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.

Syfte med detta arbete var att undersöka om och hur utomhuspedagogik kan främja social kompetens och om utomhuspedagogik kan vara en möjlighet för att träna social kompetens i gymnasieskolan.Dagens ungdomar har färre vuxenkontakter och blir influerade av det tekniska samhället samtidigt som sociala färdigheter tränas mindre. Därav blir ungdomars brister i social kompetens mer påtaglig för samhället. Gymnasielever befinner sig i en känslig utvecklingsfas där social kompetens spelar en omedveten roll för sociala interaktioner. För närvarande finns ingen aktuell forskning om sambandet mellan utomhuspedagogik och träning av social kompetens på gymnasieskolan.Min empiriska studie har med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer av fyra verksamheter som arbetar med utomhuspedagogik tagit reda på om och hur utomhuspedagogik kan användas för att främja social kompetens. Respondenterna är verksamma i grundskolan, försvarsmakten, polisutbildningen och företagskonsulting.

The aim of this study was to examine what knowledge social workers express about home visits in child welfare investigations and how they know what to do. Sixteen social workers who work with social investigations concerning children were asked to discuss the topic home visit in three focus group interviews in three different municipalities in southern Sweden. The social workers in our focus group interviews mainly discussed the purpose of the home visit, what social workers do during home visits and furthermore their opinions about guidelines and policy documents regarding the home visit.  To get an understanding of what type of knowledge is the basis for social workers use of the home visit, we used Polanyi's concept of 'tacit knowing' as well as the Aristotelian theory of knowledge containing three forms of knowledge, that is, episteme, techne and fronesis. We found that the displaying of ?tacit knowing? was a consistent feature in all groups, as they had difficulty expressing their knowledge use.

The thesis had its starting point in the first paragraph of the eleventh chapter in the Swedish social services act, which discusses the immediate risk assessments that has to be made when the social services receive a report about a child. The thesis highlights an area that has received a lot of attention in media since the spring of 2014, when an eight year old girl was fatally abused by her legal guardians. The social services had at the time received a report about the girl but it was left unread. This tragic case has brought attention to the routines used by the social services for dealing with reports and risk assessments. This thesis was conducted through individual interviews with social workers working with children and families in the social services, with the aim to acquire an enhanced understanding of how social workers perform immediate risk assessments and what these assessments are based on.

The problem with narcotics is one of Sweden?s biggest social problems. Statistics shows thatthe number of narcotic related deaths and the numbers of heavy drug users are increasing. Thepresent narcotic policy has been questioned due to this increase. As a social worker you meetdrug users on a daily basis.

AbstractTitle: Cooperation between social enterprisesLevel: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business AdministrationAuthor: Anna HammarbergSupervisor: Maria Fregidou-MalamaDate: 2012 - JanuaryAim: The aim of the study is to investigate social enterprises and the Glada Hudik-model to understand how social enterprises cooperate and how they can develop the cooperation through Social Enterprises in Co-operation (SAK). Method: I have done a qualitative research study. I have studied literature to get theoretical background. I visited a seminar to get information and inspiration. Interviews have been done with six persons to get empirical information.      Result and conclusions: Through this study I have seen that social enterprises can co-operate to strengthen their position in the community. Together they can run issues they have in common, undertake major assignments and purchase material to get better deals.

In 2007 a project began in the Uppsala region, which aimed to help municipalities implement BBIC (Barns behov i centrum). BBIC is a system that helps social workers increase children?s participation in investigations relating to social work. This study follows up on BBIC?s implementation process in Enköping, a municipality in the Uppsala region.

The purpose of this essay has been to study if the social services adjust the choice of institution to every juvenile's need of care. If the choice of institution isn't adjusted to the juveniles the institutional placement can become a way to store them rather then treat them.To accomplish the purpose of the essay we have interviewed ten social workers with different worktitles and positions. We have delimited the study to three swedish communities with varying sizes. We have analyzed the material with Bourdieus theory of "field" and "doxa" and Antonovskys theory "a sense of coherence" (SOC).We came to the conclusion that the social service adjusted the choice of institution to the juveniles needs as much as possible. Although there are a couple of factors that some times makes the best choices impossible.

Bakgrund ?tst?rningar k?nnetecknas av en f?rvr?ngd och st?rd uppfattning av sin egen kroppsvikt, kroppsform samt ett avvikande f?rh?llande till mat och att ?ta. Att leva med en ?tst?rning kan p?verka livskvaliteten och valet av utf?rda aktiviteter. Arbetsterapeutens arbete ?r kopplat till alla vardagliga aktiviteter och str?var efter att involvera individen i att skapa meningsfulla aktiviteter som fr?mjar v?lbefinnandet.

Brister i social kognition antas ligga bakom de sociala svårigheter som kännetecknar autismspektrumtillstånd. Klassiska tester av social kognition har ofta misslyckats med att fånga de små brister som kan ses hos exempelvis personer med högfungerande autismspektrumtillstånd. Syftet med denna studie var att validera den svenska versionen av MASC, ett videobaserat, naturalistiskt instrument utvecklat för att mäta subtila brister i social kognition. En grupp vuxna med högfungerande autismspektrumtillstånd (n = 18) och vuxna kontroller (n = 19) testades med MASC, Reading the Mind in the Eyes och Strange Stories. MASC var det enda test som identifierade en skillnad i social kognition mellan grupperna och en ROC-analys visade att MASC hade en bättre diagnostisk validitet än de andra två testerna.

The focus of this thesis is on social workers? knowledge in assessing and making decisions in child welfare cases. The primary aim is to identify what skills or knowledge social workers find most useful within child welfare agencies in Swedish municipalities. Six different types of knowledge, social policy and the approach of child welfare cases are perspectives considered in the analysis. The interviews with social workers were held in three agencies in southern Sweden, in 2014.

The aim of the study was to examine how social workers investigate and assess addiction cases whether gender matters or not. The following questions were asked in the study; ? Does the gender of the client influence whether a case is opened after the first meeting at the Addiction Unit? ? Do social workers consider there is a difference in handling an addiction treatment investigation when the client is a man or a woman? ? Do divergences exist in the assessment and the final decision process when the case concerns a man or a woman? The study is based on the qualitative method. The material is gathered from semi-structured interviews with social workers. Their job tasks include assessment and evaluation of addiction cases.

This study is about conception in the evaluation of financial assistance within the social services. The aim of this study is to describe and understand how social workers reason about variation, conception and local norms and its significance in the evaluation process. To reach this purpose we have conducted semi-structured interviews with eight social workers in which different themes were discussed and reasoned about. In order to understand and analyze our results we have studied/used the knowledge about tacit knowledge and street-level bureaucracy. Our results showed, as previous research states, that social workers do have conceptions about clients.

The purpose of this study was to understand school counselors´ and teachers´ perspectives on the prevention of bullying in relation to social capital. The study was based on a qualitative process with semi-structured interviews from three teachers and three school counselors from three different schools. The main question was to find out teachers and school counselors perspectives of bullying in relation to social capital. The analysis was based on a theory that focuses on social capital, where trust and confidence as well as universal and selective interventions are important. Today, bullying is considered a serious and significant problem in school.

In August 2007 we went to New Zealand for a placement at Child Youth and Family Services. There our interest in Family Group Conferences (FGC) took off. FGC is not near as common in Sweden as in New Zealand. Therefore the purpose of this study was to examine how the Social Services in Helsingborg and Höör in Sweden and Belfast in Northern Ireland work with FGC. We had the privilege to go to Belfast in Northern Ireland as part of the project Insight Europe.