Policy & Practice
Overview of Priorities
Overview of Priorities
There are a number of important social challenges facing Europe today. ESN has chosen to work more specifically on some of these challenges through working groups, seminars and the European Social Services Conference. As ever, our aim is to approach these challenges from the perspective of directors of local public social services across Europe. We aim to facilitate an exchange of learning among Members and to draw on this learning in order to help shape policy responses at European and national level.
Mental Health
ESN Working Group
Social and health services have a vital role for people with mental health problems who cannot live full lives without support. Local services have a wider impact on people’s wellbeing and may improve life chances of those suffering from mental health conditions.
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Developing Community Care
ESN policy & practice seminar
The way we want to care for people with disabilities, mental health problems, and dependent older people or children without a home has been changing. Local public social services are moving from providing places in large residential institutions to supporting community-based services.
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Contracting for Quality
ESN policy & practice project
The social services sector today is, increasingly, a competitive environment in which care providers compete for local authority contracts or payments by service users. In this changing context, it is a growing challenge for social directors across Europe to find new ways of working with service users and providers to raise the quality of services.
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Children and Families
ESN Working Group
Child poverty is too often discussed in purely economic terms. Social services know from working with children and families that poverty of opportunity and aspiration need to be addressed in order to break the cycle of deprivation. This is an urgent task for social services in Europe today.
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Active Inclusion
ESN Working Group
Helping people furthest from the labour market towards employment is a key challenge across Europe. For those unable to work, social services play a central role in terms of care, support and protection. Access to quality social services is therefore a key challenge which requires new ways of working with individuals and communities.
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Long-term Care for Older People
ESN Working Group
Social services are changing the way they engage with users who need long term care and the way they work with other local stakeholders. They are doing so against a backdrop of significant demographic change leading to increased demand for services. Long-term care for older people is one of the most pressing concerns for social services, for national governments and the European Union.
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