Call for good practice// Social Inclusion

ESN is looking for examples of good practice from local and regional social services on a number of issues for inclusion in this enewsletter and/or for possible presentations at future events. These examples should concern the following:

• Social and employment activation
• Local and regional strategies for social inclusion or aspects of social inclusion
• Strategies and projects to combat child poverty

Please contact us for further details.

ESN Key Recommendations// Antidiscrimination and Integration

Following the seminar held in Venice in July, ESN has finalised its key recommendations on combating discrimination and promoting integration. The recommendations concern first and foremost local and regional social services as key organisations combating discrimination and promoting integration in a variety of ways: as service providers; as employers and as partners in the community.

The recommendations are also call for action by European and national policy-makers and are of interest to European networks active in combating exclusion and discrimination. The recommendations are accompanied by a report of the Venice seminar on this theme.

National Action Plans// NAPs 2006-2008 published 15 September

Find out about your country's social inclusion priorities 2006-2008 - read your NAP!

We welcome your comments on your country's NAP and social inclusion priorities 2006-2008. Please e-mail your comments to us.

The National Reports on Strategies for Social Protection and Social Inclusion 2006-2008 (incorporating the NAPs/Inclusion) have now been published by most EU governments. Some are available on the European Commission website and others will be added soon. The final NAP monitoring report from ESN - Hungary and Italy are likely to submit their reports later due to general elections earlier this year.

ESN will begin to review the completed NAP process and the content of the action plans themselves. This will be done with the support of network members in local and regional social services across Europe. This review process will culminate in the publication of a report in December which will be disseminated to ESN members, the European Commission, national governments and other stakeholders in the NAP process and wider EU structure on social protection and inclusion. An introduction to the NAPs is available on the ESN website.

Third ESN Inclusion Seminar// Metz, 25-26 October 2006: Social and Employment Activation

The final inclusion seminar of this year will be held in Metz on 25-26 October - the programme continues next year with seminars on child poverty/child protection and long-term care. A full seminar programme is now available. Notably, there will be presentations on: the Norwegian and Dutch reforms integrating employment and social services at the local level and on a city social inclusion strategy in Dublin besides others from Poland, Italy and Sweden. For further information, please see the activation seminar webpage.

Good practice // Social and Employment Activation

In preparation for the Metz seminar, ESN has prepared country studies of recent and ongoing reforms to active labour market policies and structures in Norway, the Netherlands and Germany. These should provide some space for reflection on the role of local and regional social services and will be complemented by good practice examples to be included in the September and October e-newsletters.

Antwerp Social Welfare Centre: activating young people

Belgium has introduced a "right to social integration" for all citizens; this approach means that social welfare centres (OCMWs) have a duty to provide services fulfilling this right. Antwerp OCMW provides a number of services under Belgian law, which stipulates a right to employment within three months of a young person's registration with the job service. This can take a number of forms:
1. An ordinary job within the private sector/the local authority/OCMW/a social enterprise.
2. For clients not ready to enter employment, a job-project is worked out by the OCMW and the client . This can comprise preliminary training and a subsidised job with OCMW (e.g. ironing shop) or an apprenticeship with a social enterprise.
3. For clients with low educational attainment, a study-project is developed by the OCMW and the client. This can include Dutch language training, gaining school-leaver qualifications, vocational training.
This programme is implemented by 21 social centres in the city with the assistance of job advisors, who help clients with applications, interviews and to design a path to work.
Antwerp recognises that a paid employment cannot be the end goal for everyone - however, all citizens have a right to a meaningful social activity (e.g. as a volunteer) and support from the state living allowance.
A summary of a presentation by Paul van Gorp, director of the social welfare centre of the City of Antwerp, VVOS (Flemish association of social directors), Belgium

Innovative practices for labour market inclusion

"Every single unemployed person I have met is capable of contributing something to society." Wallonia has an unemployment rate of around 20%, a problem certainly, but they are an untapped resource which represents a huge potential to the region. Mr. Dreze is an MP but he has also been the managing director (and founder) of four social enterprises, which aim to provide vocational on-the-job training to young people with no formal qualifications. The training programme last six months to a year and is accompanied by training courses in e.g. French, maths, driving lessons, social life and self-esteem for working life and job-seeking advice. 75% of the participants see the programmes through to the end and of those 90% of the young men and 70% of young women find a job afterwards. The existence of these social enterprises required a change in Belgian law, but today there are 150 such organisations in Wallonia training around 12,000 young people per year. Mr. Dreze calls for more innovation in the public and private sectors to combat youth unemployment. He believes that the success of social enterprises lies in the fact that they respond to the training needs of young people and listen to their concerns about income, accommodation, health, family and social life, job-seeking. In other words, it is an individualised approach which takes into consideration the full range of a young person's needs.
A summary of a presentation to the European Round Table on Poverty and Exclusion 2005 by Benoît Dreze, Federal Member of Parliament, Belgium

Good practice // Local and Regional Strategies for Social Inclusion

The National Action Plans for Social Inclusion are intended to bring together in a strategic document measures to combat poverty and social exclusion by the national government. Local and regional authorities are major providers of services and widely responsible for implementation of national policies. They are also knowledgeable about particular local or regional problems of deprivation or exclusion. What scope is there for the development of local and regional strategies for social inclusion? ESN will tackle this question in a special session at its next ESN inclusion seminar. Here, we present an example of a local strategy to combat poverty and exclusion.

Routes to prosperity: paths out of poverty, London Borough of Southwark

Southwark Council's programme is a good example of a single programme which brings together a range of measures to combat poverty and exclusion. Southwark is rated the seventeeth most deprived borough in the United Kingdom and has particular problems of inherited poverty. The Council has set a number of pronciples which underpin programme actions: improving opportunity through access to education and employment; regeneration of the borough, including enhancing conditions for enterprise and affordable housing; providing quality services tailored to individual need. The programme comprises measures to improve access to financial services, to combat in-work poverty (related to the high cost of living in London), to improve children's chances (breakfast clubs and subsidised child daycare). Southwark Works! is one of the projects under the programme: it employs specialist advisers to support people with mental illness or physical disabilities, young people leaving care and others to return to work. Having assisted around 700 people into work, it is expanding significantly next year.
Download summary for further information.

We will return to this issue in the October e-newsletter.

News from the European Commission

Commission publishes study on ageing and employment

What can be done to increase job opportunities for older people and to keep them in employment? A recently published report entitled "Ageing and Employment - Identification of good practice to increase job opportunities and maintain older workers in employment" addresses this issue. The report reflects on good practice, identifies key factors and recommends actions that can be taken at EU, national, company and individual level. The study also gauges the success of the European Employment Strategy, one objective of which is to extend the working lives and increase the employment rates of older workers. For more information >>

Diversity truck tours Europe to boost the EU's drive against discrimination

The EU's Stop-Discrimination Truck heads off on its third EU tour tomorrow 10 August, travelling through 22 cities in 13 countries to promote equal opportunities in employment. On its four-month journey, the 30-ton mobile information platform will visit job fairs, university career days, youth festivals, and companies to raise awareness of the benefits of a discrimination-free working environment. Among other things, the Truck features a mobile 'Ability Park' which puts visitors' senses to the test to highlight the everyday challenges people with disabilities face. To mark Finland's Presidency of the EU, this year's tour starts in Helsinki. For more information >>

Coming up in the October e-newsletter:

• Summary of Metz seminar on social and employment activation
• Good practice: social and employment activation
• Good practice: local and regional strategies for social inclusion

Previous editions of the ESN inclusion e-newsletter from 2006:

February // March // April // May // June // July // August