”ATT DANSA MED HINDER” : OM POLITISK STYRNING, DELEGATION OCH MAKT VID IMPLEMENTERINGEN AV SKOLSOCIALA TEAM

Sammanfattning

Due to problematic school absenteeism in Swedish schools, the government hastasked the Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket) and the National Board ofHealth and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) with implementing school social teams. The aim of thisstudy is to analyze the relationship between political governance, delegation, and professionaldiscretion in the implementation of these school social teams. The study employs a qualitativeapproach and is based on five semi-structured interviews aimed at exploring the experiencesof the actors involved in the implementation process. The interviews were analyzed usingthematic analysis to identify central themes. The themes identified are: goals and follow-up,implementation, and collaboration. Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracy, as well as theconcepts of will, ability, and understanding, were used as theoretical frameworks to interpretthe collected data. The results of the study show how unclear goal formulations and limitedoversight from the political level give professionals significant interpretive authority andpractical control at the grassroots level, which reinforces their role as political actors in theimplementation process. In this way, delegation has in practice resulted in a clear shift of powerfrom the political level to the street-level bureaucrats. Furthermore, the study shows that a largedegree of discretion enables flexible and individually adapted interventions, while also creatingchallenges related to equal treatment, boundary-setting, and workload. The study alsocontributes knowledge about professional collaboration and the shift towards preventive andearly interventions within social work.