Ensuring the safety of a young person placed in child welfare institutions at the focus of safety investigation

The Safety In­ves­ti­ga­tion Au­thor­ity will launch a safety in­ves­ti­ga­tion into the 24 Jan­u­ary 2026 death of an un­der 16-year-old mi­nor who had left a child wel­fare ser­vice unit with­out per­mis­sion. The mi­nor had been placed in a unit pro­vid­ing 24-hour child wel­fare sub­sti­tute care ser­vices in the Pirkan­maa well­be­ing ser­vices county.

The investigation will focus on practices used to ensure the safety of minors placed in child welfare institutions as well as the cooperation practices between child welfare and other authorities related to situations in which children leave an institution without permission.

“Placing a minor in a child welfare institution is often the last-resort way of ensuring a safe living environment for minors. It is the duty of the welfare state to ensure safe conditions for these minors. This is also very much a question of values,” says Investigator in Charge Hanna Tiirinki.

“When a minor is placed in a child welfare institution, their loved ones must also be able to trust that the minor is safe. In the case under investigation, the minor who had left the child welfare institution without permission died. In such a case, we must ask whether the problem we are dealing with is structural: Do the authorities have the necessary tools and cooperation practices in place to ensure safety? When a minor leaves an institution without permission and ends up dead, the system is hopelessly late. The basic assumption, however, is that when a minor is a client of a child welfare institution, they are under supervision and the system serves their needs,” continues Tiirinki.

In 2024, the Safety Investigation Authority published an investigation report related to accidental drug-related deaths among young people, stating the following: “The more service providers are involved, the more important it is to ensure the continuity and coordination of the provision of timely and appropriate help to these youngsters.”

“The current investigation is not focused on substance abuse, but we are still asking the same question as above: is the system capable of ensuring the continuity and coordination of the provision of adequate services for minors in a timely and appropriate manner – or in simple terms, of helping them. This is also a legislative question of whether the children’s rights are fulfilled and whether the legislative framework is sufficient,” Tiirinki points out.

The Pirkanmaa wellbeing services county notified the Safety Investigation Authority of the incident.

Chief Medical Officer Sirpa Rainesalo from the wellbeing services county of Pirkanmaa: “We express our condolences to the grieving family and friends. It is important to clarify the course of events and to assist the authorities in their investigations. We have also launched our own internal inquiry of the course of events. Unfortunately, as the inquiry continues, we cannot provide any more information on this issue at this point.”

The purpose of the safety investigation is to improve public safety and prevent new accidents and incidents. Matters of guilt and liability will not be addressed in the investigation.

The duration of the safety investigation is approximately 9 to 12 months.