The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health requested SYL to provide a statement on a legislative proposal concerning the principles of the social welfare and health care’s range of services. We issued our statement to the ministry in December.
In our statement, we supported the proposed principles and their incorporation into legislation. According to SYL, the proposed regulation would increase transparency, equality and predictability in the allocation of services and strengthen impact assessment-based decision-making.
However, SYL emphasised that the proposal should be amended with clearer instructions on the relative value of the four proposed principles (needs, safety, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness) and how they should be balanced in different situations. Without clear instructions, application practices could develop differently in each wellbeing services county and between different actors, which would keep problems such as inequality of services from being fixed.
Regarding financial impacts, SYL concluded that the proposal’s assessment was sufficient on a general level but lacked the perspective of student health care for higher education students. Since the funding and organisation models of the FSHS are substantially different from the wellbeing services counties, the legislation’s impact cannot be assumed to be identical.
We also noted that emphasising cost-effectiveness might guide services towards short-term savings. This risk is particularly high for mental health services, whose early support and preventive care mainly generate financial benefits in the long term.
SYL also criticised the legislative proposal’s impact assessment for having too little consideration for higher education students and young adults. The proposal lacks sufficient assessment on how the legislation might affect students and young adults in terms of the progress of their studies, the support to their study ability, and their mental health. SYL emphasised that the principles of the range of services should support preventive and early support services.
In addition, SYL proposed that the participation of the FSHS in national and regional cooperation structures linked to the range of services should be enshrined in the relevant legislation or, at the very least, in its rationale. In our statement, we called for the proposal to be amended with a separate assessment of economic and other impacts that the legislation might have on higher education students and their student health care.
At the same time, the legislative proposal should recognise the special nature of student health care for higher education students and the position of the FSHS as a national service provider in the social welfare and health care system.
SYL also emphasised that the preventive care and early support provided by mental health services have a key role in securing the well-being of students and the progress of their studies. The principles of the range of services must strengthen the availability of these services, not weaken them with specific economic conditions or other measures.
Our entire statement can be read at lausuntopalvelu.fi (only in Finnish).
Further information:
Henri Kontkin
Social Policy Adviser
040 413 4411
henri.kontkin@syl.fi
