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STAKES

Strategic priority areas

1. Sustainability of welfare policy
2. The effectiveness of welfare and health promotion and services
3. Responding to demographic changes
4. Reducing social inequalities
5. Information as a basis for steering
6. Innovativeness

1. Sustainability of welfare policy

Why it is important and what it means
For the Finnish welfare system to develop sustainably, it is of prime importance that it rests on an economically and socially sustainable foundation, that it continues to enjoy broad public support and that efforts are made to ensure equitable distribution of welfare.

STAKES main line of action
STAKES conducts research into and evaluates welfare and health policies from the perspective of economic and social sustainability. It develops new models for organising services, and analyses alternative ways of fulfilling welfare responsibilities.

More detailed targets:
Priority lines of action
  • STAKES develops a range of service models and practices and spreads them in the social and health sector in order to promote welfare and health.
  • STAKES monitors, evaluates and models developments in the costs and funding of social and health services and cash benefits.

2. The effectiveness of welfare and health promotion and services

Why it is important and what it means
Effective welfare services promote and maintain people's welfare, health and functional capacity with observable effects. Due to limited resources and increasing demands, the effectiveness of welfare services can only be improved by increasing their productivity and efficiency.

STAKES main line of action
STAKES develops and disseminates good practices in social and health care, in addition to offering knowledge, skills and tools for implementing them.

More detailed targets:
Priority lines of action

  • STAKES works to ensure that the good practices applied in social and health care form client-oriented, effective service packages. The use of methods is based on assessed information.
  • STAKES contributes to ensuring that the social and health sector has the necessary instruments for developing service systems and assessing their costs and effectiveness.
  • STAKES supports decision-making by offering information about the welfare and health impacts that decisions are foreseen to have.

3. Responding to demographic changes

Why it is important and what it means
The ageing of the population, the relatively low birth rate, and immigration and internal migration largely determine the need for social and health services. Changes in the need for services are qualitative as well as quantitative. With the ageing of the population, people's functional capacity becomes an important social and health policy issue. Living environments and lifestyles also play a crucial part in determining functional capacity.

STAKES main line of action
STAKES analyses and anticipates demographic changes and their quantitative and qualitative effects on functional capacity, service needs, service structure and labour demand.

More detailed targets:
Priority lines of action

  • The tools offered by STAKES can be used to anticipate the type and degree of service needs and their resource requirements, and to redesign service structures.
  • STAKES has an up-to-date picture of the demand for labour and professional skills in the social and health sector.

4. Reducing social inequalities

Why it is important and what it means
The growth of social inequalities between population groups decreases cohesion in the community and society at large. STAKES works to prevent any growth of inequalities primarily by conducting research and drawing up recommendations for action concerning inequalities in income distribution and the use of social and health services.

STAKES main line of action
STAKES monitors and works to anticipate the growth of inequalities in Finland and internationally. It also analyses factors that contribute to increasing inequalities and looks for ways of reducing them.

More detailed targets
Priority lines of action:
  • STAKES analytically monitors and models current living conditions, well-being, service use and other areas of potential inequality.
  • STAKES suggests ways of reducing inequalities.

5. Information as a basis for steering

Why it is important and what it means
The social and health sector should be developed on the basis of relevant up-to-date information. Information that can be used as a basis for steering policy-making is comprised of statistics, registers and research data sets, as well as the studies, surveys, indicators and other information products that draw on these data sources.

STAKES main line of action
STAKES works to create and maintain an information basis for guiding the social and health sector.

More detailed targets:
Priority lines of action

  • STAKES offers a comprehensive basis of up-to-date information for steering and policy-making. This information basis builds on an ongoing analysis of the welfare needs of the population, and on electronic client and patient data.
  • STAKES provides user-friendly interactive information products that support activities and development work at national, regional and local levels.

6. Innovativeness

Why it is important and what it means
Innovativeness means an ability to think and act without prejudice and differently than before. The need for innovative solutions in social and health care arises from people's changing needs and limited public resources. A basis for innovativeness is provided by modern technology, multidisciplinary research and networking.

STAKES main line of action
STAKES enhances its own innovative activities and the innovative ability of the social and health sector at large.

More detailed targets:
Priority lines of action
  • STAKES promotes innovation structures and processes and good practices in social and health care at national and regional levels
  • STAKES' innovations are rendered into products and brought into use
  • STAKES seeks to improve export opportunities for Finnish social and health care expertise and products.

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Published 2.2.2006, Updated 29.1.2007

Last updated 29.1.2007
© THL, 2009 | About the site | Web Publishing Team
National Institute for Health and Welfare - P.O. Box 30, FI-00271 Helsinki, Finland - Map- Tel. +358 20 610 6000, Fax +358 9 761 307, E-mail firstname.lastname@thl.fi