Rättssäkerhet, ett (o)uppnåeligt mål? : En kvalitativ fokusgruppsstudie om socialsekreterares bedömningar kring rätten till ekonomiskt bistånd

Sammanfattning: The work as a social worker comes with a great responsibility when it comes to making decisions that may impact people's lives. The social worker has the opportunity to make a professional decision by using the information that has been provided from the clients. However, the social worker does not have the ability to make any decision based on their own preferences. They have the freedom of action to make a decision within the boundaries in relation to the laws of the country and the local guidelines within the organization. Our study aims to highlight social workers' descriptions of how they experience their action of freedom, does it come with any merits or limitations? We would like to highlight this with the glasses of a legal perspective. Focusing on the target group, people with alcohol and drug abuse. The study is qualitative with an empirical basis that is based on a snowball selection. We have interviewed two focus groups with four to five respondents in each group. The study has shown that the social workers experience that their work is affected by the guidelines, in particular how these guidelines are interpreted. The respondents did not experience that personal values had a crucial role in decision making. However, the respondents often referred to that even though they work for the state, they are also only human and that it is impossible to make a definitive objective judgement of a case. At the same time the respondents claimed that if you only were professional and could take a step back and look at the case with the glasses of the laws and the guidelines provided from their work, it shouldn't be an issue for any parties involved. The result also showed that the decision if a client would get their application approved or not, could sometimes depend on the person's relationship with drugs. The social work is a complex matter considering the result of this study as well as previous research. The research suggests that it is difficult to create guidelines that satisfies every client on an individual level.