Social services now have a unique opportunity to benefit from the resources deployed to offset the harmful effects of the pandemic. Still, they need to make sure they are relevant to the finance authorities who distribute these...

The European Social Services Conference, the largest international forum for social services professionals in Europe, is coming back in 2022. The event, organised by the European Social Network, in cooperation with ESN member, the...

The State of the Union address is the annual opportunity for the European Commission to highlight pressing challenges the EU is facing as well as announcing its future actions to tackle these issues. Unfortunately for social...

The social difficulties of families in poverty, young care leavers and people in long-term care are often complex, requiring coordinated support from a range of services. Unfortunately, their responses can be fragmented, failing...

The call for applications for the European Social Services Awards (ESSA) closed on September 3rd and the panel of expert judges is now evaluating the projects presented under each of the five categories: Outstanding Team, Research...

Social inclusion as a political priority has been gathering momentum at EU level. The previous Portuguese Council Presidency hosted a social summit in Porto where all EU leaders signed an agreement on targets for social inclusion...

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a stress test of enormous proportions for the social services workforce. With the national spotlight on them, the challenges of coping with an increased workload coupled with a shrinking budget, were...

A central component of community care is ensuring that services are tailored to the needs of the individual in terms of accessibility and practical implementation. At the European Social Services Conference (ESSC), we heard from...

For social services working with vulnerable populations, ethical issues are often present in practice. The Covid-19 pandemic has only added to these uncertainties.