Developing social welfare data management in Finland aims for quality recorded data
Information management in the social welfare has been developed in Finland over a long period of about twenty years. The principle is that information management is developed from the perspective of social welfare's own development needs, not from a technological point of view. The whole life cycle of client information is taken into account.
"Our strength in developing information management in Finland is that we are developing it together with the social welfare service system, not as a separate component." says Team Leader Erja Ailio.
Social welfare data management in Finland is now evolving rapidly. All actors in government and service organisations are working towards making client data usable in client work and also, for example, in the management of social services.
In the next few years, all Finnish social welfare service providers will start using the national Kanta infrastructure for information sharing. All public social welfare organisations and also private service providers will use Kanta. This will mean changes for social welfare professionals, as they will all use standardised systems to record uniform and structured client data.
"The change in case recording is significant for social welfare professionals. It is important to realise that good quality data sheds light on the work performed in social welfare services," says Ailio.
The role of social welfare in society needs to be made more visible.
"We emphasize the importance that the clients have access to information about themselves and their services. This increases the transparency of services and can help the client to discover something new about his or her situation."
The social welfare part of MyKanta service opened to citizens in 2023 and is gradually being rolled out.
"We are looking forward to seeing the first experiences and information on the use of MyKanta in social welfare. For example, has the use of MyKanta reduced the number of calls to social care professionals?" says Ailio.
Social Welfare Data Register is THL's main window to social welfare data
THL's role is to develop data management in social welfare and also to act as a statistical authority. The collection of social welfare register data will be developed in strong cooperation with experts from the wellbeing services counties.
Social Welfare Data Register began providing information on the number of social care clients for the first time. In the coming years, we anticipate gaining a more detailed understanding of the specific social welfare services clients have received.
"Clients have the right to high-quality and effective services. This is not possible if our knowledge base is weak," stresses Ailio.
Social welfare client data are stored nationally in a centralised manner
In Finland, there is a wide range of social services. General social services are provided for older people, people of working age and families with children. Demanding special services are organised as child welfare services, services for people with disabilities and for people with substance abuse and other addictions. A total of around 50 different social services are offered to different client groups.
“Many social service providers use Kanta services even though it is not yet a legal requirement,” says Chief Specialist Antero Lehmuskoski.
Nearly a hundred million social welfare client documents have already been stored in the social services client data repository. The total number of client data is over 1.6 million social welfare clients.
Both content and technical document structures are now nationally uniform. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare maintains a web service called Sosmeta for social services document structures from which the structures can be accessed free of charge to client information systems. The service contains about 200 different document structures that professionals use to record client information.
We want to interact with social welfare developers in Europe
THL is a member of the European Social Network (ESN).
"The digitalisation of social welfare is also being considered elsewhere in Europe. In Finland, we are ahead of the curve in terms of social welfare data management. We have done development work nationally, not regionally as in other parts of Europe," says Antero Lehmuskoski.
In Finland, information management is developed together with the development of the relevant legislation. The new legislation also supports the digitalisation of social welfare information management," he stresses.
Our work has been assessed and appreciated by The European Social Network. This appreciation encourages us to engage in significant cooperation, and we promise to support the network's common pool of expertise in the coming years.
The descriptions of the development of information management in social welfare are available here:
- THL National ICT Services Provide Quality Client Data for Evidence-Based Social Services
- Read more about the Finnish project: National ICT Services: Providing Quality Client Data for Evidence-Based Social Services (European Social Network)
- Strategy for digitalisation and information management in healthcare and social welfare (Ministry of Social Affairs and Health)
- Client Data Archive for Social Welfare Services (kanta.fi)
Further information
Steering of information management in social welfare
Erja Ailio
Team Leader
erja.ailio(at)thl.fi
Antero Lehmuskoski
Chief Specialist
antero.lehmuskoski(at)thl.fi
