Valvira The National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health Supervision in Finland and Evaluation of Valvira 20th EPSO conference Helsinki, Finland September 29th, 2015 Petri Huovinen

Introduction The Context The Aim of the Evaluation The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health was the prime mover The ministry chose Owalgroup as supplier for the evaluation process as result of a tender process. Owalgroup Ltd. is a finnish consulting company. It has executed different kind of evaluations concerning the public sector (e.g. questions of relevance, efficiency and effectiveness) Time of implementation of the evaluation: 01/2015 – 05/2015 The Aim of the Evaluation to evaluate how the goals, which were set for Valvira when it was established in 2009, have been achieved to evaluate the efficiency and effectiviness of Valvira’s functions to collect suggestions for further development 6.4.2019 Petri Huovinen

The frame of reference and the methods of the evaluation Institutional Evaluation The Methods used Document analysis Interviews of most relevant stakeholders Key members of management External stakeholders, e.g. key persons from the ministry, Regional State Administrative Agencies, Clients, interest groups, etc. Two Group Discussions for the Staff Members Four electronic Surveys for most important Stakeholders The evaluators got also quite a lot of spontaneous feedback during the evaluation process 6.4.2019 Petri Huovinen

Main conclusions Streamlining the Administration in Valvira The trend of development is positive The departments of Valvira are still relatively independent The processes, procedures and practices could be more standardized between the departments One reason behind different operational practices is the legislation, which sets different kind of requirements for substances The Efficiency of Resource Allocation The efficiency of support functions has improved There is not enough flexibility in resource allocation between the departments Thinking about the whole public sector, it is noteworthy, that the resources of supervision are fragmented to several organisation Most of the resources are allocated to the Regional State Administrative Agencies It has a significant impact on flexibility in the use of resources The processes must be modernized and digitalized to improve the efficiency of resource allocation 6.4.2019 Petri Huovinen

Main conclusions Focus towards proactiveness in Supervision This has been clear strategic goal for Valvira for several years - many stakeholders feel that progress is being made Concrete methods so far Licencing Promote self-monitoring as an effective form of supervision Information guidance It has been difficult to achieve significant progress towards proactive and risk-based supervision because of the increasing amount of individual cases of ex-post monitoring Risk assesment is in key role in developing proactive supervision So far the knowledge base for risk assesment is inadequate and there is also lack of common risk factors / indicators Equality of the Objects of Supervision Valvira pays in all its activities attention to equality of citizens and both private and public actors (e.g. licence-holders) Valvira’s aim is to ensure the harmonisation of guidance, licensing and supervisory practices across Finland Progress has been made in harmonisation, but the work has not been completed 6.4.2019 Petri Huovinen

Main conclusions The effectiviness of Valvira Compared to resources available, fragmented entity of tasks and inadequate knowledge base for supervision, the effectiviness is at a good level Customers and stakeholders are primarily satisfied with Valvira’s expertise Cooperation with the Regional State Administrative Agencies Valvira is tasked with providing guidance to the Regional State Administrative Agencies on all social and health care related matters In practise this task is quite problematic, because Valvira does not have sufficiently effective tools to control the Regional State Administrative Agencies 6.4.2019 Petri Huovinen

Main recommendations The evaluation recommends a revision of the legislation on Valvira the legislation should allow (better than now) allocation of supervision according to risk assesment and prioritization of individual cases The resources and possibilities of Valvira to strengthen the knowledge base of supervision should be improved The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health along with other ministries should strengthen Valvira’s control in relation to the Regional State Administrative Agencies The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health should develop the performance management process and set up structures for genuine dialogue between the experts in Valvira and in the ministry It should be considered, if the complex entity of Valvira’s tasks could be simplifyed Efforts to transfer focus towards proactive supervision must be continued The systematic reform of working methods as part of the Sampo project must be continued Valvira should set up co-operation structures for genuine dialogue with most important stakeholders 6.4.2019 Petri Huovinen

EPSO Peer evaluations vs. the evaluation of Valvira The Scope and Approach EPSO: 13 key areas that were considered to be standards (based on ISO standards) Valvira: not publicly expressed standards – some general standards and good practices were utilized Methods Both included document analysis, interviews and group discussions EPSO: samples of work were reviewed Valvira: electronic surveys The aim of the evaluation Valvira: Defined by the Ministry EPSO: The aim is mostly based on the standards 6.4.2019 Petri Huovinen