PROGRESS MONITORING

The Employment Contracts Act (links to finnish site) protects pregnant women in situations of layoffs. Laying off or dismissing the applicant can be problematic, especially in international adoption. In Yt negotiations, it is worth bringing up the issue and urging the employer to treat adoption applicants, regardless of gender, in the same way as pregnant employees.

YT negotiation template (updated 12/2021, downloads to the computer as a word file).

Adoption expertise in counseling centers, day care centers, and schools varies. You give professionals the opportunity to absorb information well in advance of the child’s arrival. This way, for example, the immigration inspection goes smoothly, and you, as a parent, can fully focus on getting to know the new family member. On the Adoptioperheet ry’s Information for the professional (links to finnish site) pages, you can find material that you can print for different parties, or you can suggest that they familiarize themselves with its content.

Municipalities independently decide on municipal supplements to be paid in addition to Kela’s home care support. Make a municipal initiative in time if a municipal supplement does not consider adoptive families, for example due to the age limits related to the child.

The Federation of Municipalities has investigated the municipal fees paid by the municipalities for children’s home care and private care. The most recent report was made in 2020 (link to the website of the Municipal Association)

It is worth checking up–to–date information about your own municipality.

Initiative on the application of municipal supplement to adopted children (updated 10/2018)

Municipal initiatives should be submitted electronically at the kuntalaisaloite.fi service.
(all links are to finnish sites)

Give feedback and development suggestions to all parties involved in the adoption process and to professionals dealing with families. We Adoptioperheet ry are the best experienced experts in our field. A dysfunctional practice may be unintentional and easily rectified when someone takes the initiative!

NOTE! When the family leave reform comes into force, there may also be changes to TES agreements. It is still open, under what conditions the salary will be paid for the period of parental leave in the new contracts, and how adoptive parents will be considered.

The paid period at the beginning of the parental leave is based on the collective agreement. If the adoptive parent is excluded from the law, he should contact the association in his field. However, an informed employer pays the benefit equally to all employees, so it is not worth giving up, even if the improvement has not reached the collective agreement yet.

Municipal employee’s paid period at the beginning of parental leave (updated 10/2018)

Examples of paying a paid period in the parental allowance period (updated 9/2018):

– City of Espoo
– The city of Vaasa
– Pöyry Oyj
– Valmet Technologies Oy
– Finnish National Opera and Ballet (2 months’ salary at the start of parental leave also for adoptive parents)
– PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy
– Innolink Group
– TES in the field of trade (the adoptive mother is paid the difference between salary and maternity allowance for 3 months)
– Sonera
– Rovaniemi parish
– Nanso Group Oyj
– Reaktor Oy
– Suur–Savo OP
– Kone Oyj
– Media broadcast Messengers
– Varsinais–Suomi hospital district
– Helsinki adult college pays salary for 72 days from the start of parental leave
– Suomen Lähetysseira ry pays 3 months’ salary to the adoptive mother or father who stays on parental leave
– KirVesTes, or the church’s collective agreement
– Tieto Finland Oy pays the full salary for the first 3 months of parental leave
– National private rehabilitation company Tutoris Oy pays the adoptive mother 3 months’ salary at the start of parental leave
– Central Finland Hospital District
– University of Vaasa
– TES of the ICT sector Finnish Youth Association – Allianssi ry
– TES of the private education sector

Making a difference is cooperation. At the initiative of Adoptioperheet ry, the adoption network gathered to work on a vision of what a particularly good adoption country, Finland, will be like in 2035. A country where it is good for the adopted to be and live.

To achieve this goal, Finland needs a national action program focusing on adoption issues, which:
1) strengthens the position of adoption as a family form
2) ensure equal and regionally equal services for adopted children and families
3) directs the implementation of the Adoption Act
4) complies with the terms of the Hague Adoption Convention

Adoption vision 2035 (PDF opens in its own window)

Adoptiovisio 2035 – background memo 1 (PDF opens in its own window)

Adoptiovisio 2035 – background memo 2 (PDF opens in its own window)

Adoptiovisio 2035 – background memo 3 (PDF opens in its own window)