Aarhus Municipality's health and care sector is starting an openness training course today for about 200 of its managers and employees.

13 May 2024

The citizens in Denmark's second-largest city, Aarhus, should have a fair and balanced impression of the conditions in the area of ​​health and care in their municipality, and the employees in the health and care sector should feel comfortable interfering in the public debate.

These are the goals of the openness training that the Magistrate's Department for Health and Care in Aarhus Municipality is launching today.

"My goal is to create a workplace where there is enough psychological security for us to dare to speak out loud about our own mistakes so that we can learn from them," explains Christian Budde, political head of the health and care sector in Aarhus Municipality.

"If elder care only gets attention when there are scandals or huge successes, then it is not a fair and balanced picture of everyday life here. And now we firmly state that it is not just ok, but even welcome, for employees to talk about their work and working conditions. Even if they don't think the same as me", Christian Budde underlines. 

"Our democratic community does not develop by itself"

ProPublica has developed the openness training concept for and in collaboration with Aarhus Municipality. It is the municipality's own employees who are responsible for the training of their colleagues.

The training lasts three hours and consists of various modules. They aim to strengthen the managers' and employees' insight into the role and responsibility of the municipality and the press in the public debate; to strengthen their knowledge of the rules on freedom of expression for public civil servants; and finally to prepare managers and employees for meeting the press.

"Our democratic community does not develop by itself, and we should all take responsibility - including public authorities and their administrative and political leaderships. This is an example of what it can mean in practice," says Thomas Dybro Lundorf, founder and board member of ProPublica.

Hope others will be inspired

He welcomes Aarhus Municipality's initiative.

"It's great to see that Aarhus is leading the way. We hope that other authorities and decision-makers will be inspired," says Thomas Dybro Lundorf.

If the course is a success, it is Aarhus Municipality's and ProPublica's plan that the openness training concept will later be made freely available to other public authorities.