Youth Policy in Finland

Finland is famous for a variety of reasons, one of those being that the country has its own law to respect the rights of young people. The Youth Act promotes social inclusion, opportunities to participate in the decision-making over matters of concern, development of individuals' abilities, improvement of living conditions, and access to free-time hobbies and youth work — to name a few. The Government Decree supports the implementation of the act by, for example, specifying the allocation of the duties involved at the national, regional and local levels.

The National Youth Work and Policy Programme has its basis in the Youth Act, but it is also informed by the Government Programme (For more information, see Youth Wiki/Finland 1.2 National Youth Law and Youth Wiki/Finland 1.3 National youth strategy). In addition, the Government has launched a national cross-administrative National Democracy Programme extending until 2025. One of the key priorities of the democracy programme is to develop school teaching and other school practices, as well as to support children’s and young people’s ability to have a say in their local environment and society. (For more information, see Youth Wiki/Finland 5.5 National strategy to increase youth participation). 

There have been also some structural changes related to the organisation of public services in Finland. The responsibility for organising public health care services, social welfare services and rescue services has been transferred from municipalities to wellbeing services counties from January 2023. The key objective of the reform has been to improve the availability and quality of basic public services throughout Finland, to reinforce primary level services and to shift the emphasis towards preventive work. For more information, see Youth Wiki/Finland 7.2 Administration and governance.