Digitalisering för frivård - hur appen Utsikt utnyttjar digitaliseringens möjligheter

Sammanfattning: Digitalization confers new ways for people to communicate and new ways to work with information. Public sector digitalization, sometimes labelled "eGov", is a core logic för public sector development. The Swedish Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalvården in swedish) is exploring ways to utilise digital opportunities in their key areas to improve quality of service, improve accessibility and increase efficiency. The judicial rulings enforced within the probation service allows clients to remain active parts of their social contexts. The mobile application "Utsikt" (literally translates to view (from a look-out), but is used in the sense of outlook combined with a pun reference to the motto "Bättre ut'' translated as "Better out", the motto of rehabilitation) has been developed to enable enhanced therapeutic exposure within the clients' daily context. One core function is a push notification of upcoming meetings with probation officers, implemented to increase treatment plan compliance. Another core functionality is a collection of treatment aides that abide by the theory and methodology underlying the existing rehabilitation regimes. Utsikt also contains emergency information and contacts to assist in problematic situations. We have used Utsikt as the focus of a case study within eGov research in the Information Systems (IS) discipline. As a delineated instance of public sector digital transformation, Utsikt is the subject of inquiry into the exploitation of digital opportunities within the Swedish Prison and Probation Service. Data is collected through interviews of state employees with knowledge and experience of the development of Utsikt or its current use. Document analysis, including government reports, institutional policies, workplace guidelines and academic papers are used to construct the empirical base for contextualizing the case. This study relies on an adaptation of the Policy, Design and Effect framework (PDE-model) defined by Goldkuhl. It is used to understand how designed digitalized practices are derived from specific policy and how design effects relate to policy-based expectations that guided the design process. Affordance theory is used to explore the actability presented by the app which supports the analysis of degree of exploitation in relation to digital opportunities. We discover that Utsikt is a positive contribution to the core activities of the Probation Service, but that it is also underutilised. It has nonetheless provided, and continues to provide, important contributions and utility. The lack of metadata analysis capabilities means that, as a tool for the Probation Service, Utsikt does not meet policy expectations and requirements. There is potential for Utsikt to become embedded as a core practice. It could convey important digital opportunities that improve the outcome for the Probation Service. A clearly defined strategy for implementation and accreditation, as well as a design plan for remedying the missing functionality, are needed to attract the support of central planning and resource management levels of the organization. This could lead to fulfilling the obvious potential of Utsikt.