Research supports governmental reforms

The joint analysis, assessment and research activities, coordinated by the Government (VN TEAS), generate information that supports decision-making, working practices and management by knowledge. In the beginning of 2017, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health launched a research project that supports the implementation of health, social services and regional government reform. The research project has been split in four sub-projects, three of which are carried out side by side.

The first sub-project (Smuuto) continuously produces and updates the overall picture of both regional and national preparation of the reform. In the first phase, the work focuses on supporting the pre-preparation phase by drawing a comprehensive picture on the progress of preparation regionally and nationally. Starting from July 2017, after the provisional governance in counties starts, the research focuses more on supporting the implementation of the reform and preparing future activities. This sub-project runs until the end of 2018.

The second sub-project (Somayrtti) digs deep into those services and service paths, in which the interfaces between future counties, municipalities and third party service providers are extremely critical. When kicking off the research, the interest focuses, from the perspective of social and health care sector, on the services for people with long-term illnesses and on the services for immigrants. From the point of view regional government reform, services for people who suffer from long-term unemployment or have difficulties in finding job are of key interest. This sub-project is due at the end of 2017.

The third sub-project (Mohju) focuses on analysing the impacts of separating the roles of service organiser and service producer. Another point of interest is the future governance model for investments in real estates and ICT-systems. This requires intense co-operation and interaction between the government and counties. This sub-project continues until the endof February 2018.

This set of research projects is carried out by MDI alongside with consortium members from Nordic Healthcare Group, Frisky & Anjoy and Tempo Economics. The steering group for the research projects held its first meeting on Thursday 23 March and outlined the future steps in the research projects.