User Involvement in a Nordic Perspective

Social intervention is an important cornerstone of the Nordic social welfare state model. This ranges from interventions for people with substance abuse problems to support in everyday life for people with disabilities. Empowering users to influence the design and contents of the services they receive has become an increasing priority for the social welfare systems in the Nordic countries. User involvement and influence can take place at many different levels and via a variety of methods, depending upon the legislation and the way in which services are organised. There are also several different concepts used in addition to user involvement and participation.

User organisations often play a central role in making user involvement and influence a reality.

Back in 2018, Árni Páll Árnasson, a former Icelandic Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security presented a review of the social sector and how it can be strengthened. The review, Knowledge that Works in Practice, concluded that there was a need for a heightened focus on taking the user perspective into consideration in the design and development of social welfare services. Many interventions are not designed according to the needs or preferences of users and the user’s perspective often has a weak position compared to traditional science when evaluating interventions.

In this project, the Nordic Welfare Centre will look at some aspects and then present these in a knowledge synthesis.

Some examples of questions that can be answered in the report:

• What Nordic research presently exists on the effects of user involvement in developing social welfare services?
• What methods are used in the Nordic countries to evaluate user involvement and influence?
• How and what is known about how user involvement is used for real change, and which factors are particularly important?
• What are the similarities and differences in the organisation and governance of user involvement between the Nordic countries, and why? Similarly, what are the similarities and differences between the diverse vulnerable groups?
• What are the knowledge gaps in the Nordic countries on user involvement, with a focus on methods and evaluations?
• How can user involvement as an area be strengthened nationally and in the Nordic countries? Are there new methods, for example in social innovation, that can be strengthened?