Tekijät

• Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health (STKL)

Asiasanat

administration, employment services, health services, human resources, local government services, medical centres, organizations, public services, social security benefits, social services, social welfare, welfare policy

Sisällön kuvaus

This wide-ranging survey charted expert opinion on the welfare of Finnish citizens, and on the present state of welfare services. The respondents were managers or management groups of municipal social services offices, municipal health centres (primary health care), employment offices, and local offices of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela).

There were separate questionnaires for each organisational sector, with somewhat differing questions for each.

The questions common to all organisations studied perceptions of the changes in the number of staff, difficulty of recruiting skilled staff, sufficiency of human resources, action taken to improve the well-being of staff at work, and the possibilities of ensuring service provision to citizens with the existing resources. The respondents evaluated welfare of population in the municipality, and charted the positive and negative developments in the situations of some population groups.

Views on how the services provided corresponded to the needs of the citizens were surveyed as well as the role of various actors in preventive services. Cooperation between the respondents' organisation and other bodies and actors was surveyed. The importance of so-called extensive welfare responsibility and how this responsibility had been accomplished in the municipality was studied. Opinions on the significance of various actors and institutions in the welfare of citizens were investigated. Involvement in and views on joint service points and public employment and business services were charted. Situation of the organisation in terms of changes in services was investigated.

The questions not common to all organisations charted, among others, financial situation of the municipality, increase/decrease in financial resources allocated for services, role of social, health and economic policies in municipal decision-making, models of social service provision used in the municipality, increase/decrease in out-tasking, views on the reform of the labour market subsidy, opinions on basic income, importance of various suggestions related to improving the circumstances of the worst off, vitality of the principle of universalism in Finnish social policy practices, municipal and public service reform, and competitive tendering of services.

Background variables included the respondent's organisational sector and occupation/title as well as educational background of the organisation's managing director, and type of municipality.