Internet/web‐based forms of communication have increasingly been implemented by welfare agencies. However, there have been few studies of the experiences of welfare service users and the consequences of new technology for welfare service users. To what extent is the new technology adopted by the Norwegian Welfare and Labour Organization (NAV) used, and how do the users apply and experience the new possibilities? Do screen‐to‐screen encounters replace face‐to‐face encounters, and is this trend affected by age, gender, education or type of benefit? To answer these questions, we combine survey data, short‐term fieldwork in welfare reception areas and qualitative interviews with people receiving health and work‐related benefits. Our study indicates that screen‐to‐screen interaction in general does not replace face‐to‐face encounters, as many face‐to‐face encounters are related to screen communication. However, digital competence combined with life circumstances appears to be the source of a new divide between welfare service users.

This study suggests that in spite of or perhaps even because of feelings of obligation and strain, family care is experienced as highly meaningful. However, it seems important that family carers receive explicit appreciation from professional health or care staff.

Safety, dignity and autonomy are keywords in care work for older people. Dementia, however, complicates the relationship between care workers and care receivers, in part because it affects memory, thought, perception, reasoning and speech. Thus it potentially influences the voice and consent competence of the individual. In such contexts, care work can become ethically challenging. This paper investigates how care workers in social care services ensure the safety and well-being of those receiving care and how these responsibilities must be weighed against the sometimes conflicting duty of upholding and respecting civil rights and individual choices when the older person has dementia. The empirical stage is home care and nursing home services in Norway. These settings provide a comparative foundation. Two different forms of ethical orientation are found to be active in the care workers' accounts in this study: ethics situated in the care work profession, and 'regulatory codes of ethics' situated in organizational rules backed by legislation. Whether these forms create tension or strengthen each other in care work practices is an open question. The implications for care work services are discussed.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to provide a sociological analysis of everyday interaction on the physical front line of the Norwegian welfare state. Design/methodology/approach -The data are from a short-term ethnographic study in the reception/waiting rooms of three local welfare offices. These are important sites for access to benefits and services. The focus is on the situational and interactional aspects: how do people behave and interact with fellow visitors as well as with front line staff in this institutional context? For the analysis, Goffman's conceptual framework on behaviour in public places is combined with concepts from a theory of access to welfare benefits. Findings -The analysis shows how people fill these spaces with different activities, and how they are characterized by a particular type of welfare "officialdom", boundary work and the handling of welfare stigma. Everyday interaction on the front line gives insights into the tensions in an all-in-one welfare bureaucracy and into the implementation of digitalization. The paper concludes that "old" and "new" tensions are expressed and managed at the front line, and suggests that more attention be paid to the new barriers that are developing. Originality/value -The study contributes an ethnographic approach to a seldom studied part of welfare administration. The waiting rooms in the Norwegian welfare organization are actualized as a social arena influenced by new trends in public administration: one-stop shops, a new heterogeneity, activation policies and digitalization processes.

Background Child poverty rates are rising in Norway with potential negative consequences for children. Services for families with low income are often fragmented and poorly integrated, and few coordinated initiatives have been implemented and evaluated in Norway. Aims: The aim of the current study is to evaluate how integrated and coordinated services provided over a prolonged period by a family coordinator are related to changes across a wide range of health, wellbeing and home environment indicators for the participants. Methods: The study uses a mixed methods approach utilising survey and register data, as well as information from interviews and shadowing, to document and evaluate outcomes associated with the intervention and the process of implementation. Data are gathered at baseline and annually throughout the duration of the study. Participants are identified to facilitate longer-term follow-up using register data. Conclusions: This project will develop important knowledge about the implementation of coordinated services to families with a low income, and how this way of organizing services influences important outcomes for the family members in the short and long term.