The work of the social services

Christian Carlsson (KD)

Mr. Speaker! The Social Services' work in supporting the vulnerable in our society has always been important so that individuals and families can receive support to rise out of poverty and be given the opportunity to take control of their lives, and so that children can grow up in secure families where they can feel hope for the future.

But Swedish social services are faced with new and ever-increasing challenges. Sweden is no longer what it has been. We have become a country where freedom is restricted and safety is taken away from people when justice and respect for people's lives and value are completely trampled by gang criminals. We have become a country that sets records in fatal shootings, where the fight against organized crime is a fight to protect innocent children from being shot down on open streets and where our playgrounds are transformed into crime scenes.

We shall therefore ensure that the social services' work to prevent and counteract crime will be given a more prominent role going forward as part of our society's collective work to make Sweden safer. The municipalities' responsibility for crime prevention work shall be codified in a new Social Services Act. A national social task force shall be established to train social workers in successful, proven methods for preventing crime. This task force shall also exist as a resource to be deployed in municipalities where crime and violence have escalated or where the social services are otherwise particularly strained.

The social services also need expanded powers to decide on early and mandatory interventions for children and their parents. For example, the parents should be called to a meeting with the social services within 24 hours after a child has been apprehended for a crime, this in order for the parents to participate in interventions in support of the young people.

It is, after all, the case that the most important crime-preventing factor is functioning families and parents who take responsibility. Strong and secure families prevent crime and lay the foundation for a secure society. This is something the Kristdemokraterna have always pointed out. Now that we are part of the government, we are therefore investing in more family centers. The parental support programs are being expanded with the goal that they should exist in all municipalities in the country, so that more parents can receive guidance regarding norms and setting boundaries, and so that more children will grow up in secure and loving homes.

We in the Christian Democrats and our coalition parties also intend to break with the policy that has led to far too many people becoming stuck in unemployment and social exclusion. Just as clearly as the support for the sick, the poor, and the vulnerable in society shall be there, just as clearly is it that those who can work do not lie as a burden on others but work and support themselves. In the future, there shall therefore always be requirements for counter-performance for social assistance. We must also ensure that it pays off better to take a job than to live on benefits.

In order for us to seriously be able to strengthen the country's families with children and prevent crime, more children need to see their parents go to work and more adults need to feel the pride it entails to have a job to go to, to stand on their own feet and be able to support themselves and their family. It is simply the awareness of this that it is about.

Mr. Speaker! A stronger social service requires well-educated employees who choose to remain in the profession and contribute their experience and competence, but it also requires that the staff can feel secure. It is therefore with great upset that I have taken note of the disinformation campaign currently underway against the social service, with allegations that Swedish social services would take into care Muslim children as part of a fight against Islam.

This campaign has caused the threats against the social services to increase. Social workers are being filmed. Addresses are being posted. In some cases, it concerns gross calls for violence - calls to set fire to social service offices, shoot social workers, or kidnap their children.

The campaign against the social services is carried out, among other things, by actors in Sweden, but it is also supported by Islamists in Egypt, Jordan, and the Middle East, in some cases with links to al-Qaeda. The purpose is, of course, to sow division in the hope of paving the way for Muslim parallel societies where extremism can grow and to undermine trust in Sweden as a country and our democratic society.

The campaign is a contributing cause to why as many as 70 percent of the social workers in our vulnerable areas, according to Akademikerförbundet SSR, have been subjected to violence or threats. The threats have caused individual social workers to leave their social service offices, and the threats affect very many employees and their families.

Therefore, the government is taking a number of measures to protect the staff. The Psychological Defence Agency, MPF, and the National Board of Health and Welfare have been tasked with strengthening the ability to meet the influence campaign. MPF is also strengthening its cooperation with authorities in other countries in this area. We are reviewing the possibility of establishing stronger protection for social workers' personal data. The penalty for violence or threats against an official shall be tightened, and insult of an official shall be criminalized. Finally, we want security guards and camera surveillance to be allowed to be used in more cases, for example within the premises of social services.

Mr. Speaker! No one shall be allowed to intimidate the Swedish social services into silence. Swedish social services and its employees perform fantastic efforts to strengthen the economic and social security of individuals and families. This applies in particular to the work to ensure that more homeless people obtain their own housing.

In conclusion, I want to say that I am proud of the government's expanded commitment to Housing First. It is considerably easier to feel hope and faith in the future and to believe in one's ability to improve one's situation if one can start by feeling the security that it means to have a home with a bed to crawl into in the evening. I look forward to closely following the work with the recently adopted homelessness strategy. I also look forward to good cooperation here in the Riksdag and with the government so that more people in Sweden can experience the security that it means to have a housing to call one's home.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Gustaf Lantz (S)

Mr. Speaker! A few years ago, I read an article in UNT about the retired social worker Kennet Everland. He worked for 42 years during his professional life as a caseworker at the social emergency clinic in Uppsala. He has wiped blood from the floor so that relatives would not have to see it, forcibly detained addicts who had been a danger to themselves, and taken care of small children who had just lost their parents.

When the Estonia ferry sank, Kennet Everland was on standby at home. Then the police called at half past five in the morning and asked him to go out and take care of an eleven-year-old girl whose single mother had drowned.

Once, a pair of parents had picked up their eldest child at Arlanda in the middle of the night and crashed on the way home. All three died. At home, two younger siblings lay sleeping. Together with the police, he took the children to the hospital. He walked there in a daze with an orphaned infant in his arms. He never forgets that.

What security that Kennet has been ready during the nights to start tackling the most hopeless situations. Someone has to do it, and someone has often been Kennet.

When we call for society to act, it is often the social services that are expected to do the work. The social services are completely dependent on there being skilled social workers like Kennet, who, with education and experience, make wise decisions. But they must also, with a warm heart, provide human support in inhuman situations.

I feel a special responsibility in a debate such as this, as we discuss the work of the social services. Are we giving people like Kennet the right tools? And above all: Are we giving those whom the social services come into contact with the best possible conditions in life?

Mr. Speaker! Legislation is frozen politics. The Social Services Act is the result of political discussions from a bygone era. Certainly, adjustments have been made since the government presented the Social Services Act to the Riksdag in 1979, but the core remains the same. But Sweden is not the same now as it was then, for better or worse. We must have a completely new Social Services Act for our time.

The dithering must end. A completely new toolbox must be established. We must get more opportunities to provide support early, not least for our children and youth and for the opportunity to prevent serious crime.

I long for us to have concrete proposals to discuss here in the Riksdag. I wish our Minister for Social Services good luck in this work. But that being said, I am starting to become impatient.

There is a proposed investigation that has been lying since 2020. According to the police commissioner, we have 30,000 individuals linked to gun violence. Three young people take the step into the gangs every day. It is urgent. Why is more not happening?

Mr. Speaker! At the same time as we stand here in the chamber and discuss, homeless people are sitting just a stone's throw away on the benches outside McDonald's at Centralen. We are also their parliament. Their lives must also be counted when we build further on Sweden. We must do more so that everyone has somewhere to live.

We Social Democrats want, among other things, that the government provides the conditions for the "Housing First" model to be introduced throughout the country. It is also important that we obtain statistics on the development of homelessness so that we can do the right things from the Riksdag, municipalities, and all those who must contribute so that we can address homelessness.

Mr. Speaker! Provision of support should be the last resort. It should be a temporary measure. But it is an important safety net, not least so that parents can provide their children with food, clothes, a safe home, a dignified upbringing, and a fair chance in life.

It is also important that this support is constantly tested against its time. The government should therefore investigate whether the internet should be included in a reasonable standard of living in the national standard for social assistance. Seeking work, education, and managing school in order to find a way to self-sufficiency is very difficult without the internet.

For me as a Social Democrat, the interplay between right and duty is important. I therefore hope that the legislative work which the Social Democratic government initiated to introduce an activity duty for social assistance will soon become a reality. It is about the right to a dignified life and the duty to do one's part to become self-sufficient.

Mr. Speaker! Who receives the money in a relationship can be insignificant in a payment of, for example, child allowance, or it can be of the utmost importance. When someone wants to subdue another person, the economy is an important means of power.

We Social Democrats therefore believe that the government should review the possibility of paying out the social assistance in two equal parts to adults in the same household, simply an equal social assistance. We think it is time.

Mr. Speaker! Unfortunately, there are far too many who, with threats, violence and harassment, attack staff within the social services. This is, of course, completely unacceptable. It is dangerous for employees and for those who need the society's help.

We therefore want requirements to be set that all municipalities shall have a systematic preventive work against threats, violence, and harassment directed at social services employees.

Mr. Speaker! I hope finally that our Minister for Social Services can influence our Minister for Finance to rethink the resources for social services. The municipalities face a severe squeeze when the government invests the money in large tax cuts for those with the highest incomes. Not much is left for the welfare system.

In the budget, the government invests 10 million in the social services' crime prevention work. That is 10 million for Sweden's 290 municipalities to share. We Social Democrats allocate half a billion in our budget proposal. That is 50 times as much. That would have made a real difference. With that, I move for approval of reservation 13.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Malin Höglund (M)

Mr. Speaker! Today we are debating the Social Affairs Committee's report 16 regarding the work of the social services. I would like to begin by moving to approve the committee's proposals in the report.

Sweden has a well-developed social service that is an important part of the Swedish welfare system. It is through the social service that we can help those who are struggling and need our help the most.

The social services have the task of supporting and helping people in various life situations and are based on legislation that regulates what the social services may and may not do. An important principle within the social services is that they shall be for everyone who needs help, regardless of gender, age, ethnic origin, and sexual orientation.

Mr. Speaker! We cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the problems that exist within the social services. One of the biggest challenges is precisely the lack of competence within the social services. This leads to a high workload for the employees who remain and a poorer quality of the services offered. To solve this problem, we must ensure that there is competence within the social services that can provide support for the municipality's residents.

Mr. Speaker! Another challenge is that many of those who need help from the social services fall between the cracks. This is due to silos that exist between different authorities or because the social services do not have the resources to provide the help that is needed. In the future, cooperation between different authorities is needed. We must ensure that the social services function in an effective and legally secure manner.

Mr. Speaker! We must ensure that the social services become more efficient and results-oriented. It is important that the interventions we make actually lead to an improvement for the people who need help. To achieve this, we must review how the social services are organized and how the resources are used. The right things are more important than many—sometimes too many—employees.

Mr. Speaker! Every individual has the right to a safe and stable existence, regardless of background or life situation. Foster homes are an important part of this. They give children and young people who, for various reasons, cannot live with their biological parents a chance at a safe and loving upbringing. By giving a child or a young person a stable home and a family to belong to, we can help create a positive future.

The government is now adding 50 million kronor to the supplementary budget and allocating an additional 50 million kronor to strengthen the subsidy for foster care placements during 2023.

Mr. Speaker! I come from Mora in Dalarna. During the previous parliamentary term, the social services began to work actively with recruiting foster homes to a greater extent than before. A special day was established for this purpose: the Foster Home Day. Foster homes that existed in the municipality were offered to come to this day, which was filled with lectures. But also those who were curious about becoming foster homes, emergency homes, contact families, or contact persons were present.

Several things need to be done for us to get more high-quality placements within the entire social child and youth care. Socialstyrelsen is now given a reinforced mandate to inform about how to become a foster home or a crisis home so that there will be an increase in the number of foster homes in the country's 290 municipalities.

Mr. Speaker! In the middle of April, I visited a company in Falun – a very exciting company that works with outpatient care for youth and support for families. This is a complement to the municipal outpatient care, and the company collaborates with Högskolan Dalarna to see what effect the treatment provides. They use motivational interviews with the youth while the parents are also expected to do their part and are given homework to complete tasks digitally at home.

Mr. Speaker! Sweden's municipalities must in the future be able to offer citizens the support and service they need. Therefore, it feels reassuring that the government will present a bill during 2024 with a new Social Services Act. It will give the municipalities the legal basis they need to work in a more knowledge-based and preventive manner.

I want to express my gratitude to all social services throughout Sweden for the work you do, because it actually matters.

In this speech, Jesper Skalberg Karlsson (M) agreed.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Carita Boulwén (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Today we are debating the Social Affairs Committee's report 16 Social Services' work. I want to begin by saying that we in the Sweden Democrats stand by all our reservations, but for the sake of time, I move for approval only of reservation 3.

Mr. Speaker! The social services play an important role in society. It is one of the cornerstones of our welfare system with the mission to support and help people in different situations and create conditions for a secure and sustainable existence.

A fundamental part of the social services' work is to protect and help the most vulnerable and exposed in society: children and young people who are doing poorly, elderly people who need care, and people who live in misery or vulnerability. The social services are often the last safety net for these people and play a decisive role in providing them with the help and the security they need.

The social services' work to prevent an unfavorable development, reduce the risk of extensive social problems among children, young people and families, strengthen the ability and opportunity for social participation for people in economically and socially vulnerable situations, as well as strengthen the protection for vulnerable children, young people and adults, is of immense importance.

In the first instance, the individual themselves or their guardian has a personal responsibility. But in those cases where this fails and the individual is in need of help to have their needs met, or if the individual is harmed or risks being harmed, society shall be there and step in. The goal is that all children shall be allowed to grow up under safe conditions. We shall promote the conditions for good living conditions, counteract crime, substance abuse and social exclusion, and detect and protect those vulnerable to violence and honor-related violence and oppression.

Here, school, health and medical care, police, voluntary organizations and other public and private institutions need to cooperate with social services. Not least, parental responsibility needs to be strengthened.

Mr. Speaker! The importance of coordinated early and preventive measures cannot be overemphasized. By preventing social problems, we can avoid people falling into a destructive lifestyle of crime and substance abuse. This provides not only a gain for the individual and their relatives but for society as a whole. It is simultaneously also a saving on social costs in the long run, as it is significantly less costly to prevent problems than to handle them once they have grown large.

It could, for example, involve offering support and advice to parents, children and young people or entire families, and that the social services increase their presence where the target groups are, such as at BVC, open preschools and in schools.

It can also be about strengthening the school and the work of school staff by establishing school social teams or by strengthening student health, which the Sweden Democrats talk a lot about in other contexts. It is, after all, in school that the young people spend much of their time. But then it is also important that the resources are available and that the young people are not met with a note on the door of the counselor saying that the child is welcome back in a week when the counselor is on site.

Staff within preschools and schools, with multiple activities, need competence that enables them to notice children and signals from children who are suffering in different ways. For the social services to be able to perform their important work, both resources and competence are needed. This is therefore not just about financial resources but also about investing in competence development of staff and methods and research within the area. Sweden has largely been good in the research area, but here we see that the work needs to continue.

Unfortunately, the social services face many challenges and obstacles in their work. The social services are today under severe pressure. The staff within the social services' various operations express concern about not being enough and not being able to perform their work in a qualitative way, while at the same time there are many in our society who need help and interventions.

With a high workload, stress, anxiety, and pressure increase, and on top of that, important life-altering decisions must be made under these conditions. In the Socialstyrelsen's 2023 situation report for individual and family care, it is written that the availability of social workers with professional experience is deficient. During 2022, 77 percent of employers responded that there was a shortage of job seekers with professional experience, which is alarming.

We in the Sweden Democrats believe that there are a number of measures here that need to be taken, and we have proposals in this area. Among other things, the government should work to ensure that the social services administration, as an employer, works towards increased continuity in order to maintain important experience within the social services administration.

We also mean that the government should consider a national specialist education for the country's social workers who work with children and young people in order to work towards legally secure investigations and assessments. By, for example, introducing specialist social workers with a focus on children and young people, one increases the competence of the social workers and provides already experienced social workers with a career path where qualified social workers receive greater responsibility and thus a strengthened salary structure.

We in the Sweden Democrats also see a need to relieve the social workers by introducing social service assistants who can take over some of the social workers' tasks and relieve them. We need to provide tools so that the social services can perform high-quality work and so that the employees can manage to stay in the profession.

We further consider that the government should review whether the same identification requirements should be imposed on employees exercising authority in social work as currently exist, for example, within medical professions and among teachers.

Mr. Speaker! The risk of being subjected to threats and violence has increased. Social services employees are extra vulnerable following a serious disinformation campaign, where, among other things, it is spread that social services take Muslim children in order to secularize them. There is therefore a risk that employees will hesitate to make necessary decisions or that, in the worst case, the decisions will not be made at all. Strong measures must be taken to put an end to this.

Threats and violence against staff exercising public authority, not only within social services but also within the police, the judiciary and other public institutions, is a growing problem that has serious consequences for the entire society. This is unacceptable.

I am therefore pleased that the Sweden Democrats, together with the other government parties in the Tidö Agreement, have reached an agreement on a number of important issues to take decisive action against the escalation of violence and crime in society and also to strengthen the criminal law protection for, among other things, social services staff. These are issues that we in the Sweden Democrats have driven with integrity and against the wind for many years, when other parties have been naive. Now we see the result.

More than one in three social workers report that they have been subjected to threats or violence. We in the Sweden Democrats therefore believe that employers should develop and coordinate risk assessments for visits and threatening situations and that the government, in the work already being done, should take further measures to achieve this.

As I mentioned earlier, the preventive work is of immense importance. The Sweden Democrats and the other government parties agree that crime prevention work shall be prioritized and that the Social Services Act shall be reformed. The crime prevention work and the work of taking people out of crime shall be clarified and codified.

Here there are a number of important measures. Among others, a national social intervention force shall be established, which shall convey proven methods for preventing crime and train social workers to handle young people who commit crimes or are at risk of committing crimes. We also introduce a reformed social worker education where crime among youth is made an obligatory part of the education, an obligation for the social services to call parents of children who have committed crimes to a meeting within 24 hours, as well as changes in the Social Services Act to give the social services extended powers to decide on early and mandatory interventions for children or their guardians, so-called intermediate coercion. Yes, there are a number of proposals that we support.

Mr. Speaker! These are, as said, important and necessary measures. We hope and believe that they will yield good results, but much remains to be done, of course, to achieve the goals. We all have an important mission here, and I am pleased that we are a committed committee that views these issues as important.

I am pleased that we Tidö parties also agree on more important issues – for example, addiction care, where persons with substance abuse shall receive more coherent care and treatment. In that, the regions shall also take responsibility, which has been requested in many municipalities. Support for relatives shall be developed, among other things through a support line.

Regarding questions of economic livelihood, it is also here primarily the individual's responsibility, but for those who for some reason cannot support themselves, there shall be a safety net. The idea must, however, be that it shall be temporary and that there shall be reasonable requirements. In accordance with the Tidö Agreement, a clear and adapted activity requirement shall also be introduced throughout Sweden in order to counteract long-term benefit dependency. The intention is that everyone who can should be able to participate and contribute.

Mr. Speaker! There is so much to say on these important issues that I could stand here for hours and speak. But time is limited and I have already exceeded my declared speaking time, so I will stop here.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Gustaf Lantz (S)

Mr. Speaker! The member speaks very warmly about the social services and how important they are, but the member also belongs to a party that stands behind the budget we now have to abide by in Sweden. There, the government, with the support of the Sverigedemokraterna, chose to allocate 10 million kronor for initiatives in the social services out in the municipalities - 10 million to be shared among all 290 municipalities in Sweden. We Social Democrats, in our budget proposal, made an investment of half a billion, that is to say, 50 times as much.

My question to Carita Boulwén is therefore: Is the member satisfied with the budget regarding the social services that the government has presented together with the Sverigedemokraterna?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Carita Boulwén (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you for your question, Gustaf Lantz!

Of course, there is much more that one would wish for and much more that one should be able to do. Then, money is actually not everything, but it is about changing ways of working and, with early interventions, preventing large costs in the future, which I also said in my speech.

My question to the Social Democrats then is: How is it that you are investing these large sums when you are in opposition? Why did you not invest them when you had the opportunity to do something about this? In the budget we now have, we are investing twice as much as you did when you were in government. The question therefore goes back to Gustaf Lantz.

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Gustaf Lantz (S)

Mr. Speaker! It becomes like Jeopardy when one discusses with the Sweden Democrats: suddenly it is someone else who asks the question and someone else who is to answer. But I am happy to answer it.

We Social Democrats have always had a great focus on preventive work, on the common welfare, and on social services. We have done very much. One only has to look in the history books. But now it is actually a Sweden Democrat-led government, even though the Sweden Democrats are not sitting in it, that has the responsibility.

I can only state: How did we handle the welfare state during the corona pandemic? We ensured that we pooled resources and allocated resources so that we would not end up in a financial quagmire. How did the right handle the financial crisis in 2008? At that time, we had a Minister for Employment, Sven Otto Littorin, who gloomily stated that it would become a "shit year".

This is what we can now see in the welfare system. It is not only special initiatives in social services that become decisive for how young people and children are to be kept away from crime, how people are to be able to live a dignified life, and how children are to be able to have a secure upbringing. It is about having a functioning welfare system in general, that the municipalities have their own resources to invest in social services but also in schools and other measures. There, the government has once again shown that they are not providing the resources that are needed.

We Social Democrats can proudly say that we are investing twice as much as the government in welfare through general state grants. The government might have done so if it hadn't been lower on the priority list. Instead, they are making large tax cuts for those who earn the most. They are the winners in this right-wing budget.

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Carita Boulwén (SD)

Mr. Speaker! As I mentioned in my speech, we have a series of measures to counteract what previous governments, in other words the Social Democrats, have caused. It is impossible to avoid seeing what results your irresponsible policies have led to. Because of that, we are left with immense problems to solve.

With the Sweden Democrats as a government base, I feel that we have every opportunity to gradually resolve these problems, if we are given the time ahead. These are measures that are required to resolve them, and we have the ambition to do so.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Lina Nordquist (L)

Mr. Speaker! I stand here to summarize very briefly: This is probably among the most important tasks a society has. We humans manage very much ourselves, we shall be allowed to rule ourselves and we shall be allowed to govern ourselves. But when it fails during life, for a shorter period or a longer one, Mr. Speaker, the society must be there.

We have had deficiencies for a long time. We have improved them step by step, but many things remain to be done.

It is not least about adults in homelessness. There, the "Housing First" method is finally on its way, so that one avoids having to first be homeless and get rid of one's addiction in order to then receive a home. It is also about better interventions for addiction care and better support for people who need a new chance in life.

It is also about children who are harmed, Mr. Speaker. It is often children who are children of someone who themselves was harmed as a child and who then became an adult parent who cannot cope. It requires quite large shifts in our way of looking at parental rights and children's rights to put children's rights first. This applies, for example, to intermediate coercion, that parents should be able to be forced into care if their actions, their illnesses, and their problems cause issues for their children and expose them to danger.

But there must also be opportunities for society to help the child when the parents do not want it, without for that reason losing focus on the fact that there is a problem in itself when parents do not want their children to receive support. Intermediate coercion is needed, and now it is on its way.

Mr. Speaker! Crime-preventing measures on a broad front are also underway. I am very pleased about that. It is about a reformed social service with a focus on the problems we see clearly in our society today but which perhaps were not as obvious when the social worker education was once established. It is about strengthening teachers' opportunities and the possibility of parental support so that parents can manage more. It is about social intervention units, which ensure that children do not need to be knocked off track but can become adult individuals, grow as human beings and manage their lives themselves.

It is also about better supervision and better tools to detect deficiencies when we as a society take over the responsibility for a child but that responsibility is not fully met.

Mr. Speaker! Whatever we do on this front, we must not forget that all of this, all our decisions, presuppose that adults in the child's vicinity, or in the adult's vicinity when an adult is harmed, dare to make decisions and step in and help. This makes it absolutely indispensable with measures against threats, against violence, against insults and against ways to create fear in the social services and social workers.

Regardless of knowledge, methods, and opportunities, it is clear that the adult who is mocked or intimidated will not be able to help anyone get on the right track. Therefore, I am pleased with the work that is now underway. It concerns a referral to the Council on Legislation, in order to sharpen the criminal penalty when people in the social services are subjected to threats and violence. It concerns the additional assignment to the investigator to ensure that insult must also become a crime that leads to completely different consequences than today.

Finally, I want to say - it may sound a bit bleak - that I believe much of what we do in this chamber and what people do within social services and in schools for the children who have it the hardest can many times feel a bit like Sisyphus pushing that stone up the hill. I think the only way for us to get this stone up is to do as Albert Camus said: We must imagine Sisyphus happy while he does it.

We must not give up. We must think that it is worth every attempt, every decision we make here, every debate we have and reach a majority on regarding measures and every effort that makes it so that social services, teachers and parents get slightly better opportunities to give people a freer future.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Gustaf Lantz (S)

Mr. Speaker! It is with mixed feelings that I listen to Member Lina Nordquist. I am pleased to hear a sound social liberal speak about the strong society when people are facing their greatest difficulties. But I also feel a bit sad when I think about what things we could have done together. Imagine if we had been able to sit and turn over and twist how we would get society to move in the right direction.

I am thinking, for example, of the proposal that we Social Democrats have now put forward regarding equality in the maintenance support, about being able to pay out to both the mother and the father. Then one can ensure that it does not become an unnecessary power imbalance or a means to suppress someone else.

I have had conversations with Liberals when I studied in Uppsala or sat in municipal councils. It has been nice that there has been consensus on the importance of equality and much else.

Mr. Speaker! The problem is that Lina and her party have chosen to govern together with the Sweden Democrats and other conservative parties. Now, very little of what Lina Nordquist speaks about, the strong society, is visible. One can also look at what the budget looks like. We are investing 50 times more in social services.

My question in this case concerns equal pay. How is it that the Liberals vote against their government looking into that possibility? Would it not, as a feminist party, be reasonable to simply look into it?

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Lina Nordquist (L)

Mr. Speaker! I thank you for the exposition and the short question at the end.

To begin with, regarding the budget, money and other matters, I want to say that all the money in the world is of no use to a vulnerable child if the parents' rights take precedence over the child's rights. We must also see what the money is used for. We must see that prevention is better than repressive action when it is too late. We must see that the child must never, ever have to adapt to the parents' rights when it is not good for the child.

Regarding equalized maintenance support, one should, as many municipalities also do, of course pay the money to the woman, to the man, or to both. It depends on what is best for that family. But many reports show that when a person in the family cannot manage their own finances, equalized maintenance support is not what is needed for a family in reality. It is gambled away or drunk away. The money slips through their fingers, and after two days, a long month remains but not much in the bank account. What looks good on paper can sometimes be what completely tips a family over.

I do not know if the member remembers it, but it was precisely those conversations we had during the January Agreement, when Social Democrats and Liberals cooperated more formally. An equalized maintenance support on paper can, for that very reason, mean that many families end up more squeezed.

In conclusion, I want to say that I truly hope that we can cooperate. I believe that the views of all eight parties must be heard, and we others must listen extra much to all those views that are wise. That is how we build a strong society. We do not do that by working against each other, but by taking the best ideas from each one of us.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Gustaf Lantz (S)

Mr. Speaker! It may sound wise and good to take the best points from each other. But in practice, we see very little liberal policy in the policy that the government is pursuing. One only has to look at this area, social services. We are, therefore, investing 50 times more, half a billion. This government prioritizes completely different things.

It is always difficult to get a clear answer. What is the great gain for the social liberals who chose to cast their vote for the Liberals when they look at the Tidö Agreement? And above all, what have the Liberals pushed through that they would not have pushed through in a cooperation with more decent parties? It really could have meant talking and seeing what is good for our members and for those who have a social liberal heart in our time.

I believe they feel disappointed, just as there has been a strong reaction in the European Parliament to a liberal party allying itself with right-wing populists. I feel disappointed, and I know that many who are to the right of me feel disappointed. But they are welcome to the Social Democrats.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Lina Nordquist (L)

Mr. Speaker! Now I think there has been a bit of a stumble here. The broad brush does not quite fit when it comes to the work of the social services.

In my speech, I only mentioned some of all the measures that this government is implementing. It is about Housing First, which the Social Democrats did not want at all but which a declaration from the previous mandate's Riksdag with the Liberals forced through. It is about ensuring that no one who works in social services should have to be afraid of being subjected to hate or threats or being insulted without they truly being able to protect the persons who have the greatest need of protection. It is about ensuring that social intervention forces – who do not go dressed in steel helmets but preferably in slippers – can lift people and give them wings to fly long before they even risk falling over. It is about incredibly large measures for the school, because there is no better vaccine against a dark future than a really good schooling.

No matter how much the member discusses the money tap or the inflation-curbing measures – for note well, it is inflation that makes people truly poor, nothing else – and no matter how much he nags about these kronor, it cannot be avoided that this government is preventing problems and that many of the announcements now being implemented were backed by the Liberals, but not the Social Democrats.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Maj Karlsson (V)

Mr. Speaker! Today we have gathered here to debate one of our most important areas. The social services are, in fact, the instance in our society where our entire dignity rests. A country is neither prouder, stronger nor more powerful than how it takes care of its citizens. It is in the measures whose purpose is to ensure that we all have the right to a good life that we show who we truly are.

Unfortunately, it does not take much more than a walk through one of our larger cities or a trip on the subway here in Stockholm to see that society has fundamentally failed in one of the most primary foundations: to ensure that every human being has a home of their own. In our wealthy country, people of flesh and blood sleep in stairwells, on mattresses under bridges, in tunnels and under simple tarpaulins in our parks. In freezing cold, lashing sleet and even in snowstorms, human bodies lie abandoned to higher powers that decide whether they will survive the night. Their dream is that a miracle will occur the next night, such as someone forgetting a gate or a bicycle room open, so that they can get a night's sleep in warmth.

A few years ago, I met a man named Kalle. He had been forced into a life of homelessness and took us with him one night to show what reality looks like for a person forced to live on the street. I still feel physically ill when I think about everything he showed us, the hideous stories he told about how society met him, the injuries his body suffered, and the violence he was subjected to – how, for example, he was woken up several times by a passing intoxicated person who simply relieved themselves directly over his body.

To my naive question about what he thought was worst about being homeless, he answered after long reflection: It is that I am so terribly afraid of the dark. Perhaps no words have made it so clear that however we turn it, we are all human beings. Kalle's suffering does not feel in any way different for him than it would for you or for me.

Mr. Speaker! For those who do not see all people's equal value or completely lack empathetic ability, it may be easy to let this deep and highly inhumane political failure be blamed on the individual. They see the person as an addict who, in some way for me completely incomprehensible, would have chosen this torture-like life themselves, or as someone who simply has themselves to blame. If one is one of them, it is high time to rethink, because not even they will escape the raw reality.

The fact is that Sweden in recent years has created a growing structural homelessness. More and more single women, families with children, retirees, and low-income earners have found it increasingly difficult to find their own housing or to afford to stay in their homes. At the same time, the number of families with children who are evicted and thus risk falling into homelessness is increasing. At the moment, it is usually not out on the street together with Kalle that we find them, but their existence is not so terribly far from that.

I wonder, quite honestly, if people in this country truly understand what immense consequences the current housing shortage, in combination with our broken welfare society, can actually have. I wonder if you here in this chamber know that single mothers move between different hostels or hotels while waiting for a home, or that there are children who do not know from week to week where they will wake up and eat their breakfast or if they will fall asleep in the same bed. I wonder if you know that the reason can be that they simply have too little money to enter the regular housing market, that they have become ill or lost their jobs. I wonder if you here understand that there are pensioners who are forced to live in temporary accommodations because they cannot manage their finances because the pension is simply too low.

But this is the reality in today's Sweden. Over 15,000 children live in our country without a permanent home. Believe me, none of them have had the chance to be guilty of a life without basic security.

Mr. Speaker! In the UN Declaration of Human Rights, it is established that the right to housing is a fundamental human right. It also appears from the Swedish Instrument of Government that the public shall guarantee the right to, among other things, a home. But in reality in Sweden, more and more people are being denied the right to their own home. The economic crisis, together with the government's non-existent housing policy, will not improve this development.

Can anyone in this chamber explain to me how, in a situation where both housing shortages and homelessness are problems growing like an avalanche, we can continue to let evictions of families with children increase? The fact is that the current government even wants more families with children to be evicted. How does that square with all the beautiful words in the committee about standing up for children's rights? Can anyone explain to me how this squares with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is now Swedish law?

We in Vänsterpartiet have long fought for a housing policy for the people with increased housing construction, strengthened public services, and rents that people can afford. Our successful fight to stop market rents showed this, if nothing else. We have extensive political proposals where all people, regardless of who they are, shall have the right to a home. It is completely fundamental for Sweden to be a dignified country. We demand that the government immediately stops all evictions of families with children. No child shall grow up without a proper home. Furthermore, we believe that the government should carry out a national mapping of homelessness and a national strategy with a clear zero vision so that no one is homeless. Last but not least, we believe that the government should ensure that the Bostad först-model becomes the norm across the entire country.

Mr. Speaker! A country is never stronger, prouder or more beautiful than how it takes care of its citizens. Ensuring that a country can offer its people a home to live in is the most fundamental thing we can demand of a government.

I vote in favor of reservation 18.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Christofer Bergenblock (C)

Mr. Speaker! Initially, I would like to move for approval of reservation 4 under point 2, Development of the social services' work.

During the spring, there has been much debate and discussion about the state of care for children and young people who are doing poorly in society. Whenever a child is doing poorly, it is the municipal social services that are to step in and help the child to safe circumstances. It can involve support measures for parents, children, or the family, but it can also involve placing the child outside of their own home to ensure its safety and upbringing conditions for a longer or shorter period.

Usually this takes place in a family home and with the biological parents' consent, but it can also take place with the support of LVU. If there are special needs, the placement can take place in an HVB home or for a shorter period at Statens institutionsstyrelse.

The formal decisions can be made by a court or a social services committee depending on what it concerns, but behind the decisions there is always an employee in the social services who has investigated the case, spoken with the child, the parents, and perhaps the school, and taken a position on what is best for the individual child to have better conditions in life. Therefore, it is also important that these employees have good conditions in their work and that they are in a learning organization.

Madam Speaker! The Centre Party sees a need to create better conditions for those who work within social services, but also to develop the methods that social services use. We believe that a competence initiative is needed for employees in social services. This includes, among other things, enabling further education and specialized training within the area of social services, as well as participation in research projects to create more evidence-based methods within the field. There is also a need for better opportunities for specialization and for career paths in a similar way as has occurred for nurses within health and care and for teachers within the school sector.

Unfortunately, many of the methods used within Swedish social services today lack scientific grounding and evidence. This would have been a complete impossibility within healthcare, but it is unfortunately common regarding many of the methods used within social services. It can concern which methods are used during conversations with children to document their situation, the choice of support interventions and their effectiveness, or the appropriateness of contact with the biological parents.

In all these cases, it is important that methods and decision support are used that are scientifically grounded and evidence-based, and that follow-up research is continuously linked to the work being carried out within the area of social services. It does not have to mean that the methods used today are bad or incorrect, but a scientific basis is needed to know what is right and what is best to do. This work needs to be done now. It is not enough to refer to a new Social Services Act in some unclear future.

Madam Speaker! One problem that social workers are forced to face is threats, violence, and harassment from relatives who may not be satisfied with the decisions being made. It has become an ever-growing problem and is, naturally, completely unacceptable, partly because it creates an unsafe working environment for those who are exposed, and partly because it can lead to an influence on the decisions that need to be made.

Centerpartiet argues that a requirement must be introduced for all municipalities to have a systematic preventive work against threats, violence, and harassment directed at social services employees. Socialstyrelsen needs to be given a coordinating responsibility for these issues.

These problems have furthermore been inflated by the disinformation campaigns targeted at Swedish social services with the spreading of rumors about how children are forcibly removed in Sweden on arbitrary grounds or for religious and cultural reasons. The work to counter these campaigns is ongoing with the help of Socialstyrelsen and the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency. It is an important part of creating a safe and secure environment for the social services' employees but also for creating legitimacy for the decisions that are made.

The social services' employees have a key position if we are to manage to meet the societal challenges that exist with exclusion and an increasingly worsening mental well-being among many, but then the employees must also be given the right conditions. The goal must be to implement social interventions in good time and of the right kind to prevent children and young people from falling into substance abuse, crime, self-harming behaviors or mental ill-health.

Madam Speaker! The Centre Party argues that this requires an upgrade within the social services with better opportunities for competence development, better opportunities for specialized training and career paths, and a stronger connection to research and evidence-based methods. Above all, this must take place under safe and secure working conditions. If the social services function well, society will also function better.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Ulrika Westerlund (MP)

Madam Speaker! Today's debate spans a very broad area. Like several previous speakers, I intended to focus primarily on the issue of homelessness. There is much left to do there before Sweden lives up to the human right that everyone has a right to housing.

There are many reasons why people live in homelessness, but more and more people do so because there is simply a lack of available housing at an affordable cost, so-called structural homelessness. In a report from Socialstyrelsen from 2017, it is estimated that between 10,500 and 15,000 children were homeless at a given point in time, either more permanently or intermittently.

The municipalities today have a housing supply responsibility, which means it is the municipality's task to plan so that enough housing is built. However, it does not mean that the municipality has a general responsibility to help people obtain a home, unless there is a social issue involved that necessitates interventions from the social services. Naturally, the circumstance of being without a home can in itself create a social issue.

There is no typical homeless person. Instead, people experiencing homelessness are a very diversified group. The differences are large between different individuals, such as background, housing situation, and reasons for living in homelessness. Homelessness does not describe a person but the situation that the person finds themselves in. It can be rooted in social problems, but more and more people also live in homelessness due to the difficult situation on the housing market. They are affected by precisely a structural homelessness and need no other social support.

Regardless of the reasons for homelessness, all people need a secure housing situation. For those with social problems, a secure housing situation is also often a prerequisite for social problems to be manageable.

To reduce homelessness in Sweden, a strengthened national responsibility is needed. It is not enough for different actors to continue working on their own. In Finland, homelessness has decreased, and we should turn our gaze toward our neighboring country and learn lessons from their work. They have developed a national strategy based on the homeless person's rights and needs with the clear objective of reducing the number of homeless people. The strategy contains a clear plan for cooperation between state, municipality, and local actors.

Since the summer of 2022, Sweden also has a new strategy to counter homelessness. It is of great importance that cooperation between relevant actors is strengthened here as well, as homelessness often has a complex problematic and needs a combination of solutions that are individually adapted. It is of course pleasing that the government continues with this work, and we will follow it very closely.

Bostad först has been mentioned earlier in the discussion. It is a housing model where people living in homelessness and who have social problems are offered organized housing directly and without any requirements that the individual must first live up to. Subsequently, treatment and support are also offered based on the individual's needs. By being able to settle into their own safe housing, the possibilities for the individual to also address other problems, for example substance abuse issues, are strengthened.

It is a misconception to believe that society facilitates for people to get out of social problems if they cannot obtain a home before the problems are solved. On the contrary, the home can be a prerequisite for the individual to have the strength and energy to solve other challenges in life.

To support the municipalities in meeting the housing supply, Sweden can also here be inspired by Finland. There, a foundation called the Y-stiftelsen was started in 1985. The foundation today owns more than 17,000 apartments in over 50 of the country's municipalities, and the apartments are offered to people who have difficulty entering the housing market.

By purchasing scattered apartments and parts of buildings, a similar foundation in Sweden could secure the number of apartments that the municipalities cannot provide themselves. The apartments would then be rented out to those who cannot enter the housing market on their own, either directly to the individuals or through municipalities and other actors who pass the apartments on.

We need to ensure that housing is built that more than just those with a fat wallet have the opportunity to demand. We need to ensure that more municipalities take their housing supply responsibility, that the housing model Bostad först is implemented in the country's various municipalities, and that the possibility of creating a national housing foundation is investigated.

We also need reliable statistics that clearly show how the situation for homeless people has developed over time. With the development of the widespread homelessness that prevails today, the statistics need to be produced at closer intervals.

In conclusion, I want to briefly say something about the fact that high demands and expectations are currently being placed on the social services. It is increasingly expressed that the work of the social services is crime-preventing. Even though this is of course sometimes the case and is an important task, it is dangerous to fall into a rhetoric where all social work is described as being about preventing crime. Receiving support measures for reasonable life chances and faith in the future is also important for many people who are very far from being in need of crime-preventing measures. These people also have a right to support.

The work of the social services

I naturally stand behind all of the Green Party's reservations, but I move for approval of reservation 17, which concerns precisely homelessness.

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(Decisions were made under § 15.)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)