Social services in sparsely populated areas – municipal co-operation with digital support
Welfare Technology
The organisation of social services in the Nordic countries has many similarities. Regardless of how they are organised, there are a number of common challenges. One such challenge is that sparsely populated municipalities often have difficulty recruiting and retaining staff. The ability to recruit social services workers with the right skills varies, and in sparsely populated municipalities there are often fewer applicants who meet the qualification requirements than in larger municipalities. In these areas, it can be difficult to maintain expertise in legislation, guidelines and the specific handling of complex cases, but also access to digital solutions for citizens. Inter-municipal co-operation in sparsely populated areas can be one way of addressing these challenges.
The Nordic Welfare Centre is running a project that aims to map and disseminate knowledge about co-operation between municipalities in social services, with a focus on individual and family care in sparsely populated areas with the support of digital services. The project, which is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, will run 2025-2026.
The project consists of two mappings
1. Survey of Nordic research in this field in the Nordic countries
2. Survey of good examples in this field in sparsely populated areas in the Nordic countries
Mapping and compiling research
The Nordic Welfare Centre has commissioned the Nordic Research Network: Health and Welfare Technology (HWT) to map and compile Nordic research. The work is being carried out through a so-called scooping review of published scientific articles and grey literature in the following thematic areas:
• Internal digitalisation – in-house services in social services organisations
• External digitalisation – digital services for citizens
• Internal/external digitalisation supported by AI
The work is led by Professor Christine Gustafsson, Sophiahemmet University College, and Senior Lecturer Sylvia Olsson, Mälardalen University.
Mapping of good examples
The mapping of good examples or model regions/municipalities is led by senior advisors at the Nordic Welfare Centre in collaboration with national representatives from the Nordic countries and includes
• Internal digitisation – digital solutions for employees or organisations. For example, joint municipal documentation systems/diary systems. A concrete example is 14 municipalities in northern Sweden that have procured the same system, which means that staff from one municipality can work in/provide support to the neighbouring municipality.
• External digitisation – digital solutions for citizens, for example where all municipalities within a region have a shared platform for e-services directly to citizens.
• Internal/external digitisation supported by AI. Examples include internal governance, decision support and organisational development supported by AI in individual and family care.
Expected results and effects
The project is expected to result in increased knowledge about the effects of inter-municipal co-operation within social services, with a focus on individual and family care in sparsely populated areas with the support of digital services, and to contribute with good examples. The project contributes to the exchange of Nordic experience, which is expected to lead to more sparsely populated municipalities seeing the benefits of inter-municipal co-operation in sparsely populated areas with the support of digital services. Furthermore, it is expected to contribute to social workers in sparsely populated areas developing and maintaining their skills.
Timetable
The project will run from March 2025 to June 2026, and a report with the results will be published in June 2026.
