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Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 crisis that has shaken the foundations of long-term care services across Europe, the annual seminar of the European Social Network (ESN) looked at the impact of contracting in quality of long-term care.

Building on previous work

The seminar follows on work previously done by ESN on the quality of public social services supporting older people, such as Contracting for Quality that analysed the relationships between public authorities as financers, providers and people using services. This piece of work back in 2010 was the first of its kind to assess these relationships in 6 European countries. Next, ESN launched a guide for social services leaders and providers on the organisation of active participation, integrated care, carers support and care for older people with disabilities. 

Our 2020 seminar was titled ‘Quality in Ageing and Care’ and took place online on 12-13 November. The aim was to discuss how local public social services can best contract long-term care services while guaranteeing high quality.

Understanding contracting and quality better

The seminar took place in the framework of our work on procurement and quality of long-term care services. This work has been running since the beginning of 2020 in collaboration with Kai Leichsenring from the Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research (Austria). Work done so far has included an analysis of a questionnaire with members in public authorities across 15 countries, identification and review of relevant literature and best practice.

Great pool of international and local experts and practitioners

ESN members, decision-makers and researchers learned about and discussed the outcomes of our work, and engaged with speakers from Quality Inspection Agencies, Public Social Services, the European Commission, the London School of Economics, and the OECD, among others.

Participants were able to contribute to the debate through workshops, interactive sessions and video-based networking breaks, providing a platform of exchange and inspiration for good practice and ideas for improvement.   

Join us in our common aim to achieving quality in ageing and care!

Visit our event webpage to find out more about the programme.