In Sweden digitalization is taking place at a rapid pace within social services' social care activities and various types of new digital operational support and welfare technology are being introduced. Based on the rapid development, digitalization is particularly interesting to study from a professional perspective regarding the professional discretion. In the field of disability, it includes people of a broad spectrum and with different experiences of digital technology, which the social care professionals meet in their daily life.  

This is a qualitative study on how the implementation of welfare technology (WT), a digital operational support tool, affects the care professional’s discretion. The WT in this case has a staff application for the care professionals (users) and an individual application for the residents (end-users) within the social care’s LSS-accommodations in three Swedish municipalities. The end-users of the WT have intellectual disabilities (ID) and/or autism.

The study builds upon experiences from the users who work within social care accommodations that are statutory according to the Swedish Act (1993:387) on Support and Service for Certain Disabled People (LSS). The study was performed within three Swedish municipalities and four social care accommodations with special services according to LSS. Semi structured interviews, open observations and group interviews were performed during six months with care professionals, managers and business developers. The selection of LSS accommodations in this study is primarily based on which municipalities have chosen to implement the WT investigated within the project's data collection period.

The purpose of the study is to identify opportunities and challenges that arise from the introduction of the WT into the professional’s daily work. The research question we investigate is: How does the professional discretion change when introducing digital operational support? 

The analysis highlights trust as a central theme and identifies three aspects that affect the professional discretion: transparency, conflicts and safety. An overall conclusion is that the level of trust among users sets the framework for the professional discretion in relation to digitalization, WT and its additional work methods. How far an organization has come in the transition from a caring controlling approach to a more supportive approach is important for how the staff feels that the professional discretion is affected by digitalization. The digital literacy of the staff, i.e., digital competence and attitude towards digitalization, can be an obstacle in the implementation. Finally, the organizational conditions regarding the division of responsibilities, involvement of staff and users as well as peer support, are important. This study indicates that there are several different shifts in connection with the professionals' discretion when introducing the WT. It requires trust in one's own ability, in the end-user, in the digital tool and in the organization. Research on WT in social services and social care is in its infancy, and it can be stated that technological development is moving faster than the research on it. Thus, more studies are needed of both implementation processes and consequences of the introduction of various forms of welfare technology in the social field.