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Abstract Background In this study the focus is on social insurance officers judging applications for disability pensions. The number of applications for disability pension increased during the late 1990s, which has resulted in an increasing number of disability pensions in Sweden. A more restrictive attitude towards the clients has however evolved, as societal costs have increased and governmental guidelines now focus on reducing costs. As a consequence, the quantitative and qualitative demands on social insurance officers when handling applications for disability pensions may have increased. The aim of this study was therefore to describe the social insurance officers' experiences of assessing applications for disability pensions after the government's introduction of stricter regulations. Methods Qualitative methodology was employed and a total of ten social insurance officers representing different experiences and ages were chosen. Open-ended interviews were performed with the ten social insurance officers. Data was analysed with inductive content analysis. Results Three themes could be identified as problematic in the social insurance officers' descriptions of dealing with the applications in order to reach a decision on whether the issue qualified applicants for a disability pension or not: 1. Clients are heterogeneous. 2. Ineffective and time consuming waiting for medical certificates impede the decision process. 3. Perspectives on the issue of work capacity differed among different stakeholders. The backgrounds of the clients differ considerably, leading to variation in the quality and content of applications. Social insurance officers had to make rapid decisions within a limited time frame, based on limited information, mainly on the basis of medical certificates that were often insufficient to judge work capacity. The role as coordinating actor with other stakeholders in the welfare system was perceived as frustrating, since different stakeholders have different goals and demands. The social insurance officers experience lack of control over the decision process, as regulations and other stakeholders restrict their work. Conclusion A picture emerges of difficulties due to disharmonized systems, stakeholder-bound goals causing some clients to fall between two stools, or leading to unnecessary waiting times, which may limit the clients' ability to take an active part in a constructive process. Increased communication with physicians about how to elaborate the medical certificates might improve the quality of certificates and thereby reduce the clients waiting time.

The purpose of the study is: 1) to analyse the narratives of young people who have experienced a war, fled to Sweden and been taken care of and placed in institutions, 2) to analyse the narratives of institution personnel about the day-to-day work of taking care of young people who have experienced war. The material used in the study has been gathered by means of interviews with young people in care with experiences of war, and interviews with personnel at HVB homes who work with these young people. The previous research shows that the social pedagogic perspective is one of the perspectives in social sciences that stresses the importance of including the individual in the community. The individual is given confirmation of his or her identity by participating in the community, and successful interaction between individuals is a fundamental prerequisite for the successful integration of unaccompanied children and young people in Sweden. The researchers highlight the importance of interaction between those already established in the community and the individual who is on its margin. One of the most important dimensions from a social pedagogical perspective is to analytically investigate relationships between individuals needing help and the professional participants tasked with helping these individuals as part of their professional role. A social pedagogue works in a variety of social contexts in which individuals need professional help with integration and success in those contexts. This can involve students in school; inmates at youth institutions and prisons; children, young people and adults who are the subjects of intervention by social services; patients undergoing psychiatric treatment; and other individual categories where people find themselves in critical life situations and need professional help to overcome them. The writings of for example Lisbeth Eriksson, Juha Hämäläinen and Xavier Ucar provide insights into some expectations that come into play in the various social contexts of the role of a "social pedagogue." A social pedagogue is portrayed as an expert who works with a specific and defined goal. The goal is to help/guide the client to overcome obstacles that hamper integration and success in the context. In order to do this, social pedagogues are expected to possess specific professional qualifications in order to support and motivate their clients in overcoming obstacles and meeting their goals. A social pedagogue works in a socially oriented way and plays an educational fostering role. It is anticipated that this will help the client develop an understanding of how to act in accordance with desired expectations, norms and values and to resist peer pressure and involvement in anti-social activities. A social pedagogue is also expected to supervise other professional categories in the context of the various issues related to the client's living conditions. In addition, the social pedagogue is expected to act as a link between different professions with the goal of facilitating collaboration that supports the client's social and educational development (when the client is a child or young person, the social pedagogue is expected to also collaborate with parents). The social pedagogue sometimes has a limited scope for action; the role has low status and standing in relation to other professional categories involved. The role of the social pedagogue is portrayed as diffuse, unspoken and full of contradictions in relation to other professional categories in the organizational hierarchy. The role of social pedagogue tends to assume a controlling and repressive function as support for other professional categories in the context. In conclusion, there are major variations in what is expected of a social pedagogue. A common denominator is that the mission of a social pedagogue and the context in which the social pedagogue operates appears to be sufficiently flexible to enable an individual to play the role in a wide variety of ways. It is only when the individual social pedagogue adopts an active, assertive, independent, personal and relatively strong posture that he or she has a chance to be of importance to other professional categories and for the client. This means in practice that it is only when the individual social pedagogue transcends the expectations of the role presented above that he or she has a chance to be appreciated by other collaborators. Lisbeth Eriksson and Juha Hämäläinen illustrate four important dimensions of the social pedagogical perspective. The first of these focusses on goals in the context to be achieved by means of social pedagogy. In this dimension, the importance of the participants' socialisation is brought to the fore in the context by, among other things, integration and mobilisation of all forces in the community with the aim of helping the individual who is on the margin of the community. The second dimension focusses on the correct social pedagogic approach, especially in the relationship between the professional participants and the individual in need of help. The professional participants working in accordance with the social pedagogic perspective are empathic towards the individual requiring help, while also being aware of the specific expectations of the professional role. The third dimension focusses on appropriate social pedagogic methods in the work with the individual who is in need of help. Methods considered to be appropriate are the dynamic methods based on the individual as part of the group and part of a wider social context (such as environmental therapy). The fourth dimension focusses on social pedagogy as a resource for professional work with the individual who is on the margin of the community and in need of help. In this dimension, there is emphasis on the importance of the correct approach by the professional participants, with the goal of creating progress in the relationship with the individual in need of help by means of well thought-out dialogue and action. If we borrow analytical glasses from Hämäläinen and Eriksson, we can read the following from this study: 1) social pedagogic target groups - as represented by a) young people in care who have experiences of war and who were subsequently placed in HVB homes in Sweden, b) personnel at HVB homes who work with these young people; 2) social pedagogical arenas - as represented by various contexts that are brought to the fore in the study's empirical material (war context, migration context while fleeing to Sweden, migration context during integration into Sweden, institution context, school context etc.; 3) social pedagogical roles - as represented by various roles that are brought to the fore in the study's empirical material (victim of war, student, homosexual, empathic personnel, competent personnel, incompetent personnel etc.). Analysis of the study's empirical material shows that the lives of young people in Sweden are characterised by uncertainty; they do not know if they will be allowed to stay in Sweden, whether they will have the opportunity to keep attending school or whether they will ever get to see their parents again. The material provides a picture of a waiting period that involves a considerable adjustment for these young people, regardless of whether or not they are given leave to remain in Sweden. The time after first arriving in Sweden can seem like a prelude to starting a new life, a prelude which is sometimes characterised by a continuing flight. The war goes on and is present in stories. Interviews with personnel at HVB homes and young people in this study are sometimes extremely emotionally charged. There may be painful stories about, for example, someone's entire family and everyone living in the village fleeing from a Taliban attack, about how their best friend was killed in a suicide attack, about how Russian and government forces in Syria harass women ("sisters"). The stories are also about friends and relatives who are taken away and never return, a father who was executed, a difficult journey to Sweden, as well as about personnel at HVB homes who are empathic, who understand and try to help young people, but also about others who belittle and abuse young people and even contribute to the risk of worse mental health in young people. Analysis of empirical material has crystallised out the following themes in interviews with young people: a) war as a permanent social condition; b) school in the home country becomes demonstration, demonstration becomes school; c) learning war (war as pedagogical practice); d) normalising/ neutralising the condition of war ("playing football", "as normal"); e) flight from war is also war – or part of the war (deprivation of liberty/abduction, slave labour); f) the future in Sweden (struggle for social recognition/recognition of identity – for example as student, employee, person, breadwinner and homosexual). In interviews with institution personnel, the following themes have crystallised out: a) previous chaos in reception centres in Sweden, now more orderly; b) young people singled out and stigmatised by society; c) importance of empathic attitudes and humanity; d) no treatment is offered or given in the institution; e) main task: to help young people to integrate in society; f) there is collaboration with other professional categories, but it is limited (no more than what is essential); g) young people's age as a problem; h) young people are described as greedy (reason for coming to Sweden); i) maltreatment in institutions; j) (in)competence of personnel.

The OECD/NEA Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling (UAM) expert group organized and launched the UAM benchmark. Its main objective is to perform uncertainty analysis in light water reactor (LWR) predictions at all modeling stages. In this paper, multigroup microscopic cross-sectional uncertainties are propagated through the DRAGON (version 4.05) lattice code in order to perform uncertainty analysis on and 2-group homogenized macroscopic cross-sections. The chosen test case corresponds to the Three Mile Island-1 (TMI-1) lattice, which is a 15 15 pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel assembly segment with poison and at full power conditions. A statistical methodology is employed for the uncertainty assessment, where cross-sections of certain isotopes of various elements belonging to the 172-group DRAGLIB library format are considered as normal random variables. Two libraries were created for such purposes, one based on JENDL-4 data and the other one based on the recently released ENDF/B-VII.1 data. Therefore, multigroup uncertainties based on both nuclear data libraries needed to be computed for the different isotopic reactions by means of ERRORJ. The uncertainty assessment performed on and macroscopic cross-sections, that is based on JENDL-4 data, was much higher than the assessment based on ENDF/B-VII.1 data. It was found that the computed Uranium 235 fission covariance matrix based on JENDL-4 is much larger at the thermal and resonant regions than, for instance, the covariance matrix based on ENDF/B-VII.1 data. This can be the main cause of significant discrepancies between different uncertainty assessments.

Since long-term sickness absence constitutes a problem in most western countries, research that can facilitate return to work (RTW) is important. Today there is evidence that the social context at the workplace has a significant impact on return to work. The dual aims of the study was firstly to investigate the pattern and quality of contact between employees on long-term sick leave and different actors at the workplace, and secondly to investigate whether contacts with the workplace were associated with expectations regarding return to work. An explorative method and descriptive design was used for the first aim. For the second aim, the data was analysed in a multivariate logistic regression model. The results show that employees had frequent and, in most cases, appreciated contact with their supervisor and co-workers. Contact with other workplace actors; that is, the occupational health unit, the union representative, and the human resources department, were less frequent. Employees who experienced the contact as supportive and constructive were far more positive and optimistic than others regarding return to work. It is concluded that supervisors and co-workers should be aware that they play a significant role in the return-to-work process, and that quality of contact is what matters.

Purpose: The objective of this article was to investigate how individual learning emerges among workplace actors during the return-to-work process, and whether the prerequisites for collective learning at the workplace are present and managed by the actors. Learning in this context is viewed as a change in the preconceptions, experience or competence of the individual as a result of interactions in the workplace due to the return-to-work process. Method: A qualitative method was used, consisting of open-ended interviews with 19 individuals across 11 workplaces in the public and private sector. Inductive content analysis was performed. Results: The key findings from this study are that individual learning emerges in the return-to-work process due to previous experience, communication with other workplace actors, or insights into what works for the individual. However, the individual learning that occurs in the return-to-work process is not carried over into workplace learning due to barriers in understanding the needs and opportunities that may be present in the process. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that individual learning occurs within social practices through social interaction between the actors involved (workers on sickness absence supervisors and colleagues) and individual experiences. A greater knowledge of the factors that contribute to workplace learning could facilitate biopsychosocial and ecological return-to-work interventions, which allow workplace actors to draw on previous experiences from one return-to-work process to another.

Purpose: The aim was to analyze the role and activities of employers with regard to return to work (RTW), in local workplace practice. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with sick-listed workers and their supervisors in 18 workplaces (n = 36). The analytical approach to study the role of employers in RTW was based on the three-domain model of social corporate responsibility. The model illustrates the linkage between corporations and their social environment, and consists of three areas of corporate responsibility: economic, legal and ethical. Results: Employers had difficulties in taking social responsibility for RTW, in that economic considerations regarding their business took precedence over legal and ethical considerations. Employers engaged in either "RTW activities" or "transition activities" that were applied differently depending on how valued sick-listed workers were considered to be to their business, and on the nature of the job (e.g. availability of suitable work adjustments). Conclusions: This study suggests that Swedish legislation and policies does not always adequately prompt employers to engage in RTW. There is a need for further attention to the organizational conditions for employers to take social responsibility for RTW in the context of business pressure and work intensification. Implications for Rehabilitation Employers may have difficulties in taking social responsibility for RTW when economic considerations regarding their business take precedence over legal and ethical considerations. Rehabilitation professionals should be aware of that outcomes of an RTW process can be influenced by the worker's value to the employer and the nature of the job (e.g. availability of suitable work adjustments). "Low-value" workers at workplaces with limited possibilities to offer workplace adjustments may run a high risk of dismissal. Swedish legislation and policies may need reforms to put more pressure on employers to promote RTW.

Abstract  The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) assumes a biopsychosocial basis for disability and provides a framework for understanding how environmental factors contribute to the experience of disability. To determine the utility of prevalent disability assessment instruments, the authors examined the extent to which a range of such instruments addressed the impact of environmental factors on the individual and whether the instruments designed for different disability groups focused differentially on the environment. Items from 20 widely used disability assessment instruments were linked to the five chapters of the ICF environment component using standardized classification rules. Nineteen of the 20 instruments reviewed measured the environment to varying degrees. It was determined that environmental factors from the Natural Environment and Attitudes chapters were not well accommodated by the majority of instruments. Instruments developed for people with intellectual disabilities had the greatest environmental coverage. Only one instrument provided a relatively comprehensive and economical account of environmental barriers. The authors conclude that ICF classification of environmental factors provides a valuable resource for evaluating the environmental content of existing disability‐related instruments, and that it may also provide a useful framework for revising instruments in use and for developing future disability assessment instruments.