3.2 Administration and governance
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Governance
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment is responsible for the planning and implementation of labour policy and legislation. In the beginning of the year 2025 there is going to be a transfer of employment and economic development services (TE services) to the municipalities. These include personal customer, employer and business services. As mentioned on the webpages of the ministry entitled as TE services reform 2024, ‘the transfer of TE services to municipalities brings them closer to customers. Transferring the responsibility for employment, municipal education, and business services to one organiser promotes the objective of faster employment. Municipalities are in a good position to offer targeted and tailored services that meet the needs of customers and local labour markets.’ It is also mentioned that the reform aims to improve equal access to services and to safeguard linguistic rights and services for those in a weaker labour market position.
The reform will significantly increase the municipal responsibility for employment. As mentioned in Questions and answers about the TE services reform 2024 offered by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment ‘An incentive funding model is at the core of the reform. A municipality will benefit financially when a resident of that municipality finds employment.’ The updated Act on Multisectoral Joint Services Promoting Employment (2023, in Finnish) named this forthcoming new municipal employment authority responsible also for the multisectoral guidance of young people which in Finland are known for example as One-Stop Guidance Centres (see more in Youth Wiki Finland 3.4 Career guidance and counselling).
Cross-sectoral cooperation
The updated Act on Multisectoral Joint Services Promoting Employment will ensure that future employment service organisers and co-partners (from 1.1.2025 onwards), such as municipalities, wellbeing services counties and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela), will be able to work together for those customers, especially young people, who need multi-sectoral support to find employment. The key idea of the Act is to provide services to a certain customer group as an integrated whole. The Act will only provide the framework for operations. Municipalities, Kela and the wellbeing services counties are to negotiate on the composition and activities of the network in a given area. (See more in Questions and answers about the TE services reform 2024 offered by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment).
Some of the statutory responsibilities of the municipalities support the implementation of the horizontal youth policy planning and implementation. According to the Child Welfare Act, municipalities must draw up a plan to promote the well-being of children and young people. In the context of employment and entrepreneurship, these plans are used, for example, to develop the local affordances regarding youth workshops or the availability of summer jobs for pupils and students.
Also, the Youth Act stipulates that local authorities must have a coordinating body for local cooperation with representation, for example, from the local educational, social and health care, and youth administrations, as well as from the labour and police administrations. The body may also include representatives from the defence administration, as well as other authorities. Issues connected to employment and entrepreneurship are some of the main themes handled in these bodies, in some cases special issue sub-groups have been established.