Quality social services are essential to help improve people’s quality of life. Many different elements are involved, including adequate funding, workforce management, leadership, and quality standards.
In 2012 we established a working group on 'Leadership, Performance and Innovation' which brought together senior managers of public social services to discuss issues related to managing, leading, financing and resourcing social services.
Managers took part in six meetings which focussed on:
- service management in austerity and (social) innovation
- impact of the crisis, leadership & management, and social services in the Europe 2020 strategy
- evidence-based practice
- future of welfare in light of rising demand and budgetary pressures
- strategic partnerships with other public services
- leadership in social services
Resources:
- Working papers on contemporary issues for managers and directors of social services in Europe:
Throughout 2016, we conducted a study on the social services workforce, which led to our 2016 seminar ‘Investing in the social service workforce: Building a caring society’ and a follow up report.
Resources:
- Workforce and management
- ESN 2016 Report Investing in the social services workforce
We work on quality across our work areas and specifically we devoted our 2019 27th European Social Services Conference to discuss how the concept of quality has been evolving and recommendations for the review of the European quality framework for social services.
Resources:
