Monitoring of services for older people

Monitoring of services for older people (Vanpal) produces information on how services for older people are organised, on service units and on customer satisfaction for the purposes of monitoring, management and decision-making. Vanpal examines, monitors and evaluates the quality, production and organisation of services for older people in accordance with the Act on Care Services for Older Persons and the Act on the National Institute for Health and Welfare. The monitoring also includes maintaining information resources and statistics related to services for older people.

The results are utilised in national steering, supervision and development of the service system. The data are used, among other things, to evaluate the implementation of legislation, to monitor strategic objectives and action programmes, and in the work of supervisory authorities. Service organisers use the results in supervisory tasks, in the procurement of services and in monitoring their implementation. Service providers can use the results to develop operations and quality management. In addition, clients and their relatives can compare information between different service units.

Statistics on the results

Goals

Produce up-to-date and comparable information on the quality, production and organisation of services for older people to support decision-making and development work in wellbeing services counties and nationally.
Evaluate the implementation of legislation, the quality recommendation for older people and national programmes.

Implementation

The data collection monitors staffing levels and staff structure, numbers of clients and visits, as well as management and operating practices in over 3,000 service units for older people in mainland Finland.

Monitoring of the staffing level is carried out twice a year. The Act on Care Services for Older Persons requires that the actual staffing level must be at least 0.6 employees per client in service housing with 24-hour assistance for older people. This obligation also applies to long-term institutional care in social services until the end of 2027.

The adequacy of home care is monitored once a year. The Social Welfare Act (1301/2014) was reformed on 1 January 2023 to emphasise strengthening resources in home care, ensuring quality and monitoring these aspects. According to Section 46 b of the Social Welfare Act, home visits that are part of home care, as well as the daily tasks and working hours of staff providing home visits must be planned so that the client receives the amount of service to which they are entitled under the decision or agreement on the service, unless changed circumstances require otherwise, and that as much of the employee’s working time as possible is spent with the client or on work together with the client.

Management and operating practices are monitored through a separate survey approximately every two years. The survey is answered by managers of care units providing services for older people. Some of the questions are published as quality indicators in the Sotkanet Indicator Bank. In addition, a report is prepared for service providers, containing data at national and wellbeing services county level, as well as a summary of the provider’s own units.

Instructions for submitting data (in Finnish)