As part of its four-year strategy, the European Social Network (ESN) launched a working group which runs between 2022-2025 to steer peer exchange about local strategies to support social services’ transformation and resilience to ensure the continuity of services in crisis situations.
As the world moves from crisis to crisis, from the Covid-19 pandemic to dealing with the fall out of the Ukraine war or the cost-of-living crisis, social services carry the responsibility to take care of those made vulnerable by these crises. However, after years of underinvestment social services have been stripped considerably of the financial, human and infrastructure resources needed to provide quality care. Despite these challenges, the public sector has demonstrated its ability to bounce back with numerous examples of social innovations, resilient programmes, and strategies in Europe.
At the 2023 working group meeting of the transformation and resilience working group, we focused on how public social services managed increasing demand through a proposal for a demand management framework. The framework consists of five pillars, one of which refers to data driven approaches enabled by technology. The 2024 meeting of the transformation and resilience working group will address the digital transformation of social services organizations; for instance, the use technology and data-driven approaches to improve planning, delivery and evaluation of social services to individuals and communities.
PROGRAMME
Monday, 25 March 2024
Welcome Session
Ornella Guglielmino, Region Lazio Director for Social Inclusion
Christian Fillet, ESN Chair
Introduction to the Working Group
Introduction to the work group, the work done so far by ESN and how digital transformation improves planning, delivery, and evaluation of social services.
Alfonso Lara Montero, ESN Chief Executive Officer
Eline Chivot, DG Connect, European Commission
Dorothy Adams, OECD
Q&A
Connecting with US colleagues: Centre for Public Sector and AI
A video presentation and conversation with Justin Brown, former social services director in the US, who has launched with other directors the Centre for Public Sector and AI, an initiative to identify practice of AI in social services, benefits and issues, policy and practice questions.
Digital Transformation – where we are?
Social service digitalisation state of play and the obstacles to the transformation. Scenario from six European Countries.
Chair: Alfonso Lara Montero, ESN Chief Executive Officer
Andrea Bilotti, University Rome (Italy)
Hannah Gill, Local Government Association (UK)
Kathleen Wabrowetz, Association for Public and Private Welfare (Germany)
Anna Isoviita, Association of Social Directors (Finland)
Iris Leene, DIVOSA (Netherlands)
Q&A
Tuesday, 26 March 2024
Introduction
Short summary of day one and presentation of day two.
Francesco Capuani, ESN Development Coordinator
Data Integration and Case Management
Presentation of practices and discussion on how social services organizations can benefit from integrating various data sources, such as client information, case histories, and demographic data, into a unified system.
Chair: Alfonso Lara Montero, ESN Chief Executive Officer
- Mārtiņš Moors, Riga City Council
- KPMG / Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, Italy
- Bianca Caruana, Malta_Aġenzija Sapport
Q&A
Analytics and Predictive Modelling
Presentation of practices and discussion on how the data entry/ analysis automation and predictive modellings (e.g. through AI) can help social services organizations to identify trends, patterns, risks and support decision-making processes.
Chair: Alfonso Lara Montero, ESN Chief Executive Officer
- Andreas Johanson, AB Solutions / Helsingborg City Council
- Borja Prieto, Madrid City Council
Q&A
Group Discussions
Participants, divided into groups, will discuss:
- Key priorities of digital transformation
- Enablers and Barriers
- Develop digital skills of the workforce
- How ESN can help
- What participants would like the WG to focus on next meeting.
- Ethical concerns on the use of technology
Reporting back and End of the meeting
Pre-assigned rapporteurs will report back from their small group exercise.
Alfonso Lara Montero, ESN Chief Executive Officer