Barnperspektivet på ekonomiskt bistånd : En kvalitativ studie om yrkesverksammas erfarenheter av att arbeta med barnperspektivet vid handläggningen av ekonomiskt bistånd

The purpose of this study was to examine social workers experiences of the work with a child perspective when dealing with financial aid. A qualitative study with four semi-structured interviews with social workers was performed. The sample was made through purposive sampling of social workers in the department of financial aid in different municipalities in northwest Skåne. The results of the interviews were analyzed with the help of Michael Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucrats and their discretion. The results of the study showed that the respondents had relatively similar views on the child perspectives implications in the work with financial aid. The result showed that there is a child perspective within the work but not as big as the social workers would like. The majority of the respondents confirmed that they have little direct contact with the children and didn’t not know much about their needs. They responded that they didn’t have the time to look at the different clients as an individual case because of the workload. The result also showed that the social workers had a large discretion, but that they are largely governed by laws and guidelines in the workplace. Furthermore the social workers do have the opportunity to provide assistance to children families even though they did not have the right to financial aid, since they have the child perspective in mind. Key words: child perspective, financial aid, social worker, street-level bureaucrac