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Quicker access to work for people with partial work ability

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment
Publication date 12.11.2020 11.21 | Published in English on 17.11.2020 at 12.26
News item

The Centre of Expertise for Impact Investing is now testing in practice its model on promoting the employment of people with partial work ability. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the KEHA Centre are also involved in the project. The model has been built in cooperation with a wide range of experts over the past few months.

Piloting will be carried out as part of the process of reforming employment services, including the municipal experiments on employment and the working capacity programme. The pilot aims to accelerate the employment of people with partial work ability.

Emphasis on a more personalised and tailored customer service and close cooperation between companies and employers

The model on the employment of people with partial work ability commissioned by the Centre of Expertise has attracted widespread interest among professionals in employment services. According to estimates, the tool developed in the model helps to identify the individual situations of the unemployed better and to target measures in a timelier manner. For this reason, the Centre of Expertise for Impact Investing decided to map the model’s benefits in promoting employment. The review was carried out through extensive data collection at different levels of public administration across Finland. The key question guiding the review was: Can the modelling of employment of people with partial work ability serve the customer-orientation of employment services, customer service needs, cost-effectiveness, performance?

“This is a concrete and well-structured model for measuring effectiveness”

The way customers are grouped in the model, which serves as a basis for a more specific identification of customers, is a critical ingredient in the reform of employment services. The model also provides a calculation model for the advance and final evaluations of social benefits. The model, which is built based on register data, helps to assess project impacts on the income tax accrued by public administration and savings in unemployment benefits, housing benefits and basic social assistance. This, together with customer grouping, contributes to improving the efficient use of public funds, enabling the acquisition of impacts.

The pilot will be prepared by a joint working group and coordinated by the Centre of Expertise for Impact Investing. The first phase of the pilot will be carried out in 2-3 TE Offices and municipalities through joint development. The first phase will run until June 2021. The lessons learned during the pilot will be widely disseminated and can be utilised in the development of the Nordic employment service model, for example. If the model proves successful, it can be scaled to different points of the service system to improve customer orientation and individual identification of service needs.

The Centre of Expertise for Impact Investing wants to strengthen cooperation between different bodies, ensure individual support for customers and develop services based on their effectiveness, while ensuring the effective use of taxes.

Inquiries:
Anna Tonteri, Chief Specialist, Centre of Expertise for Impact Investing, anna.tonteri(a)tem.fi           
Liisa Björklund, Expert in modelling project, liisa.bjorklund(a)me.com
Petri Hilli, Expert in modelling project, petri.hilli(a)qsa.fi