- a prerequisite for making assistance work when personal assistance is outsourced.
Carelli Assistans has both customers (those entitled to assistance) who have signed agreements directly with us, but we are also providers for several municipalities in the country and that is what this post will be about. As an assistance provider, we have a great responsibility, our assistance keep a good quality and comply with the laws and regulations that apply, we believe that through our procurements we are driven to constantly develop our business for the better so that all our parts are quality assured. In other words, the opportunities and challenges of being a municipal assistance provider make us better.
One of the municipalities where we are contracted is Sollefteå, a municipality in Västernorrland County. Since 2020, we have been Sollefteå municipality's provider of municipal personal assistance. We have interviewed the person from the municipality who was involved from the start to learn about his experiences and thoughts on how it has been and how he thinks it works today.
Although the choice of assistance provider is not as free as when a customer chooses a provider privately, there are things that can facilitate the municipalities' process. Therefore, we have also taken the opportunity in this interview to get some tips and ideas to send to municipalities that are facing the decision to outsource their personal assistance or those who have made the decision and are about to start the tender process. At the end of this news post, our CEO has also added his comments from Carelli's perspective.
Interview with Lars Sundequist, Coordinator Personal Assistance, expert and responsible for personal assistance in Sollefteå municipality.
Tell us about the municipality's decision to outsource its personal assistance services?
Lars describes that it all started in the management group where there were discussions about the costs within the municipality and where personal assistance was raised. Documentation was produced and it turned out to be an opportunity to reduce costs by outsourcing personal assistance. At the time of the discussions, there were differences of opinion about outsourcing personal assistance, mainly within politics. The proposal also raised concerns among staff about this change.
Extensive work was done to bring staff together and carry out risk and impact assessments. This work coincided with a new political administration in the municipality. The new government was in favor of the proposal and decided to outsource the assistance.
Once the decision was made, Lars describes that the municipality started the next part, to develop a basis for the procurement. After the municipality put out the tender, Carelli submitted a bid and finally won the tender. Lars says that the then CEO was in Sollefteå and presented the company and together with Lars the foundation was laid for the continued cooperation. Throughout the contract period, there has been close contact and Lars meets representatives from Carelli at contract follow-ups on four occasions a year.
How has the reasoning gone since then?
Lars states that it has worked well with Carelli since the start and today most of the staff are positive about Carelli. In connection with the last municipal elections, the opposition the question of whether personal assistance should be run in-house. But the majority won the election and no new decisions have been taken.
Lars states that in 2026 the contract period ends, after 3 + 3 years without the possibility of further extension. Sollefteå municipality hopes that Carelli Assistans would be interested if the municipality outsources the assistance again.
How do you monitor compliance with your requirements for the assistance company?
Lars replies that he and Carelli decided early on that quality surveys would be sent out annually to all customers in the municipality and that the municipality would receive the results. According to Lars, these surveys have shown good results that have improved every year and the latest one was really good. Every year he collects the results from Carelli's quality survey and Carelli's employee survey and then presents them to the municipality's politicians in health and social care, they are very interested in how things are going.
Lars says that the municipality also follows up on how things are going during the contract follow-ups that he has together with Carelli several times a year.
Lars describes that his experience in personal assistance, both in terms of legislation but also of the target group, helps him to follow up how things are going. He describes that he knows what the difficulties are in the legislation and in being a manager and leader in the assistance, and when he compares with his experiences, he can see that Carelli is very well placed.
Lars describes that the municipality wants it to be good, it should be sustainable over time and that nothing should happen to cause problems. He states that if you are careful, you can have a long-term collaboration. He believes that as a municipality they do not make unreasonable demands, but the same as they make on themselves.
What is the contact and cooperation between the municipality and Carelli?
Lars describes that he has been the municipality's contact person throughout the contract period, he describes that he is the spider in the web for the municipality and that it has made it easier with only one way in. His expertise and experience also mean that he can answer all the questions that come to him.
In the interview, Lars consistently describes the importance of good collaboration. He says that in addition to the physical meetings, Lars has contact with various people at Carelli in between when collaboration is required on special matters, he describes that he has collaborated with people working centrally at Carelli but also locally. Over time, he has also had some contact with Carelli's financial manager to get things flowing and discuss various things. Along the way, both the municipality and Carelli have changed the routines regarding sick pay to achieve a better flow. Lars also describes that he has trained the relevant people in Carelli regarding the municipality's e-services so that this will work in the best possible way.
When it comes to the collaboration and cooperation that exists between the municipality and Carelli, Lars says that he thinks it works very well, he describes that his manager, Ewa Sundström, is also satisfied with the cooperation with Carelli. "It works well both ways and in all situations it has been possible to find solutions and common denominators.
Lars also adds that the good relationships with each other are extra important when things don't go as planned, things can happen, and with good relationships there is a good foundation to fall back on.
How do you rate our quality and assistance?
As mentioned earlier, Lars describes that he thinks Carelli has a good quality. He says that some parts are really good.
Lars is asked if there are things that Sollefteå municipality would like Carelli to work more on in the future. He replies that there are not, but that Carelli is in the right line and doing the right things. The municipality also does not believe that they should interfere in operational issues, but Lars describes that they see it as a cake where they are involved in one part and the rest is decided by Carelli.
Tell us a bit about what you think are Carelli's strengths?
Lars reiterates that Carelli's strengths are collaboration, cooperation, creating good relationships, that Carelli does this at different levels from the CEO, support functions and local area manager and towards several parts of the municipality.
He highlights that Carelli's high results on the quality surveys and the employee surveys show that Carelli is doing something good. In his role, he cannot know the reason why both staff and users are very satisfied, but he assumes that it is because Carelli creates good relationships and is responsive.
Lars says that it is also a strength to have only the area of personal assistance, it means that Carelli can gather strength and be good in the area. Lars compares that the competence and experience of personal assistance can be limited within the municipalities and that he was initially alone in the municipality with knowledge of LSS, although this has changed, he feels that he is still alone today with the competence in personal assistance.
If any municipality is considering outsourcing their personal assistance, what advice and information is available?
Lars highlights below some points he would like to pass on to other municipalities:
- Ensure that the municipality has done good preparatory work for decisions and carries out a proper risk and impact assessment.
- It is important to take references from other municipalities that show that it is a serious assistance provider with a management that has good experience in personal assistance.
- The values of the assistance provider, important for both clients and staff.
- Choose an assistance provider that shows stable finances, otherwise the company may have to close down. Then the municipality ends up in a difficult situation where the municipality does not have the organization left and must quickly find a new assistance provider or take back the assistance under its own management.
- Of course a company wants to make a certain profit, but choose an assistance provider that looks after the soft values, i.e. customers and staff.
- Appoint a coordinator for personal assistance within the municipality.
What is important in an assistance company?
According to Lars, if you are going to run the assistance, it is important, whether it is the municipality or an external company, to start by creating a good working environment for the assistants, both the psychosocial and physical working environment. As an assistant, there is a lot of lonely work, and it is important that you get the groups together through leadership. This results in the customers getting a good everyday life, good support and service. Lars emphasizes that it is important to have good managers who have a good view of people. If a company only looks at money and demands more from the staff than they get back, it will not be good. Lars also works as a coach and describes that in these contexts he can sometimes hear managers say that they "have such bad staff" but Lars believes that you have the staff you deserve. If you take care of your staff, you will have a good staff. Lars further describes that everyone must have good values and good values while the personal assistance, it can be learned. Based on his own experience as a manager, Lars describes that what is successful is to see the staff, to be responsive, to have contact with users and customers (or representatives) and to create good relationships.
What is important in an assistance company that will represent/provide municipal assistance?
Lars believes that the organization at Carelli is important, that it's not just managers but also support functions, to create a whole where all the parts fit together, help each other. This is required to get the company going and it is more important the bigger you get.
CEO Anneli's thoughts on how Carelli relates to being a provider for the municipality and how good quality is created for the person entitled to assistance
Anneli describes that when we as a company undertake to run the personal assistance For a municipality, collaboration is one of the most important cornerstones. She says that Carreli has responded to a tender in which we have had to describe how we will carry out the assignment with good quality and we obviously want to have a dialog with our client how we together do it in the best way for the customer, once it becomes relevant to start up an assignment. Not everything goes smoothly in a start-up, so it's good to have a clear agreement to fall back on and a good dialog with the client.
Anneli says that quality for us is of course the perceived quality that the customer has, but also that we follow the laws and regulations that exist regarding the provision of personal assistance. The agreement with the municipality also describes the municipality's requirements for quality, which is also a quality assurance for the customer and the employees.
Together we can make a difference for the customer! /Anneli Åström