants orientation in civics. The study takes its starting point in Lipskys theory about street-level bureaucracy.  Questions that are discussed are about how  the education is understood by refugee’s coordinators, civic communicators and the new immigrates, how the organization has been and what role the demography and economic structures has played for the organization. It is a case study where interviews and enquete has been used. The district of Kalmar has in a future lack of workers why the immigrants are of interest as an asset for the labour market. Education in mother language is though expensive why resources are coordinated by the District association of Kalmar. Norms and values differ between municipalities about if the education is to be in mother language or not. Lack of economic resources makes also long travels for the pupils and that not all can take place in time for the education, for example study tours.

The labor market is a key aspect of democracy and the country's economy, it is part of human life that affect us all the time linked to the economic and social aspects such as standard of living, class, identity, welfare etc. Labor market policy results in policies that are used to increase employment and thus reducing unemployment and improving labor market functioning. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe how the implementation of labor market policy measures goes to and how much leeway employment agents on AF (arbetsförmedlingen) in Västerås have. We have chosen both quantitative and qualitative methods in our study. First we did a quantitative survey where we had a questionnaire survey with agents employed at the AF in Västerås. In terms of qualitative approach, we did a half - structured interview with the employment office manager in Västerås, where we used the same questions that we had the quantitative survey. This will also help us to detect if street-level bureaucrats and top officials (bureaucrats) have different perceptions / views regarding how much leeway employment agents on AF in Västerås have.

User involvement is generally regarded as something positive within social work, and is something social authorities in Sweden (as in many other countries) propagates for. This study aims to highlight social workers perceptions and experiences of user involvement within the specific context addiction treatment. A context where users individual status has proved needed to be strengthened. Five social workers, all working within Swedens national government-funded social service agency, are given a voice on the subject. By using semi-structured interviews, the results show how broad and ambiguous the concept of user involve-ment is, when the respondents is asked to define it. This found is supported by earlier studies results, in which researchers also declare the concept unclear. This studys result includes se-veral examples of what the social workers comprehend the involvement consists of in their daily work. The conditions for user involvement to take place in this study’s specifik practice, shows to be closely associated with factors such as the bureaucratic regime, organizational framework agreements and with assessments of the client in question knows its own good (on the basis that drugs affect the human cognitive system in different ways).

The purpose of this study is to understand the collaboration between school and social services. The primary focus of this study is the subject of interaction. The study analyzes how confidentiality affects collaboration between school and social services and examines what effect the organizations’ different roles have on collaboration. The method used is qualitative interviews and the gathered empirical data has been analyzed using theories of discretion and street-level bureaucracy. Eight professionals have been interviewed; four social workers from social services and four teachers. All participants agreed that collaboration is necessary between schools and social services but there is a mutual lack of knowledge about each other's organizations. The study concludes that because of the organizations' differing tasks, it is difficult for them to know who should take responsibility in their interaction. There are some methods that facilitate achieving good interaction.

General practice emerged as a distinct medical discipline in the nineteenth century. As independent contractors, General Practitioners (GPs) have however largely been 'untouched' by centrally derived policy. As a result, the profession has possessed wide discretion in relation to the way they dealt with their patients. However, due to increasing concerns over the cost and quality of care within the NHS, general practice increasingly became a focal point for the attentions of central policy makers who sought to control aspects of frontline practitioner behaviour. In order to do attempt to align the frontline behaviour of GPs with such policy aims, policy makers turned to their main tool, the contract. In this thesis I am concerned with the most recent contractual changes (and its later variants) introduced in 2004. In particular, the study is concerned with the impact of the large element of Pay-for-performance (P4P) known as the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) contained within the new contract. QOF rewards practices on the basis of meeting a number of targets in relation to clinical, organizational, and patient experience indicators. As a result of the scale and prescriptive nature of the targets, QOF had the potential to change the nature of GP work at the micro-level should GPs choose to follow this voluntary policy. Previous evidence in relation to GP responses to other prescriptive policies such as National Service Frameworks (NSFs) and clinical guidelines suggests that GPs responded as workers, specifically as street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) by selectively by choosing aspects of policies based upon the on the criteria of whether or not they made the practicalities of processing their daily workload easier. However, the evidence suggests that there were also instances of GP principal (those that (part-) own their practices) behaviour that did not conform to expected SLB behaviour but instead resembled behaviour that would be expected of those managers who are 'results oriented.' Based upon this evidence and the analytical possibilities the SLB framework provided, the theoretical view of GPs as frontline public sector workers or street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) was employed to understand the continuing perceived impact and responses of GPs to the new contract and in particular QOF. Unlike previous analyses of GPs as SLBs however, this study distinguished between GP principals and salaried GPs employed by the GP principal counterparts. Ultimately, the aim of the thesis was to address the question of whether or not the conceptualization and responses of GPs as SLBs was still relevant and useful post-contractual change. Data was collected (between Feb 2008 and Sept 2009) via semi-structured interviews. In total 62 first round interviews and 24 second round interviews were conducted and analysed thematically. The findings indicate that the financial incentives within the QOF appear to strongly influence the responses of GP principals and reflect their priorities as owners of, rather than workers in their organisations. In addition, it appears that the Evidence Based Practice (EBP) movement means that salaried GPs priorities are also aligned to those of their organisations as they believe most of the QOF to be evidence-based. As a result, the application of Lipsky's SLB framework to explaining GP behaviour in relation to QOF is less useful than previous applications.

The overall purpose of this essay was to provide a better understanding of the importance of discretion for social workers in direct social services. To answer the purpose three questions were formulated: (1) How do social workers define and describe their discretion and their ability to independently accomplish their work? (2) How do social workers experience that workplace organization, policies and economic conditions interact with their discretion and (3) How do social workers experience that the interaction with the client can affect how they use their discretion in the individual case? The method used was qualitative interviews. The theoretical framework was Michael Lipskys (1980) Street-level bureaucracy and the four themes organization, professional role, skills and interaction. The results showed that the respondents, although they did not consider themselves to be affected by the economy still adapted to budget restrictions when they said that they were cost conscious in their work. This adjustment to budget framework could possibly be what made them not feel limited in their work. The organization around the direct social work varied, in spite of this showed the result a broad consensus in the experiences of discretion in direct social work.

Today the Swedish education system faces major challenges. This research deals with school segregation and the differences in and among Swedish municipalities, more specifically between Kalmar and Karlskrona. There are well-established national goals with the aim to reduce and counteract school segregation, however we tend to find huge differences in the system and performance of schools. All schools have different grounds, conditions and needs and it forces the local government, principals and teachers to act according to factors as resources, priorities, goals and expected behavior within institutions. Deficiencies create the prerequisites for conducting, completing and maintaining the business to the extent that it can be based on the design of the requirements on national level. That brings a great decentralized responsibility and gives room for maneuver and freedom of action for street-level bureaucrats, that may not maintain national standards. The purpose of this research is to analyse how enforcement of national goals in each municipality, at local schools,  that either are segregated or may become and then compare them to see the difference. In conclusion the analysis show that national goals are used as guidelines in municipalities, but all municipalities establish their own goals according to the conditions and needs of the school. The difference that exist between schools depends on local circumstances.

Insatsen kontaktperson används flitigt inom socialtjänsten, trots det finns det ytterst lite forskning kring insatsen och dess effekter. Detta arbete strävar efter att få en ökad förståelse för socialsekreterares användande av insatsen kontaktperson för ungdomar samt hur socialsekreterares handlingsutrymme har påverkat det användandet. För att nå en ökad förståelse kring detta har en kvalitativ intervjustudie genomförts där socialsekreterare från olika socialkontor fått berätta om sina erfarenheter och upplevelser kring insatsen. Utifrån de uppgifter som framkommit under intervjuerna har olika teman skapats som beskriver skäl att använda insatsen, vilka effekter som ses av insatsen samt skillnader och likheter mellan olika handläggares agerande. Resultatet visar att kontaktperson kan beviljas av många olika anledningar och att de upplevda effekterna varierar. Det blir också tydligt hur fritt det är för varje socialsekreterare att själv utforma insatsen, vilket gör att det går ifrågasätta klienters rättssäkerhet då detta skiljer sig mellan olika kommuner. / In Swedish social services work with youths one of the most common ways to help is to grant the youth a sort of grownup mentor, a contact person. Despite of this, there is very little research about this kind of mentoring and its effects. In this study, we wanted to increase our understanding of the use of contact person for youths and also how the social workers discretion affects the use of contact person. To be able to do that a qualitative interview study was made where social workers from different social service offices shared their knowledge and experiences about contact person. Based on the information that was given during the interviews we were able to identify different themes that describe reasons to use contact person, which effects the social workers can see and also the differences and similarities between the different social workers way to use it. The result shows that social workers can provide youths with a contact person for a variety of reasons, and that the experienced effects differ between the social service offices. The result also makes it clear how the social workers in a free way are allowed to form the setup and implement of the contact person, which makes it possible to question the client’s rights to receive the same help no matter where you live or who you meet with.

The aim of this study was to examine how foster-care workers use their discretion, also how they evaluate foster-care investigations and which criteria affects the outcome of the investigations. Our focus group were social workers from four middle-sized municipalities and two social workers from the private sector. Two overall themes were identified after our interviews, both with underlying themes: discretion during investigation and criteria for foster-care takers.The analysis was based on previous research and theory. Our main conclusions were that social workers’ discretion is affected by the guidelines and methods established at their workplace. Also that the criterias for foster-care takers depends on the situation, but the foster child needs his or her own room in the home and the foster parent can not appear in criminal records.