Quality and Supervisory Authority of Welfare
Differences in rules on support and assistance service rules by local authorities
10th March 2025
Results of the GEV initiative study show discrepancies in support and assistance service rules between different municipalities
Support services are provided on the basis of the Act no. 40/1991 on social services of municipalities and support services are provided under the Act no. 38/2018 on services for people with long-term disability. Often, the same group enjoys both support and assistance service. The GEV’s initiative study of the municipalities’ support and assistance service rules revealed that many municipalities need to do much better to fulfill their obligations in formulating the rules. There is a discrepancy in the presentation of the rules by municipalities, and there is a greater need for the rules to reflect the services provided by the municipality in the categories of services covered by support services.
The study's results show that 25-89% of municipalities had adopted the eight rules that the study covered. Of 64 municipalities, most had adopted rules on support services (57 of them), but few had adopted rules on leisure services (16 of them) and user agreements (24 of them). Only six municipalities had all the rules the study covered in force and updated them according to the applicable laws. One municipality had none of the rules.
(only in Icelandic) shows that municipalities have different approaches to formulating and presenting regulations. It was not always clear on what legal basis regulations were based, and there was no reference to expired laws.
GEV emphasises that:
Rules are accessible and user-friendly.
The guidelines for municipalities on regulation could be improved.
A uniform presentation of the rules at the national level would benefit local authorities, users, and regulatory authorities.
The study also examined whether municipalities had a defined procedure and a consistent support needs assessment. All but four municipalities had such a procedure, but the assessment is not carried out consistently at the national level.
The municipalities have all received their study results and, where applicable, GEV recommendations for improvement. They have a deadline for improvement until September 15th, 2025.