Subject: Inclusion of Estonia's person-centered care services model in the European Commission Guidance on independent living - Request for additional information
From: "Finlay, Leona" <[email-masked]>
To: "Elen Preimann", "SM Info"
Cc: "ESF Support Centre" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2024 00:22:11 +0200

Dear Elen,

I trust this message finds you well. My name is Leona Finlay, and I am 
reaching out on behalf of the Directorate General for Employment, Social 
Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL) of the European Commission. Attached, you 
will find an accreditation letter detailing the scope of my mission.

Firstly, I would like to express our gratitude for your valuable 
contribution to the questionnaire that was sent out a few months ago and for 
agreeing to share your contact details. Your insights into Personalising 
mental health care services through a new locally organised person-centered 
special care service, Estonia have captured our attention and the project is 
considered a valuable illustration that may be included in the upcoming 
Guidance recommending to Member States improvements on independent living 
and inclusion in the Community, a Flagship of the Strategy for the rights of 
persons with disabilities 2021 2030.

Upon reviewing the responses, your practice is considered particularly 
relevant and promising within the context of the theme "Innovative elements 
in national strategies and action plans to operationalise the principles of 
independent living " in the Guidance. To ensure that we accurately capture 
and represent the essence of your practice, we have included below a series 
of questions that are aimed at providing a more comprehensive understanding 
of your approach. We also attach an initial draft description of your 
practice (see attached word document) that we aim to improve based on your 
insights.

1.	Are there any findings/data from the monitoring or evaluation reports 
that illustrate the new model’s effectiveness, particularly regarding the 
impact on targeted population groups and communities?
2.	Can you explain what additional supports service components refer to 
exactly (see paragraph 2 in the Summary of the attached draft description)?
3.	What are the 7 areas of life covered by the 26 service components (see 
para 2..)? And can you give a couple of examples of what you mean by service 
components, please?
4.	You reported in the questionnaire that the number of people supported by 
the model is 1955. Can you tell me please if this is the number of people 
who have been supported by the piloted model so far - from 2017 to 2024? Or, 
is this the total number of people who will be supported over the duration 
of the pilot project i.e. from 2017-2025?

We would like to receive your written answers by Friday 15 March 2024, 
please. After reviewing your answers, we may suggest organising a brief 
follow-up online interview with you, to validate our understanding of your 
practice and the focus we intend to place on your practice in the Guidance.

Furthermore, we would like to inform you that DG EMPL is planning online 
mutual learning workshops in the coming weeks as part of the preparation of 
the Guidance (you may receive information from DG EMPL shortly in this 
regard). Please let us if you would be interested in presenting your project 
during one of these online workshops, held in English.

Thank you once again for your contribution, and we look forward to hearing 
from you and gaining further insights into the success factors of your 
practice.

Best regards,

Leona Finlay

Leona Finlay, ICF Consultant
+44 (0) 121 233 8921 (direct)

+44 (0) 121 233 8900 (main)

ICF Consulting Services Ltd, 30 St Paul’s Square, Birmingham, B3 1QZ. United 
Kingdom