Salo: Further education for people with intellectual disabilities - A description of an HuIA process

Background

The joint municipal board for education in the Salo area has organised special education for people with intellectual disabilities. As there are currently more pupils in education than official pupil places, more places are needed. A precondition for organising education for people with intellectual disabilities is the right to provide vocational education or education that prepares for independent living. The joint municipal board has not previously had this right. This type of education is thus under threat of being discontinued.

The director of social work received an appeal for the continuation of special needs education in February 2006. Making use of HuIA, the director drafted the issue for consideration by the Basic Security Committee.

The HuIA process and participants

In addition to the draftsman, i.e. the director of social work, the assessment process involved the director of basic security, the director of elderly care, the director of early childhood education and the financial director. The process took altogether about 1.5 hours, including the draftsman's preparatory work and consideration by the basic security management group at their specific HuIA meeting.

The alternatives were identified during the draftsman's preparatory work. The impacts were dealt with in a group. Efforts were made to examine the impacts from several points of view.

Alternatives and impacts

The following alternatives were looked at:

Alternative 0: Further education for people with intellectual disabilities will be discontinued in Salo

Alternative 1: The joint municipal board for education will apply for and be granted the right to organise education for people with intellectual disabilities and also additional student places

The impacts of the alternatives were assessed from the points of view of people with intellectual disabilities, their families, the City, the Basic Security Committee and municipal finances.

See the table

Consideration by the Committee

The matter was considered by the Basic Security Committee on 26 April 2006. The HuIA summary table was attached to the Committee minutes. The Basic Security Committee decided to give an opinion to the joint municipal board for education, stating that further education for people with intellectual disabilities should be guaranteed in the Salo area.

Further information