Well-being services counties (WBSC) are responsible for organizing health, social and rescue services for their residents and they get their funding from the state budget. WBSCs have to balance their budgets within three years, otherwise the Ministry of Finance (MoF) may initiate an evaluation procedure.
The WBSCs were established in 2023 and they began their first years with deficits. In the summer of 2025, MoF decided to launch the evaluation procedure in three of the WBSCs that are financially more vulnerable. The purpose of the process is to ensure WBSC’s capacity to organize the services. When the process is ongoing the WBSC is not allowed to make long term financial or other commitments, which limits their self-governance.
An evaluation team lead by an independent chairperson and including representatives from the WBSC, MoF, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, and Ministry of Interior will provide recommendations on how to stabilize the county’s financial situation. The reports are expected by the summer of 2026. The team will also take a stand on an assessment of the regional division, initiated after the evaluation process if seen necessary. The process can lead to, for instance, merging the financially underperforming WBSC with a neighbouring WBSC.
MoF is also preparing a temporary regulatory change which would allow some WBSCs additional time to cover deficits that were created before 2025 with a deadline of end of 2028. This would apply to those WBSCs, that have successfully improved their financial situation (no new deficit in 2025) but have difficulties to fully balance their budget by the end of 2026 without risking the service system performance.