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About the European Social Network
The European Social Network (ESN) is the independent network for public social services in Europe bringing together people who plan, manage, deliver and regulate social services in public authorities. Our members are mainly associations of local and regional directors of social services, social services in regions, counties and municipalities, funding and regulatory agencies, universities, research and development and improvement bodies.
 

ESN’s 2018-2021 Working Group on Technology and Digitalisation
The European Social Network (ESN) launched a working group which will run between 2019-2021 to examine the increasing role of technology in the delivery of social services. The working group will act as a vehicle for mutual learning between social services and technology providers across Europe on the effective use of technology in social services, culminating in a collection of practice examples and an assessment of the impact of technology in social services delivery.

Based on a 2019 questionnaire completed by our members, the three key areas they requested the Group to address were: case management (addressed in 2019), tools for decision-making, and assisted living. Due to the impact that Covid-19 has had on social services as a whole, the initial plan for the 2020 working group meeting to focus on platforms supporting decision-making has been adapted to address improvement in digitisation to address the impact of the pandemic on social services.

More generally, every meeting will cover: ethical implications in the use of digital systems, legal background, barriers and opportunities. Each meeting will identify practice examples as real experiences from working group members as basis for the discussion of real experiences of implementation of technological and digital processes in social services.

Scope of work, deliverables and duration
The expert will undertake the following tasks:

  • develop a simple questionnaire to gather insights from members regarding their use of technology and digitalization for the delivery of care in a number of services; e.g. child protection, family support, long-term care including description of practice examples (22.06-03.07)
  • analysis of the contextual information and practice templates (21.09-02.10)
  • proposal for content and structure of working group meeting to be held in November (05-09.10)
  • analysis of common themes, trends, and how it relates to wider knowledge on technology in social services based on questionnaire responses (12-23.10)
  • participation and presentation at meeting (early November)
  • briefing on key findings from questionnaire, the analysis and practices (20.11)

Required expertise
The external expert must be able to demonstrate

  • knowledge and experience of social services and technology nationally and ideally intrenationally
  • the ability to create and analyse questionnaires, data and practices from different sources.

Remuneration
Experts should provide a quote for the work described above. The maximum remuneration will be 6,000€ including VAT. Payment will be authorised after the delivery and approval of deliverables.

Application
Applicants should e-mail:

  1. CV
  2. Cover letter describing how you meet the required expertise with links to relevant samples of work
  3. Quote to alfonso.montero@esn-eu.org by 18 June 2020.

Concept note