Finland for all_ages

Finland for All Ages Generational policy as a way to socially and

economically sustainable welfare society

Marja Vaarama Deputy Director General

12.9.2013 Esityksen nimi / Tekijä 1

Contents • Background – why social sustainability is important

concept in the Finnish Welfare Policy? • Briefly about the concept of social sustainability • Think-tank ”Finland for all ages” • Summary of the recommendations of the Think-

Tank • Summary of the main features of the suggested

policy • Suggestions for future actions


Background • Among European countries, population ageing is most rapid in

Finland • According to the prognoses, in the year 2026 (13 years from today!),

the share of working population may be only 40% of the whole population, which would seriously hamper the economic base of the Finnish Welfare State

• Finland has prepared for demographic change already in many ways, but latest this prognosis makes it clear that we need to do more, find ways of turning the demographic change from burden to an opportunity, and build a society which is fair for all ages

• Social, economic and ecological sustainability are tied together, therefore we need integrative policies

• The government (Katainen), the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and THL, all have socially sustainable development as a major goal in their programs and strategies


Program of the Katainen’s government, 3 major goals 1. Reducing poverty, exclusion and health inequalities 2. Balancing the public economy 3. Increasing inclusion, labor market participation and

prolonging the working careers Health and wellbeing perspective must be included in all

public decision making across the entire public administration Ecological, economical and social sustainability of the Finnish

Welfare Model is the goal, and calls for integrated, comprehensive policies

Success of the Finnish welfare policy must be evaluates regularly in both terms of economic and social sustainability

12/09/2013 Presentation name / Author 4

But what is social sustainability?


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Sustainable development (SD) (Kautto, 2008)

Economic

Ecologic

Social

•demands a horizontal approach •highlights inter-generational fairness •shows the need for policy coherence

•no one coherent frame •no one way to measure SD •no easy way to show the role of politics in achieving SD

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What is social sustainability? • Often wanted, seldom defined • Social policy panel and literature survey (Kautto & Metso

2008)

– Resources that enable conscious steering of one’s life

– Fair distribution of welfare – Social ties, relations and interaction between

people – Trust in the future, in other people and in

institutions

Think-tank ”Finland for all ages”


Think-tank: Summary • High-level, non-political expert group of 20 people (business,

public sector, formal and voluntary actors, practice, research, young and older people), working in collaboration with Finnish citizens (forums, website)

• Set by the Minister of Health and Welfare, Dr. Paula Risikko, for the period 1.10.12-31.6.13, chaired by prof. Vaarama

• Suggests renovation program based on generational policy with the social investments strategy for development Finland for all ages

• 9 development goals with over 40 recommended actions to realize the goals

• The recommendations emphasize generational fairness, mixed economy of care and older people as a resource

• Final report was published 18.6.2013


The conceptual framework used by the group


Distribution of welfare Wellbeing, health, knowledge

Social participation, inclusion, social cohesion

Capabilities, information, power

Human rights, norms, trust, being in the same boat

Resources, money, services

Fair social contract Empowering all people to use their full capacities

No social exclusion and discrimination, building of trust

Esityksen nimi / Tekijä

value standards

equity freedom social justice solidarity

polity

economy

culture

civic society

empowerment

security

inclusion

cohesion

capabilities/ health

social/physical environment

life valuation/ satisfaction

affective well-being

societal assets or „capitals“

social quality processes

individ. QoL

Human ecology

environ. resources people technology Org. in time/space

The social sustainability processes (Vaarama & Pieper 2011)

The 9 policy goals & recommended actions for their realization


1. The pension reform 2017 (under preparation) shall ensure economically sustainable, comprehensive and generationally fair pension scheme

• Secure financing, high enough level of premiums

• Generational fairness • Retirement age (now flexible 63-68, actual

63) – no consensus of higher age (e.g. 65) • Better information on complex system,

targeted especially for young people


2. Improve the target efficiency of public services by clear eligibility criteria

• Clarify what service on which conditions people are entitled, provide a clear “service menu”

• Invest especially in children and young people, empower families, prevent social exclusion (create especially easy-to access low-threshold service and support)

• Strengthen the rights of vulnerable older people and disabled persons

• Harmonize the assessment of pension eligibility in long-term unemployed persons


3. Reform (finally!) the organization and funding of social and health services for better accessibility and cost-efficiency, ensure good service quality

• Get fewer and bigger providers (service regions instead of single and often small municipalities)

• Organize financing from one channel rather than from many as now

• Improve the service culture among social and health care by emphasizing in training the capacity building for seamless care chains and collaboration between professionals and for client and family empowerment

• Implement for all providers obligatory national quality standards and certification system for social and health care

• Improve the public imago of public social and health care


4. Develop new forms and incentives for mixed economy of care • Investigate alternative forms of service production and their

taxation, as well as ways to combine private and public production

• Harmonize the service voucher system for better equality, equity and freedom of choice

• Create national rules for provider-purchasing –system and harmonize the reimbursement criteria

• Improve the cost-consciousness and skills in public authorities for purchasing of services from private providers

• Increase incentives in state subsidies system for realization of the priority policy goals


5. Reconcile work and family life to prolong the working careers • Strengthen flexible organization of work in work places • Support the possibilities to combine work and informal

care of close ones • Improve the current system of family leave to ease the

combination on work and family life in children families • Implement national employment assistance program

(EAP), and integrate it into the social and health care system


6. Reconcile social security for better flexicurity • Assign to the municipalities and employment offices the

responsibility for social inclusion of unemployed persons (especially young people!) and reform social security legislation to support this

• Reform the unemployment benefit system to create incentives for part-time working

• Reform the housing allowance system to better support the working but low-income households

• Reconcile the reimbursement criteria of housing costs in housing allowance and social assistance

• Implement a job mediating body for retired people willing to engage in part-time-, short-time or occasional paid work or voluntary work


7. Ensure everyone’s rights to housing, healthy living environment, necessary telecommunication and proof of own identity • Prefer the Housing first-policy to ensure adequate housing for

those in need • Investigate the adequacy of current regulations for barrier free

–housing (too strict now?) • Implement active space policy, i.e. better use of public space • Create a voluntary certificate for good quality building of

special housing for diverse need-groups • Support mobility by barrier-free environments • Ensure affordable telecommunication access to all • Ensure everyone opportunity for digital identification


8. Support and foster social capital for trust and social cohesion • Develop forms of citizen involvement in the planning

and decision making processes in their communities • Strengthen and support schools as forums fostering

social participation and preparing pupils for it • Abolish bureaucracy that hinders citizens

engagement in social activities and functioning of voluntary organizations

• Start national action program to foster and develop social capital


9. Use research evidence to make knowledge based decisions and policy, look for best practices (1)

• Evaluate the effectiveness of the current pro-term project-based support for the development of social and health care services (national ”KASTE-program” of STM), and investigate alternatives for long-term, continuous support (e.g. in state subsidies system)

• Investigate current legislation to abolish age discrimination • Start a research program on pension security in combination

with public services and complementary private forms of social security, and their taxation

• Study cost-effectiveness of social and health care services and preventive measures, and provide reliable indicators


9. Use research evidence to make knowledge based decisions and policy, look for best practices (2) • Spread and exploit good practices to diminish socio-

economic inequity in health • Exploit participative service design for development of

new services • Set a national working group for definition of national quality

standards and develop a certification system for social and health care

• Set up a national research program to – identify and concretize the challenges and opportunities of

demographic change – Develop indicators for evaluation of social sustainability and

generational equity in all policies


Summary



Towards socially

sustainable Finland

Ensure equal opportunities for people in

all ages Welfare

society is for preparing

rather than repairing

Distribution of benefits

and obligations shall be fair

Every person has resources

– empower and abolish hinders for using them

Get rid of ageism – look

also at the existing

legislation

Clarify the public service commitment

Improve service

quality and accessibility

Support and foster social

capital

Suggested further actions

• Setting up a parlamentary comittee to further discuss and prepare the recommendations of the Think-tank. Selected recommendations shall be thoroughly researched: estimated costs and effects in light of social and economic sustainability.

• A national Generational Forum shall be established to discuss and evaluate the suggestions, and for preparing of new recommendations

• The work of the ”Finland for All Ages” group can serve also as material for the formulation of the next Governmental Program.


Thank you!


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