Role of NGOs in public service delivery in Finland Riitta Srkel 10'11'04

1
Role of NGOs in public service delivery in
Finland Riitta Särkelä 10.11.04

• The constitution safeguards economic, social and
  educational basic rights for all people living in
  Finland.
• The main principles of the Finnish social
  protection system are
• the principle of universality
• a strong public sector
• tax funding based on legislative rights
  of residents equal treatment
• the municipalities have the responsibility of
  organising services by producing them themselves
  or by buying them from enterprises or NGOs
  welfare mix

2
NGOs in Social and health sector in Finland
Riitta Särkelä 10.11.04

• role of NGOs has varied in different in different
  periods in history
• big part of the services and forms of support
  have been developed by NGOs
• ? part of the public responsibility
• NGOs have had an important innovative role
• important to remember key role of NGOs in
  Finland is not service delivery!

3
Different roles of NGOs in Finland
Riitta Särkelä

• Advocacy
• Arenas for participation
• mutual support
• voluntary work
• expertise
• delivery and production of services

4
Role of NGOs in producing services

• 17 of social services
• 5 of health services
• amount of private services grown since 1995
  significantly enterpises vs. NGOs?
• about 32 000 persons working in this field in
  NGOs
• 2003 in Finland 3143 private units in service
  delivery- 53 of them by NGOs
• the State Provincial Offices give licences for
  providers of private social and health services
  and monitor the practitioners and quality of
  services

5
Special features of services produced by NGOs

• flexible and quick to react to new needs
  innovative role
• combinations of services and different forms of
  voluntary or mutual support
• special expertise in some areas only in NGOs
• chains of support in everyday- life context
• low- threshold to services and support
• important role in preventive work

6
Challenges

• free market regulation and competition services
  as products, NGOs as service provices turn to
  enterprices?
• growing needs in society NGOs need to define
  their own roles, the key role is not service
  delivery vs. others try to define NGOs role
• support for big groups in need vs. support for
  the most vulnerable
• how to meet the needs of ageing population?
• how to meet the needs of people in different
  parts of Finland?