The report concerns specific issues within specialised social services, which Rigsrevisionen has had special focus on during its audit of municipalities and regions in 2012. The overall results of the audit of government transfers to local and regional authorities are presented in report no. 19/2012 on the audit of the Danish state accounts for 2012.
The regions and municipalities work out framework agreements every year. These agreements provide the basis for the development and management of the services provided by the regions and municipalities in the specialised social services area. The examination showed that the framework agreements do not adequately support the regions’ management of the area, which implies a risk that the agreements do not meet the objective of ensuring appropriate use of resources and expertise.
The examination also showed that the Social Services Gateway (Tilbudsportalen), which provides information on all services and facilities in the area, does not – as intended – create transparency and comparability between services offered. The local councils make only limited use of the Gateway to find the best offers at the best price, because the tariffs on services provided on the portal are neither – in their opinion - transparent nor comparable.
To this should be added that the local councils are allowed to refer citizens only to services that have been approved and are registered with the Social Services Gateway. The examination showed that the eight local councils visited – when providing accommodation in accordance with the provisions of the Consolidation of Social Services Act, sections 107 and 108 concerning temporary and long-term accommodation – do not always refer the citizens to services that are registered with the Social Services Gateway. However, the information provided on the portal is not always valid, and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Children and Integration should take steps to improve the data quality.
Read the 1st chapter of the report (PDF)