Below are some highlights from our first 15 years; you can read more in our Annual Review.

 

 

“Since the start 15 years ago, ESN has grown from an informal network to a well-established player on the European scene, representing more than 100 member organisations. This remarkable development has taken place during a period when Europe has been facing tremendous challenges for social services, including demographic change and the financial crisis. Throughout the years, ESN has developed a strong role representing the regional and local social services, and is now the obvious meeting place for social directors in Europe. The annual European Social Services Conference in particular plays an important role for our members.” Lars-Göran Jansson, ESN Chair, Secretary, Göteborg Region Association of Local Authorities, Sweden

 

 

1998 Towards a People’s Europe

 

 

ESN’s first research project analysed personal budgets for people with disabilities and older people in 10 countries. A first of its kind, involving disabled and older persons, the research influenced change in UK government policy, and the OECD invited us to present it to a US government and disability congress in Washington in 1999.

 

 

2003 Managing Diversity in Public Health and Social Care

 

 

A unique study of equality of access to services and the labour market looked at race, ethnicity, age and disability in public health and social care, carried out by ESN members and other stakeholders, including service users. A series of three reports led to an index of legislation on service equality in all EU countries.

 

 

2005 Promoting Inclusion for Unaccompanied Minor Asylum-Seeking Children and Immigrants

 

 

ESN member authorities in which were located major airports (Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle, Schiphol and Frankfurt) worked together with home affairs ministries, human rights and legal bodies to better examine the situation of unaccompanied young asylum seekers. The final recommendations are still highly relevant today.

 

 

2008 Active Inclusion of People Excluded from the Labour Market

 

 

ESN’s work in promoting service access was taken up by the European Commission in 2008, leading to the Active Inclusion Recommendation. ESN established a working group and published a report on active inclusion which outlined principles that are at the heart of the Social Investment Package launched five years later.

 

 

2009 Towards Community Care

 

 

We organised a seminar in Warsaw to explore the challenges of managing the transition process from institutional to community services in Europe. This was the starting point of an important strand of work for ESN, which continued with a working group and a training programme for government and civil society representatives from the Visegrád countries.

 

 

2010 European Pact for Mental Health and Wellbeing

 

 

We launched a working group to assess and suggest policies for the implementation of the European Pact for Mental Health and Wellbeing. At the end of the working group’s mandate, we published a report with policies and practices to promote a person-centred community approach to mental health services.

 

 

2010 Listening to Users

 

 

The European Year for Combating Poverty and Exclusion was marked by ESN with the production of a website with stories of service users and a highly acclaimed short film of personal conversations with people using public services and their carers in Belgium, Spain and the Czech Republic, the three countries holding consequently the Presidency of the European Union.

 

 

2013 Investing in Children

 

 

ESN members responsible for protecting children and promoting their welfare played a central role in ensuring that services were included in the European Recommendation ‘Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage’. The year the Recommendation was published, ESN launched a research project to contribute to its implementation.

 

 

2014 100 Member Organisations in 33 Countries

 

 

We started the year with 100 member organisations in the network, up from 8 founding national members in 1999. ESN has been growing steadily for the past 15 years to reflect the diversity of planning, delivery and evaluation of social services in Europe.