Social security reform: forming a picture of the situation and building a knowledge base
At its meeting of 20 April 2020, the Social Security Committee decided to launch the forming of a social security situational picture and the building of a knowledge base for the reform. The situational picture will form the first part of the knowledge base of the social security reform.
The situational picture will focus on a human-centred approach and on describing how different life situations and their changes are reflected in social security. The individual level will be complemented by the level of society. International comparison is a key part of the situational picture. The Social Security Committee will discuss the elements of the situational picture in stages. The situational picture will be published.
Later, the knowledge base will be expanded into a preparation base to be used to describe future social security options and reforms planned by the committee.
- Social security is such a large entity that the reform must be carried out gradually. A gradual approach will be used to build consensus. It also facilitates the implementation of transparency. Matters are discussed in the committee and in public at the same time, in which case the committee's work and public debate on social security can be mutually supportive, says Pasi Moisio, chair of the Social Security Committee.
- The reform of social security will take advantage of the traditional strengths of committee work, such as constructive discussion and a solution-oriented and knowledge-based approach. These will be complemented by today's means of implementing, for example, openness and data visualisation. Committee work has a lot to offer to our society in the 2020s, says Moisio.
The committee appointed to prepare a social security reform met for the first time on Monday 20 April 2020.
The committee will meet 4–6 times a year, and it will try to organise 2 large open seminars a year.
The task of the Social Security Committee is to carry out a structural and functional reform of the Finnish social security in the long term, to increase information on social security and to engage in social dialogue on the values of social security. The committee will continue its work over this and the next parliamentary term.
Inquiries:
Tuulia Nieminen, Communications Specialist, tel. +358 295 163 635
Kirsi Varhila, Permanent Secretary, tel. +358 295 163 338 (call requests by text message)
Liisa Siika-aho, Director, tel. +358 295 163 085
Pasi Moisio, Research Professor, tel. +358 29 524 7228 , pasi.moisio@thl.fi
Email addresses are in the format firstname.lastname@stm.fi, except for Pasi Moisio