John Halloran, Chief Executive of the European Social Network (ESN), gave the opening keynote address to the 46th annual Information Services Management Conference in Atlanta, USA, on 20 September. He described the economic, political and policy landscape for social services in Europe to an audience of 950 delegates from federal and state government human services and the international ICT industry, who came together to discuss service integration.

I confess to having been uncertain as to whether the concerns of Europeans about growing inequality and immigration and our policy debates on social investment, integration and service outcomes would resonate across the pond. Would these translate in the different political environment and service structures of contemporary America?

For over a year, Tracy Wareing, Executive Director of the American Public Human Services Association, and I had begun to reach out. Tracy joined our final roundtable debate at the 22nd European Social Services Conference in Rome earlier this year, where we discussed the current state of play of social services.

Drawing on those discussions, in Atlanta I spoke to an audience of 950 delegates about the landscape in Europe – the challenging European elections and the more recent national elections, including that of Sweden, marked by the rise of anti-systemic parties, growing nationalism and anti-immigration.

I described Europe’s economic challenges with low growth and high unemployment, especially for young people, alongside flat or even declining public expenditure and its impact on people and services, and rising inequality.

Equally, I wanted to open up a debate about the future and, in particular, how we might develop a narrative that talks about inclusive growth and social investment; a narrative that restated the key human values – there, in the city of Martin Luther King – recognising that investment needs a return, and ‘social’ investment needs to deliver improved life chances for citizens.

It was perhaps appropriate that I spoke about outcome measurement at an IT conference where both government and the industry need to work together to understand future needs and deliver on meaningful solutions; more so than in Europe, it seemed to me that the industry and government seemed quite comfortable in each other’s company.

What really struck me about the discussions with US colleagues was not the difference, but the similarity of issues. Delegates wanted to know how countries in Europe dealt with service silos, with measuring outcomes in social services, and what the impact of immigration on public services was. In my turn, I wanted to know how the US was measuring outcomes and engaging citizens, and where was the evidence about what works, whether it be in child protection, mental health, or for people with Alzheimers.

One thing that is clear to me is that my US colleagues not only share the same values (and recognise the danger of losing them under the pressure to deliver), but that there is an appreciation of the benefits of mutual learning in resolving the common challenges for citizens and their communities.

For me this suggests the need to open up a dialogue not only to defend the so-called ‘European Social Model’, but to go much further in building partnerships globally between traditional economic and social worlds – so that both can move on with an informed debate about the kind of society we need and how best to invest sustainably in that future.

The pond has become even smaller since Atlanta.