Information om kundval, en förutsättning för valfriheten? : en studie av hur tre kommuner arbetar med informationsspridning om kundval inom hemtjänsten

Sammanfattning: This paper studies, from a client perspective, how three Swedish municipalities work with information about a voucher system in homecare. The paper is a qualitative study using structured informant interviews and analysis of documents. The interviewees are responsible of information about the voucher system in the municipalities. The studied documents describe and clarify the voucher system of the municipality. Neo-institutional organization theory is used to analyse the result. Existing research has showed how pensioners find information on the voucher systems lacking. The research also shows how care managers have difficulties relating to their new roles as information coordinators on the voucher system. With this background, the study focuses on examining how the municipalities work with and organises the information on the voucher system as well as how the responsibiliy of the information is handled. The result shows that the studied municipalities mainly deal with the issue from a market point of view, where the care providers are to be presented in a neutral way. However, one of the municipalities has reconsidered the principle of neutrality and works to clarify the information to the elders. All three municipalities place the responsibility of information on the care managers in their interaction with the elder. There is no further communication between the municipality and the elderly people in the form of client studies or fora of discussion and review of the information on the voucher system.