Crime victims in Indicatorland – Open comparisons in the social services’ work with victim support
Since the 90s there have been extensive changes in the public sector, such as rationalization and increasing demands for documentation and review. The changes have also affected the social services’ victim support work that has increasingly been subject to various forms of regulation, such as requirements for monitoring, evaluation and quality assurance. This article aims to examine one of the monitoring systems applied in the victim support work: the instrument of open comparisons. This article is based on an exploratory study of the local organization of crime prevention in two municipalities and analyses how the processes of open comparisons are organized at local, regional and central levels. The empirical data consists of documents such as legal sources and handbooks from e.g. the National Board of Health and Welfare and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, as well as documents obtained locally in the two municipalities. Furthermore, interviews were conducted with professionals working on different organizational levels.
Analytically the study has been inspired by programme theory, which made it possible to concentrate on clarifying the operational idea in which open comparisons are based and capturing the consequences in the two cases.
The study shows that open comparisons have been implemented without support from existing research. However, strong normative support for open comparisons exists within governmental agencies and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions. They are included as one of many elements of New Public Management and result in changes in the victim support work. In contrast to present visions, the performance is not affected to any significant extent. In contrast, a comprehensive administration is created, where employees of municipalities are supposed to collect data, register information and analyse the results generated by the open comparisons.
Men's violence against women is a widespread global problem and a serious threat to women's health. This symposium will report from a study in Sweden that studies mechanisms that influence the design of interventions contesting domestic violence in two cities.
The symposiums three presentations will answer the following questions:
1. Given the fact that the organizations face many different views and ideologies; how does this affect the ways the problem of domestic violence is represented?
2. In what way affects ideas from performance measurement and new public management the interventions?
3. In what way are the social services organizing towards an evidence-based practice in this field?
Presentation 1 Interpersonal violence-From policy to local practice
Presentation 2 Open Comparisons in social work
Presentation 3 Negotiating in risk assessment practices
Idén om mål- och resultatstyrningen har fått stort genomslag i offentlig förvaltning. Det brottsofferstödjande arbetet som riktas mot våldsutsatta personer har liksom andra ansvarsområden inom socialtjänstens verksamhetsfält mött ökade krav på att säkra och redovisa kvalitet. Öppna jämförelser är ett instrument som används inom offentlig verksamhet för att mäta, offentliggöra och jämföra kvaliteten av det arbete som bedrivs. År 2012 lanserades för första gången öppna jämförelser inom brottsofferområdet. I studien analyseras Öppna jämförelsers programidé och dess implementering inom brottsofferområdet. Empirin utgörs av för studiens syfte, relevanta styrdokument samt intervjuer med aktörer på central nivå (Socialstyrelsen och SKL), regional nivå (Länsstyrelsen) samt lokal nivå (två fallkommuner i södra Sverige) Fokus riktas mot hur de har arbetat med Öppna jämförelser och vilka erfarenheter de har gjort. 12 I presentationen av studien visar författarna hur Öppna jämförelser avseende stöd till brottsoffer inte fått det genomslag som regeringen förutsatt. Den politiska styrningen är tydlig samtidigt som de olika ”intressenter” som Öppna jämförelser är tänkt att vara till för i praktiken givits en marginaliserad position
This multiple case study examines how the idea of using risk assessment tools is manifested and processed in Swedish social services. Based on the analysis of interviews with different stakeholders and of organizational documents in two social service organizations, we investigate the actors who control local risk assessment practices. The findings illustrate that a relatively small group of social workers in the organizations have been able to forward their claims and decide how risk assessment work should be carried out without much intrusion from local managers or politicians. The findings also validate other studies that found that increased standardization can strengthen social workers’ ability to perform their professional task rather than lead to de-professionalization. This article ends with a discussion of what risk assessment practices might mean for domestic violence victims.