Social service for sale

On social work in times of procurement

Abstract

Market reforms within the Swedish welfare sector have paved the way for models based on buying and selling welfare services. Public procurement constitutes a hub for commissioning and providing social services. The aim of this article is to explore how social work is shaped within a procurement context. Attention is directed to how social workers providing procured services describe their work. The empirical material consists of interviews with 16 providers of social services within different areas of a procured social work. The results show how procurement shapes the provision of social work, in terms of specifications of time and quantity, a quantification of the work performed with clients and how the framework of procurement shapes the client as a commission and a case. It is further shown how providers compensate for and deal with the framework of procured social work to meet the clients’ needs. The results raise questions about the possibilities for procured social work regarding the services’ demarcation, specialisation, and time frame.