Socialsekreterarens handlingsutrymme inom Ekonomiskt bistånd : En kvalitativ studie om tolkning och förståelse i praktiken

Sammanfattning

Caseworkers within economic social assistance operate in a complex environment where they are required to balance legal regulations, organisational guidelines, and the individual needs of clients. This makes their professional discretion a central but often overlooked aspect of social work practice. The purpose of the study is to gain a broader understanding of how caseworkers interpret, understand and navigate their discretion in encounters with clients within a municipal context. This is based on how discretion is expressed in practice, how caseworkers relate to their professional boundaries, and how challenges arise as part of their discretionary work in economic social assistance. The study is qualitative, and the empirical material is based on semi-structured interviews with social workers employed within municipal social assistance units. The study is grounded in the experiences of the interviewees, who describe how discretion is shaped by organisational structures, legal framework, workload and professional judgement. Previous research, together with Lipsy’s theory of street-level bureaucracy and empowerment theory, has been used to process and analyse the findings. The results and analysis show that discretion varies significantly between caseworkers and situations, and there is no single clear way to understand it. The answer to our purpose is therefore multifaceted, and the challenges identified are closely linked to the structural and relational dimensions of social assistance work.