New Structures and Practices of Activation and Support of Employment in Finland

1
New Structures and Practices of Activation and
Support of Employment in Finland
2
Challenges of Employment in the 2000s in Finland

• Ageing of the population increase of the amount
  of the elderly, increase of the amount of ageing
  workers in the working life
  
• Changes and demands of working life
• Increase in instability and pressures in the
  working life, increase of short term jobs
  
• Stress, work exhaustion,depression
• Aims to extend work careers and decrease costs of
  early pensions
  

3
Challenges of Employment in the 2000s in Finland

• Long term unemployment and social exclusion is
  still existing, even though improvement in
  employment has been generally favourable during
  last 10 years, unemployment rate 17 - 7
• Structural and regional polarization of labour
  market
  
• Skills gap between labour force demand and supply
  
  
• Mainstream services do not lead to employment in
  many cases
  
• Need of flexible combinations of benefits and
  earnings
  
• Need of new methods individual case management,
  job coaching, new employment opportunities 
  

4
Development of new employment practices

• Development in Finland is following the active
  labour market and social policy doctrine
  
• In the 2000s there has been both legislative,
  institutional and service practice develpoment
  for long term unemployed, disabled another
  disadvataged job seekers in Finland
• New activation legislation in 2002 started team
  work of employment offices, municipal social
  welfare and heath care authorities and local
  Social Insurance Institution representatives 

5
Development of new employment practices

• Employment Service Centres have been established
  all over the country, most of them organized on
  regional level, presently 40 centres are serving
  more than 20 000 customers
• Multiprofessional and multisectoral employment
  practices have been established in the
  municipalities and on regional level
  
• Introduction of new flexible wage subsidy system
  to improve the employment of persons with
  disabilites
  
• Introduction of legislation facilitating social
  enterprises
  

6
Municipalities and Employment Issues

• The role of municpalities in employment issues
  has strenghtened in many ways
  
• Municipalities have more responsibilities of
  activating long term unempoyed persons due to
  recent changes in legislation
  
• Both municipalities and government empoyment
  authorities cover the costs of the employment
  benefits of long term unemployed persons
  

7
Municipalities and Employment Issues

• Municipalities, coalitions of municipalities and
  third sector organizations provide a large range
  of services
  
• Active dissemination of development projects
• Individual pathways to employment for persons
  with low employability, e. g. case management,
  activation, work activity and other employment
  support services
• New systems of social employment /transitional
  labour market services have been introduced to
  provide with pathways of employment
  

8
Empowering Social Work 

• In the 1990s employment issues were only
  occasionally the concern of municipal social work
  and empowering social work practices were
  previously coincidental
• Social work practices were closely linked with
  the bureaucracy of social welfare benefits, and
  this gave very little space for the development
  of new practices
• Mass unemployment of the 1990s and heavy case
  load brought these practices into crisis - on the
  other hand in the 1990s numerous employment
  projects were introduced and new methods and
  models were developed
• In the 2000s the change has been rapid and
  comprehensive 
  

9
Empowering Social Work 

• As a member of a multidisciplinary team the
  social worker brings comprehensiveness and larger
  societal views to the problems of employment and
  disability.
• The social workers views and practices
  concentrate on the barriers to employment and aim
  at overcoming them.
  
• Assessment of the life situations of the clients,
  counselling, case management and advocacy are the
  core content of empowering social work
  practices.
• The approach of empowering social work is
  practical, action oriented, adding motivation and
  life coping skills for the customers and
  providing experiences of success

10
Empowering Social Work 

• Presently there is a continuous re-organizing
  process of municipality structures, work
  organizations, service production and client work
  in the municipalities.
• Combining different service cultures and
  orientations in these new work settings is a
  challenging task and requires good shared
  leadership, commitment and transparency on all
  levels of the organizations
• The concept of empowering social work relies on
  client orientation and respect of self
  determination
  
• Ideology of activation and workfare? Saction
  oriented, concern of work morale collapse?
  

11
Empowering Social Work 

• Various stipulations and mechanisms are
  endangering the establishment of empowering
  social work practices.
  
• Working conditions of social work are unstable in
  many ways in the municipal social welfare
  services.
  
• The high turnover of workers, recruitment
  problems, case load and introduction of numerous
  other new tasks and responsibilities hamper the
  establishment of the new employment oriented
  practices.  

12
Contact Information 

• Matti TuusaTraining and Information
  ManagerRehabilitation Foundation, Pakarituvantie
  4-5 Po Box 39, 00411 Helsinki, Finlandtel 358
  9 53041, gsm 358 40 8332632e-mail
  matti.tuusa_at_kuntoutussaatio.fiwww.kuntoutussaatio
  .fi