EU Conference on Active Inclusion: European Social Network sets out key issues for social services on employment and activation policies

The European Commission organised a stakeholders' conference in Brussels on 15 June 2007 which was attended by over 200 people. It was an opportunity for stakeholders to engage in political debate on active inclusion, to set it in the broader context of flexicurity and to shape future EU policy agenda on these issues.

ESN director John Halloran presented the key issues for local services in a workshop on "access to services and labour market integration". He highlighted the fact that social services are at the crossroads of social exclusion and activation; for many marginalised people, social services are their only point of contact with public services and potentially a vital connection to education, training, and employment opportunities. ESN sees it as important to build partnerships across local services, with the voluntary sector, social enterprises and with businesses in order to help people to engage in working and community life.

This and all the conference presentations are available on this EU Commission webpage where you can also find out about the Commission's active inclusion agenda.

ESN brings service perspective to two European peer reviews

The European Social Network was involved in two peer reviews last Spring; these seminars take a workshop approach to key social inclusion and protection issues, bringing together national governments and experts with stakeholders including ESN.

ESN argues that quality should be the main consideration in the application of Community rules to the social and health sector

The peer review seminar held in Belgium in May looked at the issue of social and health services for older people and the impact of EU Internal Market rules on local service provision. ESN director John Halloran argued in the ESN contribution that quality should define the application of Internal Market laws in local services; he said that it should not matter who provides the service, but how good the service is. ESN feels that competition can in fact by a driver of quality though there do need to be quality standards and assessment for all providers in common to ensure that older people are getting a good quality of care whoever the provider. Download ESN presentation here >>

ESN shares Member experiences of coordinated community services at Malta Peer Review

Every local community has its own particular and complex needs: in the Cottonera area of Malta, various agencies have co-located in ACCESS, the Cottonera Community Resource Centre. Five agencies work within ACCESS: smartkids family and childcare centre, housing authority, day centre for people with disabilities; social security office, job centre. Major issues discussed at the seminar were the level of coordination/integration of services, the importance of quality child care and youth work and the community development services. ESN emphasised the importance of quality assessment and drew attention to potential areas for developing cooperation between services.

The papers, including very good short reports of both, are available on the Social Inclusion Peer Reviews website >> where you can also browse through other peer reviews.

There is a full contents list of each enewsletter starting 2006 for easy reference on the website.

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