Tasks and Services
Finland has an extensive welfare state, and municipalities are responsible for much of the services to that end. Tasks of the municipalities are as follows:
- Healthcare
- Preventative, basic and specialized healthcare
- Dental healthcare
- Social services
- Children's daycare
- Elderly care
- Disabled care
- Social welfare service
- Subsistency security
- Child protection
- Education (see Education in Finland) and culture
- Peruskoulu (primary education, grades 1-9)
- Lukio (gymnasiums)
- Ammattioppilaitos (secondary vocational schools)
- Ammattikorkeakoulu (tertiary vocational schools)
- Kansanopisto (folk high school)
- Public libraries
- Youth centres
- Public exercise facilities (public tracks, etc.)
- Infrastructure and land use
- Zoning
- Public transport
- Maintenance of local streets
- Water
- Energy
- Waste collection
- Environment
- Economic development
- Promotion of the local economy and employment
Although municipalities are responsible for their own finances, there is much highly specific legistlation and regulation that requires the services to be provided up to a standard. Thus, although municipalities have the power to voluntarily spend tax-generated income, they are required to first allocate funds to legally prescribed services.
Municipalities may provide some of these services through corporations that they own or from private companies that they regulate. For example, Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (HSL) provides public transport services in the capital area.
Read more about this topic: Municipalities Of Finland
Famous quotes containing the words tasks and/or services:
“Personal change, growth, development, identity formation—these tasks that once were thought to belong to childhood and adolescence alone now are recognized as part of adult life as well. Gone is the belief that adulthood is, or ought to be, a time of internal peace and comfort, that growing pains belong only to the young; gone the belief that these are marker events—a job, a mate, a child—through which we will pass into a life of relative ease.”
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)
“Working women today are trying to achieve in the work world what men have achieved all along—but men have always had the help of a woman at home who took care of all the other details of living! Today the working woman is also that woman at home, and without support services in the workplace and a respect for the work women do within and outside the home, the attempt to do both is taking its toll—on women, on men, and on our children.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)