Response to interpellation 2022/23:387 on children and young people's opportunity for a good start in life
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD argues that the government is taking measures for children's upbringing conditions through a leisure card in 2024 1. KD emphasizes that the leisure card gives children in socioeconomically vulnerable households expanded opportunities 1 and is a concrete addition to level differences 2. KD also highlights expanded home visit programs, increased housing allowances, and electricity support 1. KD considers the leisure card to be an important long-term investment 3 and that they are working to expand school health services and strengthen parental support 3. KD emphasizes the importance of breaking long-term unemployment and strengthening community life 3 4. S argues that inequality is increasing 5 and that the government is leaving families with small margins in the lurch 6. S considers that the government's cuts affect economically vulnerable children 7 and that it is a mockery to leave municipalities in the lurch during a cost crisis 7. S argues that the government is lowering taxes while welfare is subjected to a "steel bath" 8.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Madam Speaker! Sanna Backeskog has asked me what measures I and the government intend to take to ensure that, in the economic crisis, children and young people continue to have the opportunity for a good start in life with good upbringing conditions, food on the table, and an active leisure time.
I would like to initially emphasize that I share the concern expressed by Sanna Backeskog as well as the commitment regarding the importance of good upbringing conditions in early life and that children and young people are given the opportunity to participate in leisure activities.
The government has decided on a comprehensive investment that shall contribute to an active and meaningful leisure time for children and young people. A leisure card shall be introduced containing a value that can be used as payment for children and young people in the ages 8-16 for leisure activities within, for example, the sports movement, outdoor organizations and other organizations within civil society and the cultural field. The leisure card shall give more children and young people the opportunity, in community with others, to gain access to sports, culture, outdoor life and association life. Especially children and young people from socioeconomically disadvantaged households shall, through the leisure card, receive expanded opportunities to participate in leisure activities. This is an important reform to contribute to increased health.
The government's ambition is that the leisure card shall be introduced in 2024. A leisure card can thus be the extra support needed in the household budget so that the child or young person can continue with their leisure activity despite the tough economic situation.
For 2023, 50 million kronor have been allocated to develop the necessary infrastructure for the introduction of a leisure card for children and young people. In April 2023, the government gave E-hälsomyndigheten, Folkhälsomyndigheten, Försäkringskassan, Myndigheten för ungdoms- och civilsamhällesfrågor, and Statens kulturråd a mandate to prepare and develop a proposal for a digital service and for the introduction of a leisure card for children and young people. In 2024, 731 million kronor are estimated to introduce the leisure card reform, and from 2025 onwards, 792 million kronor are estimated annually for the same purpose.
In addition to the leisure card, I want to highlight another initiative that contributes to creating good upbringing conditions and increased equality by giving every child a good start in life. In May 2023, the Government gave Socialstyrelsen a mandate to support and stimulate the preventive work of child healthcare through expanded home visit programs. Within the framework of the mandate, the agency shall, among other things, allocate funds to regions during 2023 to, in cooperation with municipalities, prepare expanded home visit programs in areas with socioeconomic challenges. This is also a long-term initiative. For 2023, 50 million kronor have been allocated, and the Government estimates 100 million kronor for 2024 and 200 million kronor annually from and including 2025.
The government has also decided on other initiatives that have contributed to alleviating the situation of strained household finances that many are currently experiencing. One such example is the so-called electricity support for households, which may have contributed to creating the extra space that may be needed to pay for children's leisure activities. In addition, the government has extended the temporary supplementary grant within the housing allowance until December 2023 and increased the supplementary grant from July 2023.
In conclusion, I want to emphasize that the government is following the developments both regarding the economic situation in general and how the development affects the upbringing conditions for children and young people. Children and young people shall be given the opportunity for an active and meaningful leisure time in community with others.
Sanna Backeskog (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for Social Affairs for the answer.
How well a society functions is reflected in the children's living situation. During this spring, my fellow party members and I in Gävleborg have placed a particular focus on the issue of children's upbringing conditions and inequality in early life. We have visited family centers, preschools, maternity wards, the children's healthcare and social services' prevention units, and women's shelters.
My colleagues in the Riksdag and I have met many competent and committed employees in the welfare sector. We have spoken with children and their parents and with leaders within the voluntary sector. The picture is consistent: inequality has increased, and democratic control over the welfare sector has decreased. There is every reason to be concerned about the household finances of families with children, about housing segregation, about inequality in health, and about the increased mental ill-health.
This is not unique to Gävleborg - the class divides have increased across the entire country. The differences between those living in socioeconomic vulnerability and the most wealthy have not been this large in decades. It is bad for social cohesion, for public health, and actually also for democracy.
The toughest it is for the single parents and their children. I think the children's rights organizations that I met at a seminar in the Riksdag earlier this year expressed it very clearly: One child's everyday life is another child's utopia. The applications to Majblomman have increased significantly over the last year, and the applications are about increasingly basic things - a blanket for 300 kronor, because it is so cold at home, is one example.
Economic inequality between households is reflected in children's health. Most people can probably agree that everyone should be given the same starting conditions and the same opportunities to influence their situation and succeed in life, but in practice, children's conditions differ as soon as they first see the light of day.
The large equality investigation *A Common Concern*, which the then Social Democratic government and Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson commissioned, showed inequalities already in the prenatal environment. The investigator Per Molander highlighted, for example, how high stress levels in a pregnant woman, which are linked to low income and precarious working conditions or family circumstances, have negative effects on the child's cognitive ability, health, and school results. Children in low-income families run a greater risk of being born with low weight and are to a greater extent admitted to hospitals or need to visit doctors in outpatient care. The connection is extra clear when it comes to diagnoses related to mental ill-health. If your health is poor in childhood, it affects your opportunities in both school and work life.
Household economy and health are two closely linked factors that are of great importance for small children's development and life chances. Other important factors are family conditions, preschool, school, and housing situation.
We who are democratically elected have a responsibility and an opportunity to act politically to level differences and to ensure that no child is left behind. In that case, both general and targeted initiatives are needed.
We need a strong welfare state that can be there for every child, and we need an active labor market policy so that children can see their parents go to work. But we also need a government that wants to and is capable of prioritizing resources to where they are needed most.
Madam Speaker! I would like to ask the Minister for Social Affairs if he considers that Arbetsförmedlingen, Sveriges kommuner, and Sveriges regioner have sufficient resources to level differences and to give all children a good and secure start in life.
Linnéa Wickman (S)
Madam Speaker! The period from a child's first year until the age of 20 is the most important in a person's development. It is a time when we are to learn for life, and during this time, preschool and school alongside the home and leisure activities are the most significant environments. They are important for developing basic knowledge, skills, social ability, and cooperation with others. During the first part of our lives, it is inescapable that our upbringing conditions are governed by the family's life situation, which in itself is a prerequisite for being able to develop and meet obstacles. Inequality and ill health tend to be inherited if one does not actively try to equalize living conditions. Here, the Swedish school has one of its most central tasks.
Madam Speaker! We see, however, how the economic gaps are increasing and how the families who already have the smallest economic margins are left behind by the government during the crisis. We see how the knowledge gaps between the children who fare best and worst in school are increasing. We see that equality is failing and that parents' education level is becoming increasingly important for how the children succeed in school. Our school system is no longer able to increase equality between children.
But in his response to Sanna Backeskog's interpellation, the Minister does not even mention the school's role. I understand why, because the Tidö government does not want to do anything about the unequal school. Instead, they fight with beaks and claws for a world-unique school system where large private school corporations are overcompensated and furthermore extract profits from our tax funds. We have been able to see how school funds have been used for the purchase of waffle stands and archipelago plots and how tax funds that should have gone to the children's school in one municipality were instead used to expand and open a school in another municipality. It is, of course, completely insane.
Madam Speaker! At the same time as we see the consequences of the market school and the economic gaps in our society, we hear the alarms from the country's municipal and regional politicians. 24 billion kronor are missing for them to be able to maintain today's level of school, healthcare, and cultural and leisure activities. Sveriges lärare assesses that at least 12 billion kronor need to be added to preschool and school alone. But the SD government has instead cut the school by 2 billion kronor in fixed prices, shows an investigation from the Riksdag's investigation service. It is a fact that the government the Minister belongs to chose to prioritize a tax cut for themselves, us Members of Parliament, and the country's high-income earners with 13 billion kronor.
Madam Speaker! I have been a municipal and regional politician longer than I have sat in the Swedish Riksdag, and I know very well how local politicians of different political colors were forced this spring to sit with hopeless savings lists and try to prioritize the least bad alternatives so that the budget would balance. The cost crisis, in combination with the government's deficient state grants, forces Sweden's municipalities and regions to either carry out harmful cuts, often within the non-statutory but preventive activities, or raise the flat municipal tax, which hits ordinary wage earners the hardest.
I wonder therefore: What does the Minister for Social Affairs think the country's municipal and regional politicians should do in this difficult situation? Should they carry out large cuts, which ultimately affect the children, or should they raise the municipal tax in times of high inflation?
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Madam Speaker! I thank Sanna Backeskog and Linnéa Wickman. I appreciate your commitment to children and young people, and just like the members, I believe that we as elected representatives have a responsibility to ensure that children can grow up under the best possible circumstances.
I share the picture from family centers, social services, and community life that many children and young people are having a tough time. We know that children in the 10-12 age group often stop their extracurricular activities because they know it is too expensive. They might say that it is boring, but in reality, they know that the money is not enough for mom or dad when the activity competes with the grocery bag and the electricity bill.
These are tough times with an inflation economy, and there are limitations on what the public sector can do regarding support and stimuli because high inflation hits the most vulnerable in society the hardest. That being said, it is important to make investments that are well-targeted and truly reach those in need, and in that regard, the temporarily increased housing allowance from July 1 is an important investment. Sanna Backeskog mentioned single parents, and 135,000 of the most economically vulnerable will, as a result of this, receive an increased support of up to 775 kronor for those who have the highest levels in the housing allowance to 2,100 kronor. It is incredibly important that this is implemented now, and I am glad that we share the ambition to improve for this group. Of these 135,000, most are single mothers or fathers.
Furthermore, we want to introduce a leisure card. I believe it is important that every child should feel that the child's leisure activity does not need to compete with the grocery bag, and that one should not have to feel that one must choose between these two things is one of the main reasons why we do this. Those living in socioeconomic vulnerability shall receive an extra high amount so that they do not have to stop their leisure activity or perhaps, despite high prices, can start a leisure activity. For me, it is incredibly urgent and important that all children should have the chance for an active and meaningful leisure time with present adults and leaders who welcome one to the activity, demand one, and see one. This is very important to break ill health and inequality among children and young people.
Therefore, I pose the question to the Social Democrats: Have you changed your minds and are you in favor of the leisure card? It is very strange that you are against this reform. In your expenditure area motion, you call it welfare for the poor to invest 800 million kronor so that all children have the right to an active and meaningful leisure time. One might think that in a theoretical discussion, but for the children and young people who receive this support, it will be a concrete addition to exactly what Sanna Backeskog and Linnéa Wickman are requesting, namely an active and meaningful leisure time that contributes to leveling differences for children and young people. I want an answer to my question.
Sanna Backeskog (S)
Madam Speaker! What does a leisure card help if the family does not have money for training clothes? What does a leisure card help if the municipalities are forced to reduce their grants to associations, maintenance of fields, and everything else that builds cohesion, culture, and association life?
Madam Speaker! Early life plays a major role in how a human being is shaped and developed. The period up to the age of five has consequences for the adult human's ability to live a good, rich, and long life. Disturbances and problems in the early stage can have lifelong consequences. Inequalities in early life constitute serious reasons why disturbances and problems are deepened.
Discussions about inequality are often reduced to income and wealth. It is a very important perspective but not at all sufficient to understand and combat inequalities. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, inequalities need to be understood more broadly and throughout life. I pointed out a number of factors that must be weighed in, and I want to touch on one of these a bit further, namely the importance of small children's housing and upbringing environment.
I live in Andersberg in Gävle. It is a neglected area with socioeconomic challenges where inequality is high. I often meet parents who live in the area and associations that are active there. When they talk to me about the problems they see in their children's everyday lives, it is the insufficient shared resources they bring up. They do not talk about the need for tax cuts but about concern over resources being too small in school and preschool, about the treatment at the health center, about the need for maternal and childcare, and about safe and pleasant living environments, outdoor environments, and walkways. They are, therefore, talking about their children's upbringing environment.
Segregation is an aspect of the immediate environment that affects children's development. Which neighborhood one grows up in is significant for which life chances are offered. Children who grow up in vulnerable areas largely live in vulnerable areas even as adults.
Growing up in a socially disadvantaged area can also mean growing up with the feeling that no one believes in you. Many are the parents and children who have told me about discrimination and suspicion. Where I live in Andersberg, we know something about this, and as much as I love my neighborhood, I hate what the inequality does to us and to us Andersberg residents.
This is understood by our municipal politicians. The Social Democrats in Gävle are now, together with the Liberals, the Center Party, the Green Party, and the Christian Democrats, carrying out a long-term boost for Andersberg. This involves, among other things, safer roads, important meeting places, culture and association life, and a present social service and prevention unit. This is very good, but I am deeply concerned about the economic crisis we find ourselves in and how our municipal politicians will manage to meet it.
At the same time as households find it increasingly difficult to manage their finances, the costs for municipalities, associations, and housing companies are increasing. In that case, it is not sufficient to reduce state grants for school, housing construction, and health and medical care.
Madam Speaker! I want to ask the Minister if he is prepared to influence his coalition partners so that the government can shift into a higher gear and join forces with the municipal politicians in the work of creating safe residential environments and better living conditions for all the country's children.
Linnéa Wickman (S)
Madam Speaker! The Minister for Social Affairs has in the debate highlighted some measures that the government wants to direct towards municipalities and regions regarding children's upbringing conditions.
I fundamentally believe that the Minister shares our concern regarding children's vulnerability. But the problem is that the measures the Minister proposes cannot, by no means, compensate for the heavy cuts that the government is now forcing the country's municipalities and regions to make. These are cuts that will affect economically vulnerable children, regardless of well-meaning words from the Minister. The government has not even chosen to provide a decision on the state grants for next year so that people across the country could at least plan for the future in this extraordinary situation.
Madam Speaker! The Minister's non-answer to my question is not reassuring for anyone in our country. I think it is almost a mockery to leave municipalities and regions in the lurch when they are to handle the cost crisis. In fact, every major cut or tax increase that will now be made in a municipality is ultimately a consequence of the government's policy.
Madam Speaker! In my home county of Gävleborg, a higher proportion of the population lives in economic vulnerability than in the kingdom as a whole. This also means that more children live in poverty. It is precisely these children who, due to the government's policy, are forced to pay the price for the crisis. It is these children who have to stop attending after-school activities when the family can no longer afford it and who fall behind in school when the extra support resource in the classroom is cut. It is also these children who are now going hungry when the school has closed for the summer. For these children, the promise of a leisure card in 2024 is a very meager consolation.
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Madam Speaker! I thank the interpellants for the questions.
Did we receive any information regarding the leisure card from the Social Democrats? We were informed that it is only in a perfect world that it is worth investing 800 million kronor per year in children's and young people's leisure. It is only if the municipalities continue to maintain the grass fields properly that this is worth doing. Is that how we are to interpret the answer, Madam Speaker?
It is correct that it is introduced in 2024 and that it is a small consolation today, but it will of course be very important when it is introduced. Politics is also long-term. It is things one wants to do moving forward. It takes some time before one can get things in place. Is it sufficient reason to be against it, that it is introduced in 2024? Would the Social Democrats have been for it if it had been introduced in 2023? It is also a reasonable question to ask in light of the answers given here from the Social Democrats. The argumentation is also so strange, Madam Speaker - one speaks of this as poor relief when it actually concerns children and young people having the right to an active and meaningful leisure time.
Linnéa Wickman wondered in her first speech why I do not speak more about the school here. That is because the interpellation does not concern the school. It concerns a lot of other things. It mentions the school in connection with school meals. If one wants an interpellation debate about the school, one can submit an interpellation about the school.
I am happy to talk about the school. It is very important. Therefore, we are now ensuring that student health services are expanded so that they are physically available at all schools. They shall receive more resources to be able to support children and young people in a better way than today, both with school and with well-being in general. We have a strongly increasing mental ill-health that we need to meet in different ways. One way to meet it is through more active and meaningful leisure time, because we know that it matters for how children and young people feel.
We naturally work with employment, as a very important reason for inequality is unemployment. If one is in long-term unemployment, the risk is also greater that one is affected by social problems and that it can also be inherited. It is therefore incredibly important that we have both benefit and compensation systems that support here and now and that we come with reforms that contribute to breaking long-term unemployment. It is extremely important to do this.
Parental support is needed, because it is tough to be a parent today. Many parents need extra support in their important role. We are investing additional funds to manage this and additional funds to recruit more foster homes for children where it simply does not work with the own biological parents. It is also important to have that preparedness when talking about the upbringing conditions for children and young people.
I also would like to emphasize the importance of the very earliest life, which was mentioned here. We are now investing in expanded home visit programs to build trust and to ensure that all children receive interventions as early as possible in life that lay a foundation for greater equality regarding health. It worries me enormously that we still see no signs that we are managing to reduce inequality regarding health. This is an enormous challenge for society, and we need to do a lot of different things. That includes, of course, municipalities and regions as a very important party. But we are in a tough economic time. There are limitations. We know that if we drive an inflation economy, those who are the most vulnerable will also be hit hardest.
The government invested 12 billion in state grants in this year's budget, and we will, of course, return in next year's budget with assessments and decisions to the country's municipalities and regions on how we view this moving forward and on the needs that clearly exist out in the regions and municipalities when it comes to welfare.
Sanna Backeskog (S)
Madam Speaker! All over Sweden, very good and important work is currently underway so that all children shall have a safe and equal upbringing, for the parents' employment prospects, for school results and for a meaningful leisure time, while simultaneously grappling with very small resources and an economic crisis.
When both municipal and regional politicians as well as children's rights organizations, teachers, police officers and social workers sound the alarm, the Tidö parties lower the tax by 13 billion and simultaneously subject the entire welfare system to a steel bath. It is not enough. The targeted investments will be like giving a cookie with one hand but taking a cream cake with the other hand.
I sit in the Committee on Justice and have had the privilege of speaking with police officers across the country. I receive a fairly consistent picture. They praise the increased focus on crime prevention work in recent years and the very clear cooperation with the municipalities. At the same time, they testify to a deep concern for the municipalities' resources moving forward. They know that the most important preventive measures are carried out in schools, in community life, in social services, and within health and medical care.
Sweden needs more teachers, preschool educators, field assistants, social workers and nurses, not fewer. We need a strong community and a welfare system that can see and meet every child based on that specific child's circumstances.
Madam Speaker! I would like to thank the Minister for a constructive debate. I appreciate his commitment to the issue. I do not feel more secure with the answers. It is about funding for the welfare state and the municipalities' conditions to work with equality-creating and preventive measures. But I hope that we can have more conversations together in the future about how Sweden can become better at creating security for our children here and now and equipping them for the future, for the only actual connection we have to the future is the children.
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Madam Speaker! I would like to thank Sanna Backeskog for the interpellation debate we have had here – it is good and important.
I appreciate the commitment that exists a lot, and I also appreciate getting input from the outside on how activities are perceived. It is very important for a government to have that picture clear for itself, even though we, of course, also go out and meet with activities. I appreciate different types of ideas and naturally the work that is being done in Gävle and in the district there. It sounded exciting and interesting, also when it comes to how one works with the physical environment to increase the experience of well-being in different ways.
We need to do a lot to secure the upbringing and health of children and young people. I am concerned about many things regarding this. How is the sleep of ninth graders who sleep far too little? How does it affect their opportunity for good mental health, for example? How does screen time affect this? What does it do to children and young people today to constantly have social media at arm's length from themselves day and night, all the time? We need to know more about this.
We need to work with the school in different ways, with increased support through student health services, and ensure that we build up the capacity in child and adolescent psychiatry. We need to work with social services and ensure that they can collaborate much better with the school and the police at an earlier stage to catch the children who risk ending up in the wrong situation in life and the children who just need extra support. We need to work with the parents so they get the right tools to be able to support their children in the best way.
We need to work with the association life and ensure that associations get the opportunity to be even more present in more children's lives and that there are more extra adults in children's lives who welcome them to an activity. That children who have it tough at home can come to an activity where someone says "I haven't seen you here for a while, how nice to see you!" can really make a difference in a child's life. This we know that many children and young people testify to.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.