The research programme Finnish Local Government 2004 was a joint programme launched by the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, universities and research centres. It was funded by Finnish municipalities and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities. The project engaged in a systematic and comparable analysis of the development of the municipal sector in 1995-2004. The 47 municipalities participating in the programme were representative of the Finnish local government sector.
The study programme comprised of 14 research modules. For most modules, data were collected through mail surveys. The data may be used for cross-sectional or time series analysis.
This survey is part of the social and health services research in the Finnish Local Government 2004 research programme. The research subjects were administration, service provision, and development policies of municipal services for the elderly and the disabled. The respondents were managers of service institutions for the elderly and the disabled in research municipalities. Social services for the elderly and the disabled have also been researched in 1997 and 2000.
First, the service provision of municipal services for the elderly and the disabled was charted. Questions covered which body maintains the service institution, how many clients the institution had at the end of 2001, whether there were queues for treatment, and which bodies provided the different services in the institution. Views on satisfaction with the services, competitive tendering, using outsourced services, and whether the respondents' institution sold services to outside bodies were surveyed. Opinions on the changes in the institution after the year 2000 were queried. The respondents were also asked to evaluate the present state of the institution, and whether special needs clients had been taken into account in training personnel and planning and maintaining the institution's facilities.
In relation to management and decision making, the respondents were asked which elected body was in charge of issues related to service institutions in their municipalities. Views were also probed on the significance of that elected body, as well as the impact of different bodies on service institutions. The respondents were asked how important various duties and responsibilities were in their position as the manager of the service institution, and whether they had enough power in deciding on central matters regarding the institution.
Views on the use of client surveys and development policies for the future were explored. The respondents were also asked whether there were any ongoing reforms or experiments related to service institutions in their municipalities. Finally, the respondents were asked to name two central challenges or problems in developing services for the elderly and the disabled.
Background variables included the respondent's gender, age, job title, work experience, and basic education.
Two-stage stratified sampling in selecting project municipalities.
The project municipalities were selected separately from those with less than 10,000 inhabitants (28 municipalities) and from those with more than 10,000 inhabitants (19 municipalities). The selection aimed to be representative within both groups in relation to all municipalities with the same population size. Large municipalities were over-represented because 70% of the Finnish population lives in large municipalities. Representativeness criteria included regional location, age and education of the population, industry structure, municipal economy parameters, political situation, and variables related to municipal policy. The selected municipalities form a small scale model of all Finnish municipalities. The Åland Islands municipalities were excluded because of special features resulting from Åland's autonomy.
The questionnaire was sent to managers of service institutions for the elderly and the disabled in the selected municipalities (N=235). 153 of them responded.