Government plans to remove family counselling mandate, sparking fears of service cuts

Finland’s government is preparing legislation that would remove the statutory obligation for wellbeing services counties to provide educational and family counselling, raising fears among professionals that family support services could be scaled back under budget pressure. The matter was reported by Yle.

Under the proposed reform, decisions about which services to offer families with children would be left increasingly to each wellbeing services county. Services such as family counselling centres, known in Finnish as perheneuvolat, would no longer be required by law. Instead, support would be channelled through a new family services model that is still in its early stages of development.

Maria Wahlstedt, a social worker at a family counselling centre in the Helsinki metropolitan area and chair of the educational and family counselling social workers’ association Kapene ry, part of the trade union Talentia, says the proposed change is causing widespread concern in the sector.

“I see the risk that if the statutory obligation is removed, wellbeing services counties will, under financial pressure, abandon this type of low-threshold early support service,” Wahlstedt said.

Family counselling centres currently help an estimated 50,000 families per year. Families can access the service directly without a referral. Wahlstedt describes the range of issues they deal with: “We see a lot of parents of restless children who are seeking help with parenting and how to interact with their child. We also help with children’s fears and anxiety, difficult separation situations and co-parenting.”

Heta Kulla-Mykkänen, a senior specialist at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health who has been involved in preparing the legislation, says the reform is intended to move away from a fixed statutory service menu toward a more comprehensive model that better responds to the needs of children and families. She argues the changes would be necessary even without any savings targets, as the current system bounces clients between services and does not adequately reflect the varying needs of families across different parts of Finland.

“It would be entirely possible to continue using the familiar methods, working practices and professional expertise of educational and family counselling” within the new model, Kulla-Mykkänen said, adding that wellbeing services counties would still be free to maintain services they consider effective.

Trade unions representing workers in educational and family counselling have criticised the proposal, warning that removing the statutory basis for the service puts it at risk of being dismantled. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is currently gathering consultation responses on the draft legislation.