The social policy and welfare system in the communist era was characterized by a highly centralised top-down approach. Central planners decided on everything from the number of places in state run institutions, personnel and diets on the basis of supposedly perfect system. Universal and standardised treatment of patients was a landmark of communist egalitarianism but did not go in unison with good quality and efficiency of services.

In the last two decades, Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) have undergone fundamental changes: transition from socialism to capitalism, from central command to free market economy and liberal democracy. Social services have by and large had to be reinvented to adapt to this new reality whilst carrying out their work for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable. The 2009 seminar in Romania, Cluj, 25-26 May, focused on this reinvention and on ways to build modern, empowering social services by working together.

The unfinished character of the social transition leaves social services in CEECs with some serious challenges such as: de-institutionalisation of care, decentralisation of services and the development of quality standards in social services. These challenges require well-designed and timely policy responses based on sound evidence. The European Union, through its Open Method of Coordination on Social Protection and Social Inclusion, provide the national governments with opportunities to exchange the best social practices, to assess the policies and to discuss the most successful model.

Through working groups and seminars with ESN members in the CEE region, we aim to provide a platform for assessment of social services change in CEE from a practice, academic and political perspective. The ESN seminar Building Capacity, Improving Quality held in May 2008 in cooperation with the Slovenian EU Presidency, is the beginning of ESN’s work with Central and Eastern Europe.

This work was continued in May 2009 at the ESN seminar Towards Community Care held in Warsaw which addressed some of the issues around deinstitutionalization and took forward the theme of developing sustainable quality services within local communities.