The Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Left Party recently announced an agreement on "welfare without profit motive". A commission will submit proposals on how the revenue can be limited in firms producing publicly financed services, such as health care, education and elderly care. This was the topic of a speech by Ardalan Shekarabi, Minister for Public Administration, at a seminar organized by the SNS. Instead of profit vs non-profit in the welfare sector, he said, we should discuss how to implement "a control system that drives quality". Shekarabis talk was commented by Henrik Jordahl, IFN, Jonas Vlachos, Stockholm University and IFN, Thomas Berglund, Capio, and Lars Henriksson, Stockholm School of Economics.
In the picture from left Henrik Jordahl, Jonas Vlachos, Lars Henriksson and Thomas Berglund in a discussion about how future welfare services might be produced.
Henrik Jordahl explained that if the welfare sector will be evaluated to increase the quality, evaluations must be done at a detail level. He stated that services in different part of the welfare industry must be viewed separately. No one is ever the same. And to further the undertakings, quality and costs must be measured and linked together.
The seminar room at SNS was jam-packed. Jonas Vlachos, Stockholm University and affiliated to IFN, argued that it is difficult to find a regulatory model suitable for all categories of producers in the welfare service sector. Vlachos research primarily focuses on education and schools.
Read the speech by Ardalan Shekarabis in which he gave references to the essay "Vinst och privatiseringar I landet lagom" by Magnus Henrekson and Henrik Jordahl, IFN.
