- Consent to data sharing
- Denial of consent to data sharing
- Instructions for setting the client's consent and denials of consent to data sharing in social welfare services
- Data sharing between social welfare services and health care
Sharing data within the social welfare sector requires the client’s consent to data sharing
Social welfare services client data is primarily available to the social welfare service provider in whose register the data is stored. The use of data always requires a justified context, such as a client relationship and the right of access to the data in question.
When the controller of another register views the data to view through the Kanta Services, this is known as data sharing. The consent to client data sharing in social welfare services applies to data sharing
When a service provider utilises the data of another register, this is referred to as data sharing. Information may be shared:
- between wellbeing services counties
- between public and private service providers
- between private service providers.
The Kanta Services already support data sharing. The sharing of data between social welfare service providers will begin as soon as the necessary changes are made to their information systems. Service providers must be using suitable information systems by 1 September 2026.
Data can be shared if the client has given consent to sharing of social welfare client data. The client can give their consent once they have received information about the Kanta Services.
Social welfare and health care sectors have their own sector-specific consent to data sharing. In other words, the client gives consent to data sharing separately for patient data and for social welfare services data. In the future, consent to data sharing may also extend to data not stored in Kanta. This includes, for example, information that is recorded on paper.
In which situations is consent to data sharing not required?
The retrieval of client data from another service provider's register must always primarily be based on the client’s consent to data sharing. However, social welfare service providers and authorities may retrieve social welfare client data from Kanta without the client's consent in situations where they have a right of access under the Client Data Act.
Consent from the client to share social welfare client data is not required in situations where social welfare service providers and authorities have the right to obtain information under the Client Data Act.
The sharing of client data generated in outsourcing services between the service provider and the organiser does not constitute data sharing and so does not require the client’s consent to data sharing.
In these situations, denials of consent to data sharing issued by the client also do not apply.
Denials of consent to the sharing of social welfare client data
The client may restrict the sharing of their client data by refusing to consent to data sharing. As a rule, data for which the client has set a denial of consent to data sharing will not be shared between different service providers via the Kanta services.
The client can issue a denial of consent to data sharing
- for data in a specific public or private social welfare service provider’s register
- for data related to a specific service transaction
- for a specific social welfare services document.
If the client does not give their consent to data sharing or has set restrictions on data sharing, the data will not be shared unless there is an extensive right of access.
Instructions for setting the client’s consent and denials of consent to data sharing in social welfare services
The client may also give their consent or denial of consent to data sharing in social welfare services as soon as it is technically possible for the client data systems to store the declaration of intention in Kanta. Until then, clients give and refuse their consent to data sharing on MyKanta.
A social welfare professional will record the client's declaration of intention in their own client data system, from where it will be saved into the Kanta Services.
A copy of the consent to data sharing and a summary of the denials of consent to data sharing set by the client must be printed out for the client if they so request. Paper forms are not signed and are not archived by the service provider.
Data sharing between social welfare services and health care
Data sharing between social welfare services and health care through Kanta will be possible by 1 March 2027. Such data sharing will require separate consent to data sharing. Before this, the sharing of data between the two services requires the service user's local consent. We will provide more information on the new consents between services later on kanta.fi.