Laura Kestilä, PhD Senior Researcher The Finnish Youth Research Network (NTV) and National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) Juha Makkonen, MA Senior Lecturer HUMAK University of Applied Sciences NGO and Youth Work FINLAND: OVERVIEW OF USING INDICATORS IN POLICY

LEGAL BASIS Youth Act (72/2006) Some headlines –according to the Youth Act a young person is anyone under the age of 29 years –the Government shall adopt a youth policy development programme every four years –the youth act is an act on the financing of youth work – this includes also financial support for youth research Children, Youth and Families – Government Policy Programme Some headlines –developing knowledgebase on well-being –designing evaluation of the impacts of policy on children

Child and Youth Policy Development Programme –a development programme prepared in accordance with the Youth Act –includes national youth policy objectives and also outlines those for regional and local authorities related to, for example, education, employment, health, active citizenship, social empowerment, housing and entrepreneurship –the implementation of the development programme is evaluated annually by the Advisory Council for Youth Affairs –according to the Youth Act a young person is anyone under the age of 29 years - in practice this implies that the youth policy programme includes also small children

AGE-STRUCTURE OF THE FINNISH POPULATION Source: Statistics Finland Population projection 2007 Children (0 - 14) and adults (65 +) persons

THE PROPORTION OF FULL AND PART-TIME STUDENTS AGED 27 YEARS 1. As a percentage of the population in the same age group. Source: OECD (2008), Education database.

THE BASIC CHALLENGES People enter work life too late and leave work life too early The average duration of retirement period has increased due to the increasing life expectancy Decreasing the proportion of drop-outs would be important –It has been estimated that the expenses of one socially excluded young person is about one million euros in Finland

Ministry of Education has two separate working groups which have prepared set of indicators – one for children (up to 17 years of age) and one for young adults (18-29 years of age) indicators Both groups have utilized already existent databases and proposed new indicators and statistics The lists of the indicators consist of indicators. They are divided into several categories: –health –education –involvement (active citizenship) –employment –living environment –support of society

Finland has several register-based statistics and repetitive nationwide surveys, which provide new information on the health and well-being of children and young people, as well as the trends of them in time In addition, several projects are now developing follow-up data systems for national and regional use. There is need for.. –gathering relevant information to the same systems –regional information (municipalities) –information on well-being and health according to SEP, gender, ethnic background etc. –new indicators  which type of new information is needed?  qualitative indicators? There is only little information on children under the school age –development of new monitoring systems (data from the service system, for example child welfare clinics and school) REGISTER-BASED DATA AND REPETITIVE SURVEYS AS SOURCES FOR INDICATORS

To mention some key datasets where information on youth well-being is available/**will be available soon –Statistics Finland  registers –Child Welfare –statistics –School Health Promotion Study (SHP) –Adolescent Health and Lifestyle Survey (AHLS) –Youth Barometer –Youth Living Conditions -survey –The Health Behaviour Monitoring among the Finnish Adult Population (AVTK) –**Regional Health and Well-Being Study (ATH) –**LATE (health monitoring of children) and OPTE (health monitoring of students)

EXPERIENCES FROM INDICATOR WORK IN FINLAND: DILEMMA OF CHOICE 1/2 Definition of ”well-being”? –Dimensions  operationalisation Purpose of use? –International level, national level, local level –Description, differences between population groups –Decision-makers in municipalities, experts in health promotion, national level –Regional information – on which level? Scientific relevance Policy relevance: indicators describing phenomena that can be influenced Age(group)-specific indicators –Some phenomena relevant only to certain age-groups –Adjustment for age?

Choice of the background variables –Health and well-being differences between population groups gender, education, ethnic background, region positive or negative emphasis? –problem-based indicators Frequency of collecting data? –goal: reliable information –depends on the indicator Core-indicators, alarm-indicators, key-indicators –hierarchy: order of importance, sub-categories Publishing… –to whom and how? Internet, paper copies, user interface International comparisons DILEMMA OF CHOICE 2/2

QUALITY OF INDICATORS A. Single indicators –relevance –validity –reliability –availability –usability B. Set of indicators –scope, extensive content –usability –continuity Source: Quality criteria for indicators, INDI-program, THL

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