10 the ombudsman's task Operating model The tasks of the National Preventive Mechanism have been organised without setting up a separate NPM unit in the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman. The Ombudsman has assigned two public servants at the Office to coordinate the NPM duties for a fixed term in addition to their other duties. The coordinators are responsible for the international relations of the NPM and internal coordination within the Office. This arrangement was in force until the end of 2017. To improve coordination within the NPM, the Ombudsman decided to assign one legal adviser exclusively to the role of coordinator. This was achieved through the reorganisation of duties, as no new personnel resources were gained. At the beginning of 2018, the role of principal legal adviser and full-time coordinator for the NPM was assumed by Senior Legal Adviser Iisa Suhonen. She is supported by Principal Legal Adviser Jari Pirjola and on-duty lawyer Pia Wirta, who coordinate the NPM’s activities alongside their other duties, as of 1 January 2018 until further notice. The Ombudsman has also appointed an OPCAT team within the Office. Its members are the principal legal advisers working in areas of responsibility that involve visits to places referred to in the OPCAT. The team has nine members and is led by the head coordinator of the NPM. During 2017, the OPCAT team formulated strategies by collating working methods and goals for the administrative sectors, as they realised the methods and goals in their capacity as the NPM. The strategy work is ongoing and will form the basis for the NPM’s overall strategy. In 2016 and 2017, the NPM provided induction training for external experts regarding the related visits. The NPM currently uses the services of eight external medical experts: three psychiatrists (one of whom also specialises in adolescent psychiatry), one specialist in forensic psychiatry, two specialists in geriatrics, one specialist in intellectual disabilities and one psychiatric nurse. The NMP also employs three trained experts by experience, whose expertise will be used during visits to closed social welfare institutions for children and adolescents. The two other experts by experience represent the Disability Section of the Human Rights Centre, and their expertise will be used on visits conducted by the NPM to units where the rights of disabled people are being restricted. During the visits conducted by the NPM, efforts have been made to engage more frequently in constructive dialogue with staff, regarding good practices and procedures. Feedback on observations as well as guidance and recommendations may also be given to the supervised entity during the visit. At the same time, it has been possible to engage in amiable discussions of how the facility might, for example, correct the inappropriate practices observed. A report is drawn up after each visit, presenting the observations made during the visit. The draft report is often sent to the facility visited, to provide it with the opportunity to comment on the observations and notify of any measures taken in response. After that, the facility may also be requested to notify, by a given deadline, of any measures it will take in relation to those observations that have not yet been dealt with. If, during an inspection visit, something has arisen that needed investigating, the Ombudsman has taken up the investigation of the matter on his own initiative, and the issue has not been dealt with further in the report.