How does national inspections affect welfare professions?

During the last decades, Sweden has re-organized its provision of welfare services. Inspired by ideas best known under the headline of New Public Management, policy makers have aimed to reduce costs and raise service quality by privatizing and market-orienting the service provision and introducing various forms of performance management. In the wake of New Public Management reforms, there has also been an increased focus on auditing, or controlling that providers of public services fulfill stipulated objectives and provide high quality services.

The increased focus on audit has led to a growing concern among researchers regarding the implications of auditing for welfare professionals. The aim with this project is to contribute to this literature by studying what inspection strategies that are used to supervise Swedish health care, education and eldercare, and if these strategies are compatible with professional discretion. As such, the project will be able to contribute with practical and policy relevant insights about how national inspections can be designed in order to meet public authorities need for control, but without undermining the professional discretion of the staff.

Principal Investigator: Linda Moberg (Department of Government and Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences) 

Period: 1 December 2018–30 November 2021

Funding: SEK 4 046 000 from Forte

The project is conducted in collaboration between the Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences and the Department of Government.