Programme for a sustainable social services sector

Social services constitute a safety net in society and form an essential part of the Swedish welfare system. Knowledge about how social services can be designed to be sustainable in the long term, more preventive, and evidence-based needs to increase. A ten-year national research programme is part of the government’s initiative to address this need.

In the 2024/25 Research Bill (prop. 2024/25:60), Forte was commissioned to establish a ten-year national research programme for sustainable social services. This initiative is part of the government's efforts to strengthen the development of social services and supports the ongoing transformation towards more preventive and knowledge-based services. The programme is currently under development, and a strategic agenda will be produced to guide future work.

The task of establishing the new programme builds on the experiences gained through Forte’s Programme on Applied Welfare Research, which since 2017 has contributed to strengthening the knowledge base within social services through practice-oriented research in close collaboration with service providers.

What should the programme contribute to?

The research bill outlining the new research programme identifies the following needs that the programme is expected to address:

• Support for intervention and impact studies evaluating measures and activities for clients and service users
• Increased knowledge on how social services can be designed to be sustainable in the long term, more preventive and evidence-based
• Increased understanding of urban and social planning and how societies can be shaped to reduce exclusion and social problems, while promoting independence and participation for all, regardless of circumstances
• Greater insight into the impact of digitalisation on individuals, social services, and their staff
• Knowledge on how to handle and prevent threats and violence against social services staff
• Increased knowledge of high-quality interventions within social services, including municipal services under the Act concerning Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments (1993:387)
• Enhanced knowledge of client-centred social work
• Opportunities for R&D environments and other practice-oriented stakeholders outside universities and higher education institutions to access research funding
• Possibility to allocate funding for disseminating research results