A meeting of the Equality Committee on 26 January 2022.

The meeting discussed the following issues.

On 13 September 2021, Ira Tanskanen-Hietanen, together with 43 other councillors, submitted a council initiative, which proposes that Espoo prepares its own child strategy and action plan to ensure the comprehensive implementation of children’s rights and guidance on child impact assessment. This guidance and additional information on child impact assessment can be found, for example, on the website of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

The Equality Committee considered the council initiative to be highly important and worthy of support. At its meeting on 26 January 2022, the Committee examined the statements on the initiative made by the Disability Council and the Growth and Learning Committee, which were thorough. The Committee had an in-depth discussion on the initiative and prepared a statement on the matter.

In addition to the previous statements, the Committee adds that the situation of children and families belonging to minorities must be made visible, for example through various surveys and targeted data collection methods. We know very little about the opportunities for children belonging to minority families to engage in hobbies, enjoy a sense of security, experience inclusion and belonging in the school community, to name but a few. Our understanding of the realisation of children’s rights in Espoo must be up-to-date. We must further develop the competence of staff and elected officials, for example through training. The Child-Friendly Municipality programme supports the implementation and monitoring of the child strategy. The child strategy is a good way to make city services more visible and to improve them when an Espoo resident is ready to start a family.

Promoting the health and well-being of its residents is one of the key tasks of the municipality. In Espoo, the welfare report and plan are compiled once a council term in cooperation between various sectors. Statements will be requested from the Elderly Council, Disability Council, Equality Committee and the Youth Council before the matter will be discussed by the Committees, the City Board and the City Council. In addition to the Welfare report and plan 2022–2025, the statement request also included three age-specific welfare plans. The documents were attached to the meeting invitation as confidential drafts.

The welfare report and plan, as well as age-specific plans, are highly important. The groundwork for the welfare report and plan was praised as being comprehensive and this entity was considered to be an important tool for the city employees. In its statement, the Committee made some comments and additions to the text.

The Committee felt that if a text is written in a general sense, it fails to respond to the needs of residents in a targeted manner. By this, the Committee means that, for example, the expression ‘children in Espoo’ should be specified, for example as ‘disabled children’, ‘foreign-language children’, ‘Roma children’, etc. We know from research that children from rainbow families are bullied more often than children from other families. The well-being of Roma children and young people is weaker than that of children and adolescents belonging to the majority population, and this is reflected, for example, in poor school performance and substance abuse issues. Given the importance of the welfare report and plan, it would be important to further specify phrases such as “on average, the wellbeing of Espoo residents is…” and “but we also know the following about the lack of wellbeing among different population groups…” 'This type of writing highlights diversity. If the point raised is clear, action can also be better targeted. This perspective should be cross-cutting in the text. The welfare report and plan document guides more closely the age-specific welfare plans for 2022–2025.  “That which becomes visible will also be taken into account.”

The work groups to come up with the content for the Sámi National Day and the Minna Canth Day were appointed.

Hannu Laaksonen talked about the Kilonpuisto school’s ‘Do good’ project.