Social work in Sweden

EUSW Listening conference in Göteborg 2007-04-26

Staffan Höjer

What is social work in Sweden - practice 30.000 practitioners, 95 percent within

municipalities,less than 1,5 percent in full time, private practice.

A very heterogenic activity.Child welfare, social care, drug and alcohol treatment, social assistance, and much more - often individual or family oriented.

Most social workers are affiliated with a social work union, Ethical guidelines.

An authorization system (however only 13 percent)

What is social work in Sweden - education BSW education at 12 universities MSW since 1980s, however not so

many practitioners have one, 7 percent Social work is a university subject,

several theory attempts Integration with Social Care - a joint

exam.

What is social work in Sweden - research Early country in Europe with research

education in Social work 1980-2006 204 Doctoral dissertations in

Social work, also growth in senior research A research community, more professors, a

reputational control system, Four scientific journals in social work Pluralism when it comes to research areas,

theories and research methods

Social work a success story? Practice is getting larger. More and more

work areas. More social workers are being educated

Education is very popular. It take high grades to enter the social work education.

Research was rated high recently, even compared to sociology and economics

However - a long way to go for research?

Full professors, PhD’s per year and doctoral students per 1000 professional practitioners in social work, medicine, education and psychology in Sweden 1999.

Med. Psych.Educ. SW______________________________________

Professors 17.8 6.2 0.2 0.4

PhD’s/year 19.6 5.6 0.3 0.4

PhD students 126.9 52.4 4.1 5.3

Social work education is always questioned Many claim the BSW is too short and try to

cover too much - the generalist / specialist dilemma

Social work students know too little about …. everything

Less than 10 percent of social workers have a masters in social work

Social work practice - The position of service users is weak

(according to critical cases/scandals) EBP is questioned - for many reasons Not prepared to deal with: elderly

population, ethnic diversity issues,psychiatry diagnoses etc.

Privatisation - both a threat and a possibility

Future challenges

Learn more from Europe! Bologna-declaration, change in education

system - perhaps more with masters degree Discuss and listen more to the situation for

service users Need a certification system in order to

demand expertise and responsibility from social workers