Sufficiency and availability of healthcare and social welfare personnel
In November 2021, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health launched an intersectoral strategic programme to ensure the sufficiency and availability of healthcare and social welfare personnel.
The aim of the programme was to find sustainable solutions to meet the labour needs of the healthcare and social welfare sector now and in the coming years.
As part of the programme, the Ministry also prepared a strategic roadmap for 2022–2027, over 40 concrete measures for 2022–2023 and a number of recommendations and reports from various perspectives.
Roadmap for 2022–2027
The strategic roadmap for ensuring the sufficiency, availability and retention of healthcare and social welfare personnel extends up to 2027. It includes a concrete implementation plan for 2022–23.
The aim is to alleviate the shortage of personnel in the healthcare and social welfare sector and to increase the sector’s ability to attract and retain employees. The measures to achieve this include:
- ensuring a sufficient intake of students in education and training programmes as well as ethical international recruitment
- developing the content of education and training
- reforming the division of duties and the organisation of work
- making diverse use of technological solutions and
- improving the conditions for coping at work and good work in Finland in various ways.
The roadmap builds on the following four strategic priorities:
- ensuring competence
- improving the effectiveness of work
- ensuring the conditions for good work
- knowledge-based analysis and foresight.
The roadmap was prepared for use by healthcare and social welfare professionals, parties guiding, managing and supervising activities, political decision-makers, as well as clients and patients. The roadmap is intended for both public and private operators in the healthcare and social welfare sector.
Ensuring competence
The aim is to ensure a sufficient number of competent and skilled personnel in the healthcare and social welfare sector. Competence will be ensured by guaranteeing a sufficient intake of students and developing the content and implementation of education and training.
The need and possibilities to increase the number of study places for different professional groups will be assessed in 2023. An assessment will also be made of whether it is possible to create an education system for supplementary studies and of the guidance system and the need for funding that the system requires.
Students entering the field must have sufficient working life skills. For this reason, it is necessary to harmonise training and traineeship compensation.
Proper targeting of personnel resources in the healthcare and social welfare sector
It is important to focus the work input of healthcare and social welfare professionals on duties that correspond to their education. The number of assisting personnel and support service personnel will be increased in a way that does not jeopardise client and patient safety or lower the qualification requirements. Practices and models that have been proven effective will be used in this, and they will be refined in accordance with the service needs of the residents in the counties.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has drawn up draft guidelines on how to apply the current legislation when developing operating models for work duty structures and the division of duties.
In addition to the guidelines, the Ministry has compiled a list of frequently asked questions and answers.
International recruitment is also needed
The need to recruit employees from abroad may increase up to 10 per cent by 2030. To meet this need, it is necessary to
- streamline the licensing process, review its pricing criteria and develop e-services
- develop the training that qualifies foreign employees for the Finnish labour market and their language training in order to support the licensing process
- define the national party responsible for the training
- ensure the resources for providing the training on a permanent basis.
International cooperation is essential to ensure particularly the ethical aspects of recruitment.
Improving the effectiveness of work
The aim is to promote digitalisation and the use of new practices, the integration of services, multisectoral cooperation, effectiveness and knowledge-based management.
Human resources will be targeted so that they can meet the needs of clients and patients in the best possible way and make effective use of the competence of all employee groups.
Improving the effectiveness of work and strengthening effectiveness-based guidance are strongly linked to major national reforms and packages. Collaborative efforts will be made to promote issues that allow healthcare and social welfare professionals more time to work with clients and patients and to develop their work and competence.
- Future Health and Social Services Centres programme
- Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland (in Finnish)
- Toivo Programme
Ensuring the conditions for good work
A separate programme has been prepared to promote the conditions for good work in 2022–2025. The measures of the programme aim to improve the ability of the healthcare and social welfare sector to attract and retain employees.
The programme helps to
- improve work ability management
- develop work
- increase gender equality
- reduce psychosocial risk factors and
- increase occupational safety at workplaces.
The programme for ensuring the conditions for good work is based on researched information.
Experts from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health have compiled effective models and tools that can be used at all workplaces in the healthcare and social welfare sector. The tools have been compiled from topical national projects and programmes, and they have been divided under different themes on the Tekojen tori website.
Read more about work, wellbeing and operating models:
Organisation of the programme
The Ministerial Working Group on Health and Social Services led by the Minister of Family Affairs and Social Services served as the steering group for the programme for ensuring the sufficiency and availability of healthcare and social welfare personnel. It also selected the programme priorities.
An intersectoral working group was appointed in 2021 for the programme work. The group consisted of representatives from ministries and key labour market organisations.
The term of the group ran from 18 November 2021 to 31 March 2023.
In addition, seven sub-groups were appointed to address the availability and sufficiency of personnel from different perspectives.
Information on the composition and work of the groups is available in the Gateway to Information on Government Projects:
- situation picture and foresight work (in Finnish)
- competence management (in Finnish)
- attractive workplaces with high retention rates, occupational mobility, working conditions, wellbeing at work, gender equality and their management (in Finnish)
- international recruitment and labour immigration (in Finnish)
- evolving competence needs of the service system in the education system (in Finnish)
- work duty structures, changes in the division of duties, flexible use of skills in the service system, and qualification requirements (in Finnish)
- effectiveness of services and the service structure, and the use of digitalisation expertise (in Finnish)