"Breaking the cycle of deprivation" is the final report of ESN's Children and Families Working Group. The group examined policy and practice trends in contemporary children's services in the context of the fight against child poverty across Europe.

The EU has positively contributed to framing child poverty from a multidimensional perspective and to maintaining the eradication of child poverty and exclusion as a priority in national policy agendas, mainly through the Open Method of Coordination on Social Protection and Social Inclusion (OMC).

Yet more needs to be done to recognise that local public social services play a vital role in supporting vulnerable children in their families or and in their local communities and that this contribution needs to be properly resourced by all Member States.

ESN welcomes policy initiatives that encourage:

1. extra help for the most vulnerable families to access mainstream services and achieve a healthy work/life balance
2. continuous assessment and monitoring of a child’s needs
3. partnership working with colleagues from education, health and justice
4. the pursuit of excellence in social work practice based on locally based  non institutionalised care and education

In the European Year of Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion 2010, investing in the local social work services that care and support vulnerable children, is key to breaking the cycle of deprivation.

Read more about these four key messages in the report. To receive a paper copy of the report please get in touch with Marie Vinet in the Secretariat