The burdens of social work are complex and many, and can lead to social worker turnover. Turnover not only negatively affects their workplaces but also their client-facing work. Supporting retention, however, is a complex endeavour, and the literature on interventions targeting social workers is fragmented. Therefore, this scoping review aims to: a) bolster knowledge on interventions targeting social worker retention, and b) investigate potential gaps in research. Following the Arksey and O’Malley scoping review framework, we conduct a search of three databases, yielding n = 1,903 studies, and, after screening, resulting in the inclusion of n = 22 studies comprising n = 20 distinct interventions. We categorize included studies at different levels: ‘individual’, ‘organisational’, ‘administrative’, or ‘client-facing’, with some studies categorized into more than one level. We identify a gap within the literature to be the dearth of studies employing interventions at the client-level to improve social worker retention. Although most of the included interventions are aimed at social workers, many interventions are based on general components, e.g. supervision, with few employing components focusing on the unique work challenges of social workers. The results buoy and expand upon findings from previous review studies, as well as highlight the importance of further research on interventions targeting social workers through bolstering their work with clients.
Swedish social services rest on strong institutional legitimacy, yet levels of trust in the organization and its professionals vary across different groups. Outreach social work targeting young people aims, in the spirit of prevention, to actively seek out and engage those who would not otherwise encounter social services –”the hard to reach”. While previous research has largely examined how low trust affects service users and those under investigation, far less attention has been paid to legitimacy–an issue that is crucial in outreach work, where social workers initiate contact. Because young people may view such approaches as intrusive or illegitimate, outreach workers must negotiate situational legitimacy to gain recognition and acceptance. This study draws on participant observations and interviews with outreach workers, young people, and unit managers to analyse the conditions that shape these legitimacy-building processes and how they are managed in practice. The findings show that outreach workers navigate multiple audiences: a primary audience–the youth themselves–and a secondary audience consisting of collaboration partners, policymakers, and other actors present in public settings. Another finding highlights how outreach workers negotiate contextually, shaped by time and place, seeking acceptance that grants them the mandate to pursue broader preventive goal, a process conceptualized in terms of situational legitimacy.
Waiting remains an under-explored dimension of research on municipal labour-market programmes. Previous studies indicate that such programmes seldom shorten young people’s periods of unemployment and in some cases may reinforce a sense of distance from working life. This article examines young adults’ (18–29) narratives of participation in a Swedish municipal activation programme. Drawing on eight ethnographic interviews and a thematic analysis informed by Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis, we explore how institutional temporalities shape lived experiences of waiting, stasis and (occasionally) progression. The findings show that everyday life in the programme is structured around repetitive, standardized activities that participants perceive as only tenuously connected to tangible routes into employment. Despite the programme’s stated aim of enhancing employability, waiting becomes a central, regulated feature of participation. At the same time, a slower tempo allows for meaning-making through social interaction, relational stability and self-reflection. We argue that municipal activation programmes should be understood not only as instruments of social control but also as potential sites of care, repair and personal transformation. The study calls for a broader understanding of ‘progression’, attention to participants’ relational and subjective needs, and the incorporation of structural reflection into everyday practice.
In recent decades, political interest in Denmark in including volunteers in statutory street-level organizations (SLOs) has grown, reflecting a wider European trend. Although complementary voluntary work appears to be a preferred form of volunteer inclusion in such organizations in Scandinavia, research on this critical issue in social work remains limited. This article contributes to social work research by exploring how complementary voluntary work is integrated into the social work effort in a statutory SLO providing ambulatory services for people with long-term drug use. The analysis highlights the importance of first, creating a complementary format between social work professionals and volunteers based on a clear division of roles and responsibilities; second, making volunteer collaboration a professional tool in social work; and third, establishing a workable framework for the everyday collaboration and the provision of voluntary activities. The article draws on a recent in-depth qualitative study involving interviews with central organizational actors in the SLO and a non-profit organization that recruits and trains volunteers, together with relevant strategic and organizational documents.
Norwegian child welfare reform emphasizes quality development within the child welfare service (CWS), identifying effective management and leadership as key drivers. This study examines leadership in quality development in the CWS, focusing on the roles of municipal directors (MDs) and child welfare managers (CWMs). Qualitative interviews with 16 MDs and CWMs across eight municipalities indicate that while both groups are committed to quality and collaboration, their strategies differ. The former adopts a systemic perspective, whereas the latter concentrates on quality development in day-to-day operations. Municipal directors stress the importance of CWS in interdisciplinary collaboration for preventive work, whereas CWMs emphasize cooperation in complex child welfare cases. Municipal directors are attentive to organizational structures that foster interaction between the CWS and other services, while CWMs stress the need to establish robust frameworks, recruit competent personnel, and secure strong municipal management support. A silo mentality characterized by excessive internal isolation and insufficient cross-functional collaboration presents a challenge in all municipalities. This study complements the CWM literature by revealing how CWMs and MDs approach quality development. It contributes to quality development scholarship by demonstrating that interdisciplinary collaboration is promoted as a key measure of quality. The findings offer policymakers and stakeholders valuable insights by clarifying perspectives and approaches to quality development within CWS management.
This article examines how social workers approach and apply the principle of the child’s best interests in their practice when they make assessments in child welfare in Finland. The study rests on two types of data in which social workers describe their assessment practice: a survey of social workers with 373 responses and a vignette-based group discussion data with 120 practitioners in 28 groups. The findings highlight that the principle of the child’s best interests is acknowledged as being important and uncontested. However, the overall approach is procedural, focusing mainly on talking with children about their views and opinions. There is a weakness, if not even a lack of a substantive approach to the principle, with limited use of theoretical knowledge. The study suggests two ways forward: more reflective practices to critically explore the principle in its all variations in front-line practice, and a more theory-based approach to applying the principle.
This study investigates the envisioned future of disability services in Finland through the stories of people with disabilities. Adopting a narrative perspective on the future, the study explores how services are imagined to contribute to promoting empowerment and rights of people with disabilities. The viewpoint is situated within the framework of structural social work, which aims to change societal structures that create inequality. The research question was as follows: What kinds of plots do people with disabilities produce regarding empowering disability services in the future? The data consisted of 17 stories collected using the Letters from the Future method and were analysed through narrative plot analysis. Three plots were identified: from being sidelined to becoming heard; from insufficient services to full agency; and from services as costs to services as resources. The findings suggest that, in a hoped-for future, disability social work and disability services should increasingly emphasize dialogical and rights-based approaches to support empowerment. Structural social work may play a significant role in developing services in this direction.
In recent decades, the management of economic affairs has largely transitioned to digital platforms. Electronic identification and online money management have not only simplified individuals’ daily lives but have also introduced new methods for financially harming one’s partner or ex-partner. This study explores the various types of digitally facilitated economic abuse (DFEA) reported by clinical professionals who work with victim-survivors of violence. The data consist of 102 open-ended survey responses and four focus group interviews conducted with 15 participants. The findings suggest that DFEA can be categorized into two main types: digitally facilitated economic exploitation and digitally facilitated economic control. Digitally facilitated economic exploitation encompasses three distinct forms: The perpetrator (1) steals the victim’s money, (2) uses the victim’s identity to obtain financial benefits or (3) threatens to inflict financial harm. By contrast, digitally facilitated economic control involves 1) dominating victims of violence by taking control of their finances or 2) surveilling them through digital platforms, such as their online banking or loyalty card accounts. The motivation behind these actions differs from that of economic exploitation; it is not primarily for financial gain but rather a desire for control. Based on the findings of this study, there is a pressing need to critically examine digital practices and platforms to mitigate the potential for abuse. Preventing DFEA requires collaboration among a range of societal actors, including social and healthcare service providers, policymakers, law enforcement, prosecutors and financial and technology institutions.
Parents with cognitive difficulties are consistently overrepresented in child protection proceedings and face systematic disadvantages. While previous research has documented risks and outcomes, less is known about how in-home support and counselling are actually carried out in practice. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 15 experienced child welfare professionals in Norway, analysed using thematic analysis, this study examines how these professionals describe their in-home work with parents experiencing cognitive difficulties. The analysis showed that child welfare professionals often began by using standardized methods to support parents, with adaptations introduced only after conventional approaches had proven insufficient. Progress was described as fragile, situational, and difficult to assess, and professionals highlighted the ethical tension of simultaneously supporting and evaluating parents. These findings foreground how issues of timing and adaptation, criteria for meaningful change, documentation practices, and the blending of support and control shape change-oriented practice. The study sheds light on how standardized routines, fragile progress, and dual professional roles influence parents’ opportunities to demonstrate caregiving capacity. This underscores the importance of early adaptation and the recognition of alternative forms of progress, while also drawing attention to the structural and ethical dilemmas inherent in everyday practice.
Performance evaluation is a central governance mechanism in organizations because it shapes what becomes visible, legitimate, and valued. In social work, this poses particular challenges, as practice relies on professional judgement, relational engagement, and context-sensitive interventions whose effects are cumulative and preventive rather than immediately measurable. Indicator-based performance regimes associated with New Public Management (NPM) have intensified these challenges by privileging standardized and quantifiable outputs as dominant and ostensibly neutral forms of knowledge. In Nordic reform debates, trust-based governance (TBG) has been proposed as a response to strengthen the legitimacy of professional discretion and dialogue and to reduce micro-management control. However, little research has examined how such ambitions are translated into core governance instruments, particularly performance evaluation. This exploratory qualitative case study investigates how performance evaluation is articulated when front-line social workers are invited to define what should be evaluated in a Swedish municipality undergoing TBG-oriented reform. Data were generated through four participatory workshops (N = 89), in which practitioners first articulated their practice logic and then developed proposals for evaluation approaches aligned with that logic. The findings show that practitioners did not reject measurement but reframed evaluation as an interpretive and dialogical process. Indicators were regarded as useful but insufficient without contextual interpretation, qualitative reflection, and structured dialogue. The study demonstrates that operationalizing TBG depends on reshaping evaluative practices so that accountability can coexist with professional judgement and relational forms of knowledge.
This article investigates how migrant and refugee participants in Swedish municipal labour market programmes make sense of work and identity within the context of activation policies. While these programmes aim to promote integration and employability, they often reflect and reproduce normative ideals tied to ethnicity and gender. Drawing on qualitative interviews with participants from three municipalities, the study demonstrates how individuals navigate subject positions offered by the activation programmes and how these positions are shaped by ideals of the 'abstract worker' and normative practices of 'doing employment'. The findings reveal how municipal labour market programmes simultaneously enable and constrain participants: they open paths to employment and independence for some - particularly migrant women - but often reinforce ethnicized and gendered norms that limit participants' agency and opportunities. Participants' experiences show that employability is not a neutral concept, but one deeply embedded in cultural and institutional expectations around Swedishness, masculinity, and femininity. This study contributes to debates on the social justice implications of activation policies by highlighting how local labour market programmes both discipline and enable. The article argues that policies aimed at inclusion may, paradoxically, reproduce exclusion through the very norms they seek to enforce. Understanding how employment is shaped by culture and power relations is essential to design labour market interventions that foster real equity.
Immigrant women are often perceived as vulnerable and socially isolated, with their viewpoints and experiences often overlooked in academic research. This study prioritizes their perspectives and lived experiences, focusing on the well-being of forced migrant families and children. This research examines both the risk factors threatening the well-being of forced migrant families and children and the coping strategies employed to address these challenges. Drawing from two interlinked qualitative studies, data were collected through semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observations with forced migrant women in Finland. Thematic analysis of the data revealed four themes and ten sub-themes. For risk factors, two main themes emerged: pre-migration stressors and post-migration challenges. Regarding coping strategies, two primary themes were identified: individual solutions and close relationships, and structural adaptation and resource navigation. These findings illuminate the complex interplay of personal resilience, community dynamics, and structural support systems in shaping the well-being of forced migrant families. This research contributes to an understanding of the lived experiences and perceptions of forced migrant women in Finland, emphasizing the importance of incorporating their voices into policy-making and social work practices. It highlights the need for targeted interventions to address their unique challenges and strengths, ultimately promoting more effective support systems for migrant families.
School attacks, though rare, are high-consequence events that potentially expose systemic gaps in school preparedness and response. This study examines Swedish school social workers’ perceptions, preparedness, and experiences regarding school attacks. Employing a mixed-methods design, this paper analysed quantitative survey data from 138 school social workers and qualitative interviews with eight practitioners who have dealt with violent attack-related scenarios. Findings reveal widespread concern about school attacks, limited formal training, role ambiguity, and fragmented collaboration with external agencies. Data analysis highlights social workers’ improvised leadership, emotional labour, and the complex ethical terrain of balancing student care with crisis management. The study underscores the urgent need for clearer role definitions, structured inter-agency collaboration, and targeted crisis training for school social workers within national preparedness frameworks.
Separation or divorce might escalate intimate partner violence. This study contributes to emerging research on the lived experiences of mothers dealing with post-separation abuse. The aims are (1) to explore what situational and relational tasks mothers are navigating in the context of partner abuse, and based on the findings, (2) to discuss how their experiences are related to social norms of mothering. To develop rich data, open-ended interviews were conducted with eight Norwegian mothers. Thematic analysis revealed interrelated, complex and difficult tasks of living with post-separation abuse, which required navigating unpredictability and disorderly lives, co-parenting with abusive former partners, dealing with stressful ordeals with professionals and persistent claims of being unfit mothers. The findings suggest that mothers’ lived experiences take place within exceptionally high cultural and institutional standards of all-encompassing mothering, and the individual, relational and societal burdens are high. Conceptually, the article contributes by illuminating how post-separation abuse must be understood not only as intimate partner violence but also as a gendered, normative struggle shaped by dominant cultural ideals of ‘good’ mothering. The research highlights the need for social work to acknowledge and understand women’s experiences, their strengths and their resourcefulness while advocating for structural change.
In Sweden, children with migration experiences often encounter poorer socio-economic conditions than those with Swedish backgrounds. Research highlights the need to better understand parenting by including parents with migration experiences. This study examines how these parents understand and manage the actual and normative expectations placed upon them in Sweden and how they perceive welfare-state support for families. It also explores how experiences of subordination shape the parents’ narratives. Using a framework that combines theories around postcolonialism and conviviality, this study highlights power structures that affect parenthood while acknowledging aspirations for equal coexistence. The analysis is structured around two themes: (i) precarious parenthood and (ii) the gaze of the welfare state. The findings show that parents feel uncertain in their dealings with welfare professionals and scrutinized by them, describing not being trusted or seen as competent. From a postcolonial perspective, such experiences relate to the parents’ position as resettled migrants and their socio-cultural capital. While challenges persist, conviviality offers a lens for understanding the tensions arising from these experiences. This study suggests that anti-racist social work frameworks are needed to address these challenges.
Though Norwegians generally report high levels of institutional trust, among Sub-Saharan African immigrant parents with care order histories, Norwegian Child Protection Services (CPS) remains a site of profound distrust. This study explores how CPS-related distrust extends beyond child protection encounters, shaping broader patterns of institutional disengagement and precarious citizenship. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 15 parents with care order histories, we examine how affective ruptures following CPS encounters trigger self-protective strategies, including strategic distrust, selective institutional engagement, and withdrawal from welfare services. These responses ultimately deplete social capital and reinforce social exclusion across generations. Using the framework of affective citizenship in combination with social capital theory, we argue that CPS distrust is not confined to individuals but circulates within Black families and communities, shaping intracommunal and intergenerational perceptions of the welfare state. Institutional alienation contributes to a sense of second-class citizenship, where Black parents perceive state interventions as acting against their interests. We conclude by discussing the policy implications of these findings, emphasizing the need for trust-building measures that move beyond risk management towards culturally responsive welfare practices that foster inclusion rather than confound exclusion.
Regardless of workplace, social workers today use standardized tools for investigation, assessment and treatment that, to varying degrees, prescribe what information should be collected, with what questions, and what should be done in what order. With an ethnomethodological gaze on situated action and context, this article explores how social workers ascribe meaning to a standardized tool for family treatment, and what situated resources they use when integrating it into the treatment. Using qualitative material from group interviews with social workers, we demonstrate that the use of standardized treatment tools creates form work in far more pervasive ways than earlier research has recognized. When the treatment tool is given priority in the social order, form work means constructing the meaning of the treatment by its scripts, framing unexpected events as deviations and employing strategies to stay on path even when social reality offers challenges. If the treatment tool is given a shared priority with family relations, form work means monitoring the interpretations and uses of information, and contextualizing and translating between the structured manuals and the messy social reality. When the treatment tool is given lower priority, form work means being reflexive and legitimizing unscripted use, and living with the consequences that work efforts and effects will remain undocumented. Standardized instruments are produced and handled by people in interaction, which is why it is important that studies capture how they are used in action and in context.
Persons with intellectual disabilities have the right to and need for supported decision-making to realize their self-determination. However, there is a significant gap in the research on service providers’ experiences and the factors that impact supported decision-making in the context of persons with intellectual disabilities living in municipal housing in Norway. The study involved six focus group interviews with 32 service providers from 6 municipal housing in 4 municipalities. The analysis takes an abductive approach. As analytical lenses, it utilizes Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracy, which focuses on the role of service providers, and Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, which emphasizes the importance of individual capabilities. Study findings indicate that service providers have a crucial role in supported decision-making. Findings also provide insight into key factors in supported decision-making processes, including the importance of relationships, discretion, oral communication/reports, written/electronic documentation and in-depth knowledge about the person. The study also highlights how organizational structures in municipal housing can significantly hamper the supported decision-making processes and realization of self-determination. Furthermore, findings reveal a tension between providing for social participation and supported decision-making facilitated autonomy.
To enhance user participation in the complex setting of coordinating support, more knowledge is needed about strategies designed to improve user involvement. This study aimed to explore staff perceptions of barriers and facilitators during the implementation process of the innovation shared decision-making (SDM) in coordinated individual planning (CIP) within the comorbidity field of practice. A mixed methods approach was used, involving the collection and analysis of questionnaire data at two time points, followed by individual and focus group interviews. Data were collected from staff working in social services and healthcare. The data collection and analysis were guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), focusing on the domains of innovation, inner setting, and individuals involved. Barriers to implementation included among others, perceptions of high workloads, a lack of relational connections between staff from different units, and staff ambiguity regarding user participation. Facilitators included circumstances such as experience with the innovation, a focus on user participation, and the presence of functional collaboration between staff from different organizations prior to implementation. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of relational connections both between users and staff and among staff from different units during the implementation process of SDM in a collaborative setting like CIP.
