Study title

Sociobarometer 2015

Dataset ID Number

FSD3043

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3043

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• SOSTE Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health

Abstract

The sociobarometer is a wide-ranging survey charting expert opinion on the welfare of Finnish citizens, and on the present state of welfare services. Themes for the 2015 survey included current state and future of the services, unemployment, child welfare, and social inequality. Views on the new regional goverment, health and social services reform were also charted. The respondents were managers or management groups of municipal health and social service offices, 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 opinions on the general well-being of the population in the municipality/area and whether there were sufficient resources to provide the required services at the time of the survey, 12 months after the survey and three years after the survey.

The respondents were asked opinions on the impact of several factors, such as unemployment and crime, on the future welfare of the population. Cooperation with different organisations in the area was studied.

Views on the new regional government, health and social services reform were investigated with questions about the solutions of the reform, role of service providers after the reform, and citizens' opportunity to participate and have a say in health and social services. Health and social service offices were asked how well they thought the reform would succeed in achieving several objectives, such as promoting health and welfare, and how necessary and cost effective some austerity measures were.

Social inequality was studied by asking the respondents whether inequality had decreased, increased, or remained same in their area and in Finland in the past 10 years, and how inequality could be decreased. Opinions on social security benefits were charted by asking the respondents if the basic level of social security was sufficient, and which social security benefits should be increased.

Unemployment was examined by asking the respondents about the impact of several factors on the increasing unemployment, and how effective several political measures were in decreasing unemployment. Finally, health and social service offices answered questions on child welfare, including assessments of the use of private child welfare services and the welfare of children and families using child welfare services.

The background variables included, depending on the organisation, the name of the organisation, municipality/area, and statistical grouping of the municipality (urban, semi-urban, rural).

Keywords

administration; child protection; employment services; local government services; public services; social inequality; social welfare; social welfare expenditure; social welfare organizations; unemployment; welfare policy

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Health care services and policies (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Social welfare policy (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Specific social services: use and availability (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Social welfare systems/structures (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Sociobarometers

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• SOSTE Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health

Data Producers

• SOSTE Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health

Time Period Covered

2015

Collection Dates

2014-11-03 – 2015-01-12

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Organization/Institution

Universe

Finnish municipal health and social services offices, employment offices, and local offices of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (excluding the Åland Islands)

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Total universe/Complete enumeration

The Sociobarometer 2015 questionnaire was sent to the executive managers and management groups of municipal health and social services, employment offices, and the offices of the Social Insurance Institution. Names and contact details of health and social service managers were gathered from each organisations' website. The Social Insurance Institution of Finland provided the contact details of their executive managers, and Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment provided the contact details of the managers of employment offices. The respondents were selected based on the 2014 municipalities and organisations, and the available contact details in October 2014. In some cases the survey was sent to more than one respondent in an organisation.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

49

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The questionnaire for municipal health service managers has been named as 'questionnaire E' based on former Sociobarometers. However, in the data the municipal health and social managers (questionnaire A), and municipal health managers (questionnaire E) are treated as one group.

The variable disclosing the respondent's municipality as well as some identifiers that revealed detailed information about the municipality, such as names of employment offices and Kela offices, were removed from the data during archiving. Open-ended answers are not available at the FSD, but inquiries can be made to SOSTE (Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health).

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

SOSTE Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health: Sociobarometer 2015 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2017-07-14). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3043

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Special Terms and Conditions for Access

Users of the data shall send the Suomen sosiaali ja terveys ry (SOSTE) a copy of all reports, theses, articles, other publications or material based on or using the data. If printed, to the mail address: SOSTE Suomen sosiaali ja terveys ry, Tutkimus, Yliopistonkatu 5, 00100 HELSINKI, FINLAND. If electronic, to the e-mail address: tutkimus@soste.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Materials

Hakkarainen, Tyyne & Londén, Pia & Peltosalmi, Juha (2015). Sosiaalibarometri 2015. Ajankohtainen arvio hyvinvoinnista, palveluista sekä palvelujärjestelmän muutoksesta. Helsinki: SOSTE Suomen sosiaali ja terveys ry.

Related Publications

Hakkarainen, Tyyne & Londén, Pia & Peltosalmi, Juha (2015). Sosiaalibarometri 2015. Ajankohtainen arvio hyvinvoinnista, palveluista sekä palvelujärjestelmän muutoksesta. Helsinki: SOSTE Suomen sosiaali ja terveys ry.