The Health and Social Care Inspectorate (IVO) is a government agency responsible for supervising health care, social services and activities under the Act concerning Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments (LSS).
IVO is also responsible for issuing certain permits in these areas. Its supervision remit covers the processing of complaints concerning, for example, the reporting of irregularities in health care and social care (called lex Sarah and lex Maria reports) and the municipal obligation to report non-enforced decisions.
Brief facts about the Health and Social Care Inspectorate (IVO)
- IVO is a government agency under the Government (Ministry of Health and Social Affairs).
- IVO has a staff of about 800.
- Its supervision activities are carried out at six offices around the country. The permit division and the Analysis division are located in Stockholm, as are the three agency-wide divisions the Director-General’s Office, the Support Division and the Planning and Communications Division.
Organisation
The Health and Social Care Inspectorate (IVO) is a director-general-led agency and Sofia Wallström is its Director-General. Operations are carried out at three agency-wide divisions in Stockholm and six supervision divisions around the country: Umeå (North), Örebro (Mid), Stockholm (East), Jönköping (Southeast), Gothenburg (Southwest) and Malmö (South).
All supervision divisions are responsible for:
- Supervision of services in health care and in social services
- Supervision of licensed professionals, including reports to the Medical Responsibility Board (HSAN) regarding the withdrawal of licenses and other authorisations
- Complaints by individuals about health care.
The Permit division
The Permit division is located in Stockholm. The Permit division examines applications for permits for private services under the Social Services Act, the Act concerning Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments and the Health and Medical Services Act. Permits are required for, for example, certain privately provided services such as companies whose operations include personal assistance, residential care homes (HVB) for children and young people and some health care.
The Analysis division
The Analysis division heads IVO's analysis and development of supervision methods, applied data-driven analysis and management of statistics and registers. The division also includes the information service that answer questions and receive information about irregularities within health care and social care facilities.
Agency-wide divisions
The Director-General and the three agency-wide divisions are based in Stockholm. The agency-wide divisions are the Director-General’s Office and the Support Division.
The Director-General’s Office provides support for the Director-General regarding the work of the agency’s management team and the external contacts of agency management.
The Support Division works on strategic matters concerning finance, IT, communication, human resources and business development.
The Planning and Communications Division is responsible for the agency's press service, web, strategic communication as well as coordination and support to the agency regarding planning and preparation in order to ensure that the agency's assessments and decision-making take place uniformly, efficiently and strategically.