Recommendation
Welfare Services Counties (WSC) should be provided with a mandate to monitor the effectiveness and costs of social services. To achieve this, WSCs should use the data they collect through their client databases. National regulation should be passed to help facilitate this process.
Social Services Legal and Policy Framework
Right to access social services ✅
The right to access social services is enshrined in the Social Services Act 30.12.2014/1301 article 12.
Definition of social services ✅
The National Social Services Act 30.12.2014/1301 defines social services as services of the welfare area and other measures through which social welfare professionals and other staff promote and maintain the functional capacity, social well-being, safety, and participation of individuals, families, and communities.
Social services include social work, social counselling, social rehabilitation, services to promote economic functioning, family work, home services for families with children; support services, home care, temporary accommodation, family group home activities; supported housing, community housing; 24-hour assisted living; residential services; mobility support services; substance abuse and addiction; mental health services; education and family counselling; supervision of meetings between a child and their parent; respite care for caregivers o relatives; school social work services.
National catalogue of social services ❌
There is no national catalogue, but the Social Services Act includes a list of social services.
Strategic plan for social services ❌
Responsibilities of national/ regional/ local authorities 🤝
The Act on the Organisation of Social and Health Care (612/2021) defines how social services are organised, who is responsible for them, and how they are financed. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is responsible for the general steering, planning, developing and supervising healthcare and social welfare. The Ministry of the Interior is responsible for the general management, steering and supervision of rescue services. The Ministry of Finance monitors the operations and finances of counties' well-being services. As part of the 2023 Sote reform, responsibility for organising healthcare, social welfare and rescue services was transferred from municipalities to 21 new Welfare Services Counties. Private and third-sector organisations complement services delivery. Under the legislation, Welfare Services Counties can be purchased from private service providers or third-sector organisations.
Social services expenditure (2022)
Coverage
Workforce
7,200 social workers were officially registered at the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira). This means 130 per 100,000 inhabitants (2019)
Source: Valvira, 2019
Long-term care (LTC) for older people
1,309,186 older people (65+)/ 24 % of the total population (2023)
108,000 people received publicly funded LTC care in 2021. This is 8 % of people aged 65+.
Source: Statistics Finland
Source: Sotkanet, 2023 & Julkari, 2022
Source: Julkari, 2022
Source: Social Welfare Act, 2014
Long-term care (LTC) for people with disabilities (PWD)
Source: Sotkanet, 2023
7,903 people with disabilities worked in sheltered work centres in 2023
Source: Sotkanet, 2023
Source: University of Helsinki, 2021
Child protection services
Child protection reports were made for 110,269 children (10 % of children) in 2023
17,299 children were placed in alternative care (2023)
Source: Julkari, 2022
Source: Sotkanet, 2023
Women’s support
- Number of women supported by shelters for victims of domestic violence (2023): 2,809
- Number of shelters: 29 = 1 centre per 191,586 inhabitants
- Number of places for families: 230
- Average occupancy rate of shelters (2023): 65 %
Source: THL, 2024
Homelessness & social housing
3,429 homeless people (2023)
1,290 homeless people were living in overnight shelters (2023)
Source: Sotkanet, 2023