Listening to service users and respecting their dignity should be the cornerstone of the 21st century public services. Everyone who receives support should have control over their lives, whatever the care settings. This is the vision of a future social care system.

Care in large institutions can hardly be compatible with this vision. As confirmed by the 2009 report of an EU group on transition, institutional care segregates users and tends to be characterised by depersonalisation, rigidity of routine, block treatment and social distance. As such they contradict with the long-established values of social work with disadvantaged and vulnerable people, and are incompatible with universal human rights.

Drawing on these values and practice examples of its members, ESN held an event in Warsaw in 2009 ‘Towards Community Care’ where over 50 participants from 20 European countries took part in two day discussion about the opportunities and challenges faced by local social directors planning to embark on the process of deinstitutionalisation.

This exploratory event led to the launch of the ESN policy & practice group to study the transition from institutional to community care in greater detail. ‘Developing community care’ (DCC) group brought together eight professionals from across Europe, representing providers, funders and strategic planners. The group chose a thematic approach focusing on particular user groups and visited a number of projects on the ground.

Alongside the DCC Group, a special High Level Advisory Committee has helped ESN shape its strategic thinking. Both the Committee and the Group contributed largely to the ESN policy & practice report, coming soon.

To read more about group’s work click on the following:

• DCC and intellectual disability – meeting in Brighton
• DCC and old age – meeting in Dublin
• DCC and mental health – meeting in Venice
• DCC and children – meeting in Sofia

You can also find out more about the field visits and read members’ presentations in the Care in Practice section.

Deinstitutionalisation and community care development was also the theme of the European Social Services Conference in Warsaw in July 2011. Read about the discussion and contributions by Jan Pfeiffer (Chair of the European Deinstitutionalisation Expert Group), Yannis Vardkastanis (President of the European Disability Forum), Martin Knapp (Professor at the London School of Economics), Maria Nadazdyova (Director General at the Slovak Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs) and Bruno Forti (Director of Social and Health Services in Belluno).