Child welfare indicators in Finland - state of affairs

1 Background In 2011 a cross-administrative working group under the Finnish Board of Education composed a proposal on the development of child welfare indicators in Finland. The working group consisted of representatives of e.g. the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Ministry of Education and Culture, Statistics Finland, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Prime Minister’s Office and the Association of Finnish Municipalities. The proposal describes the state of affairs as well as brings up new ideas. The proposed indicators are to cover the age brackets up to 16-17 years. However, there is also separate indicator work in Finland focusing on youth welfare indicators. This short description does not address that work. Purposes the indicator work The purposes of the child welfare indicators are threefold:  to monitor the children’s rights in compliance with the UN Child Right Convention  to monitor how the goals set to the development of child welfare in compliance the government programmes  to support the monitoring of child welfare at the level of local governments