Authors

• Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health (STKL)

Keywords

networks, social policy, social services, social welfare, social work, third sector, voluntary organizations, voluntary work

Abstract

The survey studied the present state of networking in welfare service production by non-governmental social and health organisations. At first, the respondents were asked about the nature of their organisation, the number of members, the number of employed personnel, organisation income and expenditure (in Finnish marks), and the background of individual members and their reasons for joining. Some questions covered past, current and planned changes in the organisation and its service production, and how central certain issues were within the organisation (e.g. administration, co-operation with other bodies, organisation image, service development). Opinions on how vital voluntary work was for the activities of organisation were probed.

The respondents were asked what are the most important welfare services provided by their organisation, by municipal social and health services, other non-governmental organisations, or the Social Insurance Institution, etc. Services provided by the organisation and their priorisation were investigated. One theme focused on the services that the organisation had discontinued, and which bodies could/did take care of them after that. The respondents were also asked whether the organisation had done/would do something to ensure that the discontinued services would be provided by somebody. The organisation's willingness to take on additional service production was charted. The respondents rated the importance of various bodies within the field of welfare service production. Current and future development projects and the existence of a long-term strategy were studied, likewise the respondents' opinions on the future of the organisation.

Background variables contained information about organisation type.