School social workers have been a part of multidisciplinary welfare teams in Finnish schools for decades, but their positions in collaboration with other professionals appear to vary. This article explores school social workers’ perspective on the power dynamics between themselves and the professionals in multisectoral collaboration on student welfare. The research asks what kinds of power positions emerge in the discourse on multisectoral collaboration among school social workers. The theoretical and methodological framework is based on positioning theory and the concepts of power-over, power-with and power-to. A total of 44 Finnish school social workers were interviewed in semi-structured thematic interviews, and a discursive positioning analysis was completed. The results show that other professionals, especially in healthcare and child welfare, hold asymmetric power over school social workers in their collaboration. With education personnel the power relations appear to be more dynamic and reciprocal. School social workers have power to oppose the power over others by repositioning themselves as social service professionals. They also have the power to take control in multisectoral processes if the coordination or leadership is unclear. Shared power in multisectoral teams appears to be a desired state of collaboration. Similarities to results from research on school social work in Sweden and Norway are also discussed.
This literature review focuses on finding social work practices that have proven successful in terms of desistance and reintegration into society. In this context, both professional social work practices and social support provided by other actors were examined. In this scoping literature review, the data consist of peer-reviewed articles, which were searched using the PRISMA protocol. The data were synthesized using theory-driven realistic synthesis. Findings indicate that social work among people who have a history of crime is holistic, multidimensional and multiprofessional work. Intensive and tailored individual support, and strength and wellbeing-based interventions and methods anchored in communities are important.
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.
