Research project SOTEPALA
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has granted EUR 994,000 in funding to the research project SOTEPALA led by the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County. The project studies the targeting of social welfare and healthcare services of school-age children.
Timely and smooth support for schoolchildren and families
The two-year research project was launched at the beginning of 2024. It is a unique project, providing results towards the end of 2025.
The SOTEPALA seminar will be held on 10 December 2025 at Dipoli in Espoo. You can also join the seminar via Teams.
The objective of the SOTEPALA research project is to examine the well-being of schoolchildren as a whole: data on children’s need for support at school are compared with data on the use of social welfare and healthcare services. This type of review is being conducted for the first time in the world and through it, the following five key research questions can be answered:
- Do children who have a client relationship with social welfare attend school healthcare check-ups as comprehensively as children who do not have a client relationship with social welfare?
- How are the services of school healthcare, school psychologists, school social workers and social welfare targeted at children who need special support at school or who are absent from school a lot? And how are the services targeted according to the lifestyles and symptoms reported by the children themselves?
- How does attending school healthcare check-ups predict the use of other health and social services in the wellbeing services county?
- What kinds of factors facilitate and, on the other hand, hinder cooperation between professionals from different fields in Southern Finland?
- What is the cost-benefit of social and healthcare services for school-age children and can under- and over-use of services that increases costs be detected?
The results of the study will be published in the field’s international scientific journals and they will be widely communicated to the population of the participating wellbeing services counties.
The research funding is part of the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland (RRP). In addition to Western Uusimaa, the research project will be implemented by the City of Helsinki and the other wellbeing services counties of Southern Finland (Vantaa-Kerava, Central Uusimaa, Eastern Uusimaa, Kymenlaakso, South Karelia and Päijät-Häme), the centres of excellence on social welfare Socca and Verso, as well as the University of Helsinki, Aalto University and HUS.
The research project consists of three parts:
- a register study, in which data are collected from each wellbeing services county on school absences among primary school pupils, the need for support, and the use of services in the wellbeing services county;
- a survey study, in which pupils and guardians have been able to share their views on health checks in grades 5 and 8; and
- focus group interviews, where researchers have interviewed professionals about opportunities, challenges and development needs of multidisciplinary collaboration.
Additional information: Research Director Silja Kosola, silja.kosola@luvn.fi
Team of researchers
Electronic consent signature for the survey study
Participants in the study must sign a consent form to participate in the study. Below are the links to the electronic consent form (requires strong authentication). Dear parent/guardian of a 5th or 8th grader, please sign the consent form first and then answer the survey below.