Local Coherence of Three Topical Reforms in Finland

Transcription

1 Local Coherence of Three Topical Reforms in Finland - An analysis of the collaboration at local level and the coherence between the Youth Guarantee, the PES reform and the Municipality Experiment on Long-Term unemployment EEPO Ad Hoc report Robert Arnkil April 2014

2 Local Coherence of Three Topical Reforms in Finland - An analysis of the collaboration at local level and the coherence between the Youth Guarantee, the PES reform and the Municipality Pilot Projects on Long-Term unemployment Introduction There are several on-going reforms and projects in Finland around improving performance in transitions to employment. In this paper, particularly three of these will be explored, namely the Youth Guarantee (YG), PES-reform and the Municipality Pilot project on Long-term unemployment (M- LTU). Some other connections are also explored, namely the Municipality Reform and the reforms in Life-Long Learning and Guidance, which both provide and important connection and backdrop to understand the challenges of the three reforms. This paper explores the reforms from a local collaboration perspective. In Finland, like in all of the Nordic countries, the local authority, municipalities, is a strong player, and all reforms concerning well-being of citizens, rehabilitation, health, social affairs, education or employment must be reconciled and embraced at the local level, where the municipality itself is in a key role to facilitate collaboration. As such, all of these reforms make sense and are needed in the Finnish context of deteriorating employment, both in the short and longer term. But it is the observation of the author of this paper, based on first evaluations of the reforms, and other material, that there are some rather serious challenges to be negotiated to help them succeed. The three reforms need to be better synchronized, collaboration between key actors and steering roles need to be clarified. There are risks concerning particularly the collaboration of PES and municipalities, and a danger of overly splitting the labour market and services. A PES reform was introduced in January 2013 and it has suffered from launching problems and has received quite a lot of criticism from stakeholders, and also the customer feedback has deteriorated 1. Furthermore, municipalities, the key actors responsible for implementing the local reforms, are themselves going through a period of major reforms, which have now been delayed and partly withdrawn. As PES and the municipalities are the key actors in the delivery and coordination of the YG and M- LTU, and as they both are facing major pressures in the coming years, the successful delivery of the reforms calls for attention on the overall connection of the reforms. 1. The Finnish challenges as a backdrop for the reforms The long-term challenges of Finland are a diminishing work-force due to aging (and low immigration), growing pressure on social and health services (also due to aging), a need to diversify and reinvent the Finnish industries in the face of global competition, and to balance public spending. 1 and 2

3 First the global economic crisis did not have much effect in Finland, as the economy was in rather good shape, but today the effects are quite severely felt, and the employment figures are deteriorating, and particularly long-term unemployment rising. So unemployment will be an important challenge in the next years, despite the looming shortage of labour (at least in some industries, like care services). The response of the National Government has been to launch several reforms to address these challenges. In terms of curbing public spending, reforms of public government, on state, regional and local are important, the most important being local government 2. But it is precisely at the local level where the reforms have so far failed, or at any rate, will be considerably delayed beyond the next Parliamentary elections (due in April 2015). The outcome of the recently decided reform of social and health service structures, affecting all levels of administration local, regional and national is yet to unfold, and adds up to the insecurities of the reforms 3. In the beginning of life-long careers, there are initiatives to defragment and speed-up transitions from education to employment (and/or further education), both concerning high school and further education levels. Here the Youth Guarantee 4 and measures to enhance entrance to further education, speed up studies, and also reforms to enhance career counselling at all levels 5 are the most important initiatives. In the middle of careers, the initiatives to improve the financial situation of unemployed with reforms in benefits, to enhance employment services (PES-reform 6 and the MLTU 7 ), and to improve the situation and services for people in a weak labour market situation and with disabilities (MLTU and for instance the pilot projects for persons with partial work capacity 8 ) are the most important. Social benefits are also under reconsideration, but the actual proposal has not yet been presented 9. Also initiatives to improve innovation, well being and quality of working life at work contribute to the middle transitions 10. At the end of careers there is a long-standing attempt to rise both the effective and legal pension age, but proposals for new reforms concerning this have been given to a special working group 11. Initiatives to improve innovation, well-being and quality of working life at work are very important for lengthening the effective working careers

4 2. The reforms address various transitions in the labour market and carers The widely used and discussed concept of Transitional Labour Markets (TLM) provides a theoretical-practical framework to analyse the reforms 12. In TLM employment, labour markets and careers are understood as a series of transitions, which contain both risks and opportunities. In order for the transitions to be gainful, often different kinds of support, counselling, information and brokerage is needed. The Youth Guarantee is a case in point of these kinds of activities. For analytical purposes we can roughly group working life and career transitions into three periods, first transitions, middle transitions and later transitions, with an understanding that they overlap, and in practice do not constitute necessarily a neat linear sequence, but can be also non-linear. Figure 1: An overview of transitions in careers and working-life Firsttransi*ons First educa,on NEET Further educa*on Ac*va*on Middletransi*ons Having children Immigra*on Family care Work Return towork Un9 employment Sickness Training Latertransi*ons Pensions Re9training Changeof work Re9 employment The first transitions are a return to education from drop out, from basic education to further education and employment, and the transition from NEET to activation, education or employment. The key actors here are education institutes and teachers, career counsellors both in education and in PES, social and youth workers, youth outreach, youth workshops, PES officials, volunteer organi

5 sations and private companies. Most of the actors come from local authorities and their partners. The key initiative addressing these first transitions is the Youth Guarantee. Another initiative addressing partly this area is the enhancement of career counselling, started in the ESF period 13, and planned to continue in the period in priorities 3 and The most natural local coordinator role in the first transitions falls for municipalities. This has remained somewhat ambivalent, however, which is only exasperated by the fact that the most important actors, municipalities, PES are both under reconstruction. Also the independent evaluation of the Youth Guarantee points to a need to clarify the roles and responsibilities of coordination in the domain of first transitions. What can be called middle transitions contain transitions from job to job, from unemployment and family periods back to work, activation and integration of immigrants, return to work from sickness periods, upgrading skills and retraining, and the like. The key actors here are PES officials, Labour Force Service Centres (LAFOS), Social and health services of municipalities, National Insurance (Kela), activation workshops and volunteer organisations and private companies. The key initiatives addressing the middle transitions are the PES reform, Municipality Reform (including the Social and Health Service reform), Municipality Experiment for Long-term unemployed (M-LTU), the reform of LAFOS and the Pilot projects in the Programme for Persons with Partial Work Capacity 15. Also there is a working group preparing proposals to make changes to social security to develop active social security for people of working age 16. So there is a wealth of initiatives and actors concerning the middle domain, to a point of oversaturation. This means that there is quite considerable ambivalence also concerning coordination roles and responsibilities in the middle domain of transitions. The local coordination role is shared between PES, LAFOS, educational institutes and municipality social and health work, but as they all are in the middle of a reshuffle, the steering structures and coordination remain unsettled. The later transitions overlap with middle transitions, but here the transitions from health problems back to work via rehabilitation, re-education, change of work and eventually transition to pensions, either via part time solutions or fully, and sometimes back to work from pensions are the most important ones. The key initiatives and reforms addressing this domain are to a great extent the same as in the middle transitions, now with a bigger role for health services, National Insurance, Private Insurance and re-education institutes. There are several initiatives addressing the issue of prolonging working careers, Working Life 2020, with emphasis on the innovation and quality of working life serving as a key example 17 The pension reform is being prepared in a special working group, and the new law is due to take effect sometime in 2017, so at the moment there is a waiting period concerning the framework in this regard concerning the pension age

6 3. Key initiatives in the different transition periods 3.1. The Youth Guarantee An intermediary evaluation has been made on the Finnish Youth Guarantee. 19 It is not an evaluation in the narrow sense, but intended as research support for the implementation of the YG. Research support has provided monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the youth guarantee during its first year, as well as development of the indicators used in evaluating the effectiveness of the programme. The results are based on analysis of written material, register research, questionnaires and interviews, as well as youth workshops. It is necessary to note, however, that evidence on real impact of the YG is still rather limited, as the follow-up period is short. According to the evaluation the overall implementation of the YG has progressed reasonably well, with some delays in the first half-year, and still a rather uneven level of implementation, especially concerning the municipalities. The PES reform running parallel to the YG has caused some delays, as also the differences in capabilities and economies of the municipalities. In some municipalities and regions the capabilities and networks have been good to start with, in some instances the networks for YG start practically from scratch. Accodding to the evaluation, the results show that most respondents were familiar with the concept of the youth guarantee, but both young people and employers need more substantial information about its contents. The general opinion according to the study is that successful delivery of the youth guarantee is achievable to a fairly high degree, and even more so in the near future. Implementation of the educational guarantee policy is considered more plausible, than implementing other services and measures proposed in the programme. The programme has been most successfully implemented in the municipal youth services, including workshops and outreach youth work, whereas the social, health and rehabilitation services fall shortest of the required implementation level. The programme has improved the internal co-operation within organizations providing youth services. Co-operation with educational institutions and employers has also increased. There is, however, still a need for developing multi-occupational practices for co-operation and co-operation with employers. Although most of the young people and employers participating in the study were not directly affected by the youth guarantee programme, they still considered the youth guarantee generally beneficial for young people. As a result of the programme, young people are better catered for in terms of services offered to them. The youth guarantee programme has resulted in improved resources for youth services, improved selection of services for young people and better referral practices. Youth participation in the actual planning the services has not increased to any notable degree

7 The effects of the programme are expected to become stronger in the future. According to the evaluation, in implementing the programme, focus should be placed on co-ordinated, mutually agreed and adaptable local-regional-specific models for co-operation. A deeper knowledge on the actual impact of the programme is still lacking. In order for the indicators used in monitoring the effects of the youth guarantee programme to be applicable, it is vital that indicator data collection continues and is regularly updated, and a proper ex post evaluation is conducted. The financial evaluation of the programme did not provide a comprehensive view of the economic effects, since the existing statistics and monitoring of grants, resources and services did not provide sufficient information. Evaluating this is a complex matter. In order to evaluate the economics effects, a revised method of statistical analysis and access to information is required. The key observations of the evaluation of the YG are: The YG has successfully focussed on the intended key target group, namely NEET under 25, who also have been quite well aware of the existence of the YG The implementation across the country, as well as capabilities in handling the YG are still rather uneven, and there is path dependency on the capabilities, which need to be equalised The pressures and cuts on local government have had somewhat adverse effects in some areas of Finland, and this can be expected to worsen if the economic downturn continues The best awareness and implementation has been in municipality youth work, education and youth workshops Youth workshops have been performing well, but unevenly, and quality criteria has been developed for the workshops Youth outreach work (etsivä nuorisotyö) has been successful, but short of resources, and needs better investment Apprenticeship training has not fitted well into YG and needs new ways of support, and connection to educational measures of the youth workshops Connecting social work to the YG needs improvement Youth coordinators are needed in the PES (TE-offices), and securing PES connection to YG needs attention The key recommendations of the evaluation More investment in personal contacts is needed, like in PES More emphasis on the whole service system on the local-regional level, and not just individual services Focussed and tailored social, health and rehabilitation services for those in the most difficult situation Establishing better integrated e-communication systems Expanding the scope of the YG also to repeated drop out and high-school students graduating with poor degrees 7

8 Other feedback on the Youth Guarantee The Social Barometer 2014 contains a rather critical feedback on the results of the YG so far, as well as the results of the PES-reform 20. The respondents were social and health managers in municipalities, managers in National Insurance (Kela), and managers of PES, altogether 300. More than 40% saw that in reducing youth unemployment, the results have been poor or rather poor. About a third saw that the results in promoting employment of graduates, and preventing prolonging of youth unemployment have been poor. What have succeeded are career counselling, increasing education and providing educational, workshop and rehabilitation placements. The respondents also disagreed on who should be responsible for the YG. 29% said PES, 25% municipality educational sector, 20% with the municipality in general and 19% the municipality social sector. It is also worth noting, that a recent study by the Government Institute for Economic Research makes a point that just looking at youth unemployment figures can be misleading, and exaggerates the size of the problem as a considerable share of those registered as unemployed job-seekers are in fact young people studying. 21 This does not mean the concern about the problems of young people is unwarranted, but warns against exaggerating the issue, perhaps at the expense of focussing on that part of youth unemployment, that really is a problem, or other, even more pressing issues. Conclusions concerning the Youth Guarantee The results of YG so far seem to point to a relatively successful campaigning effect, i.e. the Guarantee is fairly well know, and has targeted those groups it was designed for. Cooperation of key actors has increased, as the awareness of the youth issue among stakeholders. Most results are gained in the education and counselling domain, i.e. more counselling, more educational offers, more outreach and youth workshops. Less success has been in the employment domain, actually reducing youth unemployment. This probably reflects the general downturn of the economy, and it is impossible to assess at this point the actual role of the YG for the better or worse within this. As it was said above, the most natural local coordinator role in the first transitions falls for municipalities. This has remained somewhat ambivalent, however, as also pointed out both by the evaluation, and the feedback from the Social Barometer. This ambivalence needs to be clarified, as the most important actors, municipalities, PES and LAFOS all are under reconstruction, and there are also major upcoming initiatives concerning the development of career counselling, which concerns the same actors to a large degree. With limited resources, Finland cannot afford overlapping and confusing networks and coordination responsibilities

9 3.2. The PES-reform The reform of public employment services, run by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, has contained an amalgamation and recentralisation of PES into 15 principal PES offices (called TE-offices), and the services have been made into three service lines : (1) Job recruitment and employer services (2) Services for improving skills (2) Subsidised and rehabilitation services, coupled with increasing e-services and multi-channelling. The logic of the reform reflects profiling of customers, which has been used in many European PES s (but has also been abandoned in many of the originators, like the Netherlands, and modified, like in Denmark). Profiling in other countries has not meant setting up actual separate service lines, as it was done in the Finnish reform, so the Finnish solution is somewhat exceptional. The idea has been to clarify the service and the routes for the customer, and meet better customer needs. Also, the division into service lines could have the potential for better and new networking outside, with partners, in the case of service line 1, with employers and companies, in service line 2 with education al institutes, and in line 3, with rehabilitation and activation partners. Coupled with better and up to date use of ICT, multi-channelled service, social media and self-service, more efficient and effective service is aimed for, giving also a possibility of devoting more time for those customers who need more intensive service. This is how the logic of the reform can be read. The results have not so far turned out to be quite what expected. The PES reform has been evaluated by an independent evaluation in February According to the independent evaluation, there were rather considerable problems in launching the PES reform in 2013, especially concerning the e-services and multi-channelling. Coupled with a considerable change in the labour market for the worse, and with reductions and replacements of staff, the results and feedback from customers and partners worsened, and fell short of targets. This is verified also in the regular customer feedback of PES (the ASPA), and key performance indicators of PES. In the beginning of reforms it is quite common that performance falls, as energies go to internal reshuffling. This is what happened in the PES-reform in the first year on implementation in Eventually the teething problems were overcome, but the internal reform orientation has continued. The only service line that has succeeded in developing its external relations in new ways, has been service-line 1, the other two still need to deliver on this key point. This is also reflected in the feedback from partners, also concerning the contribution of PES in the municipality experiment (M- LTU), the YG and the LAFOS reform. The first stage of the PES-reform has meant a certain degree of withdrawal of PES from local operations, and a reduced role in cooperation and coordination. 22 The evaluation was conducted by Tempo Economics Ltd, Arnkil Dialogues and Spangar Negotiations. The evaluation report is not published in the public domain, but available at the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. 9

10 The independent evaluation gave the following recommendations concerning the PES-reform - The whole strategy of the reform needs to be communicated more effectively and clearly internally and externally - Implementing the reform of e-services needs further attention, as does to whole concept of 'multi-channelled services' - The division of labour of the new PES offices (TE-offices) and the regional level (ELYcentres) needs clarification - The reform needs to move from internal focus more to external partnership focus - Staff skills and coping with workload needs attention - Cooperation between the three service lines needs further attention - Management of a 'local whole', including attention to the Youth Guarantee, Local Government reform and the Municipality Employment experiment, needs attention The reform has continued in 2014 with mostly an internal focus, however. The six reform pillars of the PES reform were defined in 2013 by the Steering Group of the reform as (1) customer processes, (2) ICT services and phone services (3) staff skills (4) knowledge management ( management windows ), (5) communication, both social media and internal (6) development of PES-office management teams. These all make sense of course, but have a strong internal focus. The strategy spelled out by the Steering Group of the PES-reform of the continuation of the reform, seems to verify that the focus remains mostly internal. The key points for continuation were identified as (1) Well-being at work, (2) Customer processes (3) Dialogue between internal forums (4) Wise outsourcing (5) ICT services (6) Phone services (7) Establishing 3-5 Strategic indicators 8) Enhancing communication 23. There is no mention of new innovation or focus on cooperation with external partners, and the other on-going reforms, the Municipality reform, the M-LTU, Youth Guarantee and LAFOS. Whereas some aspects of these are routinely dealt with in the actual practical work in the field, it is nevertheless characteristic, that the PES-reform is not paying explicit attention to these. Other feedback on the PES-reform The Social Barometer 2014 contained a rather critical feedback on the results of the PES-reform 24. The first service line, job recruitment and services for employers has succeeded the best, but 40% of respondents say that the service for people in a vulnerable position in the labour market became weaker. The biggest reason has been a reduction in staff at the same time as unemployment has increased. 65% of respondents said that the present staff is inadequate to reduce structural unemployment, and thus prolonging and defragmenting working careers is in danger. 23 Strategy and Development of PES. Summary by coordinator Olli Vihanta

11 Conclusions on the PES reform The launch of the PES reform was not particularly successful, and the problems have been exasperated by the rising unemployment and reduction of PES staff. After the teething problems the reform has stabilised, but the focus remains internal, and this poses a threat to the innovation potential of the reform. There is quite clear indication that the first stage of the reform has reduced stakeholder collaboration on the local level and in the on-going reforms of municipalities, LAFOS and M-LTU. The most successful part of the reform has been the service line 1, with an emphasis on employers. This is of course important, but without success in the two others, these results are in danger of being wasted. In the domain of service line 2, training and skill development, there is considerable activity and development in the networks of counselling, so the position of PES in this development needs to be clarified. The service line 3, rehabilitation, has the biggest challenges, and is exposed to all the threats described in this paper. With the strengthening of LAFOS and the role of municipalities in employment, it becomes an open question is a line 3 in PES needed at all, why not merge it with LAFOS + other municipality employment activities. There is also a threat of overly splitting the labour markets and services into two, with PES concentrating too much to the better end, and leaving the municipalities to deal with the more challenging questions. All in all, a more collaborative and integrated approach and implementation is called for The Municipality Experiment on Long-term unemployed It seems that Finland has arrived at an era, where state-run PES is somewhat withdrawing from local cooperation, and a bigger role for municipalities in labour market matters, especially at the more difficult end, is on offer. There is of course logic in increasing the role of municipalities at the more trouble end of the labour market, and concerning people with multiple problems in entering the labour market and/or sustaining employment. As the Nordic municipality has a strong autonomy and broad responsibilities, ranging from economic development, to education, social services, health, rehabilitation, culture and employment, it is in a better position, and also has a strong societal mandate to take a comprehensive look at the labour market challenges and coordinate holistic services. But this offer is also rife with dangers and traps. The principal danger is splitting the services too heavily between the state-run PES and municipal employment services, so that PES concentrates overly on the more job-ready end of the labour market, and municipalities are given the task of dealing with the long-term unemployment and the difficult multiple problems of customers and the labour market. This kind of a split, if meaning a reduction of cooperation, coupled with inadequate resources for municipalities, probably spells disaster. This is not the first time more responsibility for the more difficult end of the labour market is been shifted to the municipalities in Finland, and similar developments are occurring in many other EU countries. At the beginning of 2000 a new cooperation unit between PES, municipalities and National Insurance was established called Labour Force Service Centres (LAFOS, see below), and 11

12 incentives for municipalities to take a more active role in active labour market policy were put in place. Now increasing the role of municipalities in active labour market policies, especially concerning the more difficult challenges, arrives a second time in the form of the Municipality Experiment for LTU. In the Municipality Experiment for Long Term Unemployed (M-LTU), 29 pilot municipalities have been chosen in October In the municipality pilot project the aim is to reduce long-term unemployment by developing coordination, assessment, planning and follow up of services for longterm unemployed. Government has given 20 million euro for these projects. The target group are long term unemployed that have exhausted their 500 days of labour market support, or have been unemployed for a year. The time is being now reduced to 300 days. The PES-reform, especially the third service line, and the reform of LAFOS, coincide with the M- LTU, and there is considerable overlap, and still unclear responsibilities and division of labour. LAFOS is the acronym for Labour Force Service Centres in English, TYP in Finnish. LAFOS has been around for over a decade already. The core idea is to link a holistic service provided by LAFOS for those with multiple problems to a network of services and intermediate labour markets. Intermediate labour markets (ILM) refers to an intermediate bridge between unemployment and open market, consisting of a variety of measures and players, including temporary work, subsidised employment, work practice, work in social enterprises and voluntary organisations. LAFOS provides services for those customer groups who have multiple problems in entering/reentering the labour market (skills, health, income, social problems) and who could benefit from a more holistic service, using different service providers to build competences and coping. LAFOS consists of a joint effort of three institutions: (1) officials from PES and (2) municipality social and (3) Social Insurance of Finland. The employment offices and municipalities each provide 50% of staff (and then there is, with various arrangements, input provided by the Social Insurance Institution and health services from municipalities). There is a proposal, as a part of the National Government Programme, to clarify the tasks and position of LAFOS by new legislation 25, and extend LAFOS to the whole country. The intention is that there must be at least one LAFOS in each of the areas of the 15 new PES offices, and that they will be steered by the municipalities (in collaboration). So LAFOS is in fact on offer to be an important coordinator and deliverer of services at the difficult end of the labour market. So before the results of the M-LTU, the LAFOS is being strengthened. This has caused some confusion, especially in the LAFOS, where the staff viewed the M-LTU in the beginning as a competitor, and in the M-LTU, and in some instances the cooperation between PES, LAFOS and the M- LTU was disrupted in the beginning. Despite all these confusions and overlaps, the M-LTU seems to have gained positive momentum

13 The M-LTU has been evaluated by an independent evaluation in February In the evaluation of the implementation of the M-LTU, one the key observations has been, that the M-LTU has been successfully launched and is now in 2014 a dynamic phase. Employment has risen on the agenda in Municipal decision making in the local authorities implementing the M-LTU. This is of course important for the future of the increased role for municipalities in employment. Local cooperating in tackling unemployment has improved in the M-LTU areas, but the activity and role of the PES and health services of the municipalities needs improvement. The PES reform has sucked the energies of the PES, and the centralisation of PES to 15 can lead to a reduction in local affairs. According to the evaluation, there is potentially a new 'local partnership model' on tackling unemployment in the making, and there are some good examples across the country, but the development is still very uneven, and needs attention to really deliver. Also many aspects of personalised customer service and service process have been identified, but more attention is needed on a holistic management of the whole customer flow, in terms of case-management and the entire work force in the area. There has been also been a considerable amount of peer learning in the M-LTU, facilitated by the Association of Local and Regional Authorities, which, again, is important for the sustainability and spread of results in the future. Conclusions on the M-LTU This is a very early stage to make any strong conclusions on the success of the M-LTU. It seems that the dynamic so far has been positive. The future does not necessarily look clear, however. Dealing with the LTU and difficult customer situation calls sustainability and extremely good cooperation between all the actors and stakeholders dealing with all the transitions identified in the beginning ranging from school drop out prevention and NEET, to later transitions to work, from unemployment, from family and sickness periods, from re-education etc. Unless such good cooperation is reached between PES, municipalities, LAFOS, voluntary organisations and the business community, concerning the whole flow of transition, the results of the M-LTU are in danger. As if there were not enough initiatives concerning municipalities and services concerning education, health, employment, there is yet another reform and pilot initiative, this time by the Ministry of Finance (MoF). 27 The topics in the initiative are (1) Integrated action model in welfare (new customer oriented models, action plans and multi-professional processes) on the local level) (2) Ex final.pdf

14 periments in educational services (using networks on education after basic education) (3) Household and living services for aged, disabled and special groups (4) License and control matters (5) Coordination of municipalities and National Insurance (in social benefits etc.) (6) Cooperation models in the Youth Guarantee. Particularly topics 1, 2 and 6 concern the cooperation and transitions addressed by the reforms analysed in this paper, and opens up the question how this initiative is coordinated with the other initiatives, so that it adds value. 4. Summary The topic of this paper has been to analyse the local coherence of topical reforms in Finland concerning employment. It has been a brief analysis of the collaboration at local level and the coherence between the Youth Guarantee, the PES reform and the Municipality Experiments on Long- Term unemployment, with also some mention of the reforms in Life-Long Learning and Guidance, which both provide and important connection and backdrop to understand the challenges of the three reforms. It was pointed out in the beginning, that the labour markets and careers have become transitional labour markets (TLM) and the reforms touch upon various transitions at various stages, with many mutual connections, overlap and need of cooperation. In fact, there are so many reforms going on, concerning to a great degree the same actors, but without a clear knowledge of each other, and without a clear understanding how the steering and coordination is to be arranged. The playing field and connections can be illustrated with the figure 2. Figure 2: Transitions, reforms and connections 14

15 Firsttransi*ons First YouthGuarantee CareerGuidance reform educa,on NEET Further educa*on Ac*va*on Middletransi*ons PES,LAFOS, Family care Work Immigra*on Return towork Un9 employment Sickness Training Latertransi*ons PES,LAFOS, LTU,pension reforms Pensions Re9training Changeof work Re9 employment It has pointed out in this paper, that In Finland, like in all of the Nordic countries, the local authority, municipalities, is a strong player, and all reforms concerning well-being of citizens, rehabilitation, health, social affairs, education or employment must be reconciled and embraced at the local level, where the municipality itself is in a key role to facilitate collaboration. As such, all of these analysed reforms are needed and make sense in the Finnish context, both in the short and longer term. But it is the observation in this paper, based on first evaluations of the reforms, and other material, that the three reforms are at the moment not well particularly connected. Attention to clarifying roles, steering and division of labour in needed, and a holistic and a comprehensive view and collaboration on the whole of transition support needs to be established, with special attention to the coordinating role, resources and capabilities of municipalities, and their partners. Summary Table: Transitions, actors, reforms and observations Transitions Actors Reforms Observations First transitions Municipality educational Youth Guarantee Success in terms of - back to basic institutions, so- cooperation in educa- education cial work, outreach, Career and Life-Long tion and outreach, - activation from PES, career guidance, learning systems im- less in employment 15

16 NEET - into further education - into jobs - immigrant activation Middle transitions - into work - job-to-job - from unemployment - from family period - from sickness - from reeducation youth workshops, voluntary organisations, employers provement Open questions of coordination PES, LAFOS, Municipality services (social, health, education, rehabilitation), National Insurance, further education and skill training institutes, voluntary organisations, private sector PES reform Municipality reform LAFOS reform M-LTU Career and Life-Long learning systems improvement Partial Work Capacity (PWC) programme and pilots Social benefit activation reform PES reform not yet successfully delivered, internal orientation Municipality reform unaccomplished LAFOS reform designed, not yet accomplished Career guidance cooperation improved, but open questions M-LTU dynamically on way, but with challenges PWC no results yet Social benefit reform not designed yet Same as above, plus pension reform not designed yet Later transitions - change of work - re-training - rehabilitation - to pensions - from pensions Municipality services (social, health, education, rehabilitation), National Insurance, private insurance, pension institutes, further education and skill training institutes, voluntary organisations, private sector PES reform Municipality reform LAFOS reform M-LTU Career and Life-Long learning systems improvement Partial Work Capacity programme and pilots Pension reform Sources Arnkil, R., Spangar, T., Jokinen, E., Tuusa, M. And Pitkänen, S. (2014) Kohti uutta paikallislähtöistä työllisyyttä edistävää kumppanuusmallia. Kuntakokeilun seurantatutkimuksen 1. väliraportti. (Towards New Locally Driven Partnerships in Promoting Employment. First interrmediary report). ti_ final.pdf read

17 Gazier, B. and Gautie, J. (2011) "The Transitional Labour Markets Approach: Theory, History and Future Research Agenda," Journal of Economic and Social Policy: Vol. 14: Iss. 1, Article 6. Available at: Hämäläinen, U. and Tuomala, J. (2013) Faktaa nuorisotyöttömyydestä (Facts about youth unemployment), VATT Policy Brief. Tuusa, M., Pitkänen, S., Shemeikka, R., Korkeamäki, J., Harju, H., Saaares, a., Pulliainen, M., Kettunen, A. and Piirainen, K. (2013) Yhdessä tekeminen tuottaa tuloksia. Nuorisotakuun tutkimuksellisen tuen loppuraportti. (Cooperation Gives Results. Final Report of Research Support for the Youth Guarantee) news read Valtakari, M., Karinen, R., Eronen, A., Arnkil, R. And Spangar, T. (2014) Tutkimuksellinen kehittämistyön tuki työ- ja elinkeinopalvelu-uudistuksen tukena. Loppuraportti Tempo Economics. (Reseach Support for the Reform of Public Employment Services. Final Report.) Unpublished Report, available at the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. Vihanta, O. (2014) TE-palvelujen strategiaa ja kehittämistä. (Strategy and Development of PES). Powerpoint Unpublished. Interviews and discussions Lindberg, Erja, general secretary of the Municipality Experiment for Long-Term Unemployed (M- LTU) Kietäväinen, Timo, deputy-ceo of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities Leminen, Ari-Pekka, adviser in development of Counselling. Ministry of Employment and the Economy Ruth, Kimmo, senior adviser, chairman of the Youth Guarantee steering committee. Ministry of Employment and the Economy Vihanta, Olli, coordinator of the Finnish PES-reform. Ministry of Employment and the Economy 17