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According to the Swedish Education Act, schools in Sweden must provide comprehensive student health services to foster an inclusive and conducive learning environment, promoting students’ well-being and knowledge development. As part of a multi-professional team, school counsellors are essential in achieving these goals. However, national guidance lacks details on the role of school counsellors in health promotion, prevention and remedial efforts. This study addresses this knowledge gap by examining aspects of school counsellors’ professional work using theories of professions. Open-ended answers in a survey distributed to school counsellors in Sweden were analysed through content analysis. Findings show that remedial work primarily focuses on individual students’ social issues through conversation-based interventions. Preventive work targets groups and the broader school environment, often involving tasks like policy development. Health promotion work stands out with its educational component, where school counsellors are involved in Life Competence Education, often in collaboration with other school professionals.

Införandet av en samlad elevhälsa har medfört att psykosocialt arbete inom skolan givits en tydligare position i skolornas elevhälsoarbete. Trots detta vittnar tidigare studier om att skolkuratorer uppfattar sitt professionella uppdrag och sina arbetsuppgifter som otydliga. Tidigare forskning har fokuserat på skolkuratorers egen beskrivning av sitt professionella uppdrag och arbetsuppgifter. Syftet med denna artikel är att studera skolhuvudmäns beskrivning av skolkuratorers uppdrag, arbetsuppgifter, organisation samt kvalifikationer och färdigheter. Studiens empiriska material utgörs av samtliga platsannonser som publicerades hos Arbetsförmedlingen under 2017 där skolhuvudmän sökte efter skolkuratorer. I studien användes kvalitativ innehållsanalys med en tematisk ansats. Resultatet visar att skolhuvudmännen i platsannonserna beskriver en tydlig skolkurativ jurisdiktion men att denna är under- eller sidoordnad den pedagogiska verksamhetens mål, organisation och styrning.

This paper presents some results from a unique survey conducted on all school counselorsin Sweden. More precisely, the focus of this paper is on Swedish school counselors'professional practice, educational background and working life history. By professionalpractice we mean the concrete activities that school counselors engage in in their workand the scope of these activities. Organizational frameworks and work managementissues are also studied.The survey was web-based (online) and contained 91 questions of both quantitative andqualitative nature. This paper concerns only a limited part of the data material generatedby the survey.Data analyzes used in the script are mainly statistical descriptions.The results of the analyzes show that Swedish school counselors are predominantlyexperienced social workers with academic education in social work and several years'experience of social work in areas other than school. Employment as a school counseloris rather the highlight of a career as a social worker than the beginning of such a career.

This article presents findings from a survey conducted on all school counsellors in Sweden. The focus of the article is on Swedish school counsellors’ demographics, professional practice, educational background, working life history and professional autonomy. The survey was web-based and contained 91 questions of both quantitative and qualitative nature. The results show that Swedish school counsellors are predominantly experienced female social workers with academic education in social work and several years’ experience of social work in areas other than school. Employment as a school counsellor is not an entry-level job. The professional practice of Swedish school counsellors predominately focus on remedial work with individual students. Their professional practice focus to a lesser extent on preventive and health promoting work despite the prominent position that preventive and health promoting work are given in the Swedish school act and in the national guidelines. The professional focus of Swedish school counsellors raises questions whether the emphasis on individual remedial work is to be interpreted as a lack of organizational awareness and resources, or if it is an expression of a professional ‘heritage’ from school counsellors prior experience of professional social work within other welfare areas were remedial work are custom. We argue that the focus on remedial work makes it valid to describe the character of Swedish school counsellors’ professional practice as a reflection of Swedish social services in general.