One of the duties of the public sector is to take care of the health and wellbeing of the population. This is done in part by arranging social and health services. The responsibility for organising such services lies with local government, the municipalities.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is in charge of the overall functioning of social and health services. It determines the course of the development of these services, drafts legislation and steers reform processes. It monitors the implementation and quality of services via the State Provincial Offices and the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health.
National Supervisory Authority for
Welfare and Health
State Provincial Offices
In the short-term the development of social and health care services is being guided by the Development Programme for Social and Health Care, known as the Kaste programme. The aim is to develop services so that
- social inclusion increases and exclusion lessens
- wellbeing and health increase, and welfare and health gaps diminish
- the quality, efficiency and availability of services improve, while regional discrepancies are reduced.
Prevention in order to maintain welfare and wellbeing is a key feature of Finnish social and health policy.
Social and health care in Finland is funded primarily by taxation.