The Role of Discretion from the Perspective of Social Work Professionalism and Automated Decision Making

Abstract

This article addresses the gap in knowledge about how new digital technology affects decision making and social caseworkers’ professionalism. The aim is to enhance the understanding of how digital discretion—as a result of introducing automated decision making (ADM) in social assistance—affects the roles, work processes and professional judgements of social caseworkers in the provision of social assistance. Based on social caseworkers’ experiences of their work processes and interactions with digital- isation, our research question is as follows: What changes have social caseworkers observed in their use of discretion and professional judgement in decision making? The empirical data consist of qualitative semi-structured interviews with social caseworkers and their team leaders, combined with text analysis of policy documents from five municipalities in Sweden which have implemented ADM in their handling of social assistance. The results show that the use of ADM can give more time for meetings with clients and that the use of discretion is experienced as more secure in relation to social caseworkers’ experience of making the right decision. However, the findings also show that digitalisation must be seen from a holistic perspective that involves all components of the technological infrastructure and the significance of the individual parts of the implemented technology to the whole. The concept of discretion needs to be studied and discussed in depth in relation to digitalisation and professionalism and including clients.