The activities of wellbeing services counties and, in particular, their financial difficulties have now been monitored for nearly two years. Since 2023, the counties have been self-governing bodies and, as such, they have been responsible for health, social and rescue services for Finns. Previously, municipalities were responsible for these services.
As newly formed level of government the wellbeing services counties may seem like a giant that is hard to pin down and has a billion-euro budget. However, the financial resources of the counties are used in a transparent manner and according to democratic decision-making. The wellbeing service counties have allocated the powers and budgets to different institutions in their own administrative rules. These rules should be studied when planning advocacy work.
The wellbeing service counties’ responsibility of organising the health and social services has not begun without problems. The student movement has observed with concern the savings resulting from this new funding model as well as the quickly made decisions to renew services. The decisions have caused concern about whether the organising of services is student oriented, and those concerns have revealed the need to influence the wellbeing services counties’ decision-making.
How can a student union influence the direction wellbeing services counties take?
SYL has published guidelines for social welfare and health care advocacy (2024). This document describes, among other things, the structure of wellbeing services counties and the different levels of decision-making. The purpose of the document is to make information on different opportunities and parties to influence comprehensively available to the student unions, so that they can tailor their activities according to their own resources. The document also contains, for example, a description of the key tasks of wellbeing services counties and their connection with FSHS services.
According to our recommendation, student unions should first search for information about channels of influence that already exist in their wellbeing services county and which have been set up to involve third-sector actors.
All county councils have a statutory obligation to ensure that their county’s residents are offered diverse and effective opportunities for participation in different decision-making processes. Students can use the channels of inclusion and cooperation created to fulfil this obligation, such as various cooperation bodies, forums, working groups etc., to make their voices heard in their wellbeing services county.
In addition to representatives of the wellbeing services county, schools can invite other actors to visit meetings of their own health working groups, in which case topical well-being themes concerning students can be discussed together with several different parties.
In addition to contacting the current decision-makers of the wellbeing services counties, we recommend student unions to be active in highlighting health and well-being issues next spring when municipal and regional elections are held. Elections offer an excellent opportunity to influence the themes of the electoral debate and to highlight topics that are close to the students’ hearts.
In the run-up to the elections, it is of paramount importance that student unions recognise their key goals for municipal and regional elections and engage in active dialogue with the candidates.
Background on the guidelines for advocacy in wellbeing services counties
As a project related to their 2024 action plan, the National Union of University Students in Finland (SYL) prepared common guidelines to support the advocacy work carried out by the student unions in wellbeing services counties.
The goal is for the student unions to be able to apply the guidelines according to their own resources, objectives and operating environments.
You can find the guidelines in English here.
The guidelines were drawn up by Jesse Häyhä, Member of the Board of Directors responsible for health, well-being and equality at SYL in 2024 and Henri Kontkin, Specialist in Social Policy.
More information
Jesse Häyhä
Board member
Social policy (FSHS, well-being and equality)
jesse.hayha@syl.fi
+358 44 906 5003
Henri Kontkin
Social Policy Adviser
Student health care, wellbeing and equality
henri.kontkin@syl.fi
+358 40 413 4411
