Social services are often the first place people turn to when life issues begin to unravel: A family struggling to pay rent, an older person losing autonomy or a child with developmental difficulties.
Yet resilient social services cannot just be about responding when things go wrong, but to build systems that reduce inequality earlier, prevent crises before they unfold wherever possible, and support people before they reach any breaking point.
This was one of the key messages emerging from the 34th edition of the European Social Services Conference – a reminder that social services do not operate in isolation and social difficulties like poverty, housing exclusion, lack of employment or ill health are often the reasons why people need support in the first place.
Placing fairness at the centre
Plenary 1 brought together different perspectives that converged on one point: resilience and equity are part of the same coin.
Professor Elsa Fornero spoke of intergenerational fairness. With ageing populations, a shrinking workforce and growing pressure on public finances, welfare systems across Europe are facing difficult choices. Yet, Ms Fornero underlined that “a good policy reform is one that improves both adequacy and sustainability” and added that, at a time when the youth feels less economically secure than their parents, resilient systems must not place a burden on younger generations.
Addressing all inequalities
If social services are to reduce inequality, they first need to understand where inequality is happening and who is being left behind. Take, for instance, digital transformation. Catalonia’s third sector platform presented the digital divide index, which has helped understand better the situation of those who are being excluded from the digitalisation process, like older people, those living in rural areas or on lower incomes. Those excluded from the digital world are often also excluded from exercising their essential rights.
And it goes beyond digitalisation. Better data does not solve inequality by itself, but it helps policymakers see problems earlier on and therefore design smarter responses.
Professor Karina Batthyány reminded us the question of unseen inequalities when she referred to the unpaid work carried out by those caring for a dependent relative. Ms Batthyány argued that the invisibility of care meant that policy makers often behaved as if there was not an issue in the first place, and underlined that care cannot be treated as a burden quietly addressed by women and had to be recognised as a social responsibility.
Confronting systemic barriers
Another conference discussion focused on something social services know all too well: while the support may well be there, navigating the system becomes far too complicated for those who need most support.
Barcelona County Council’s one-stop social benefits offices (OGPS) offer a practical response to address this challenge. By bringing information, guidance, assessment and benefits management together in a single access point, the model aims to reduce fragmentation and make support easier to access for those who need it.
From crisis intervention to prevention
Too often social services spend too much time fire-fighting, yet many examples across the conference highlighted the benefits of prevention and early intervention.
Professor Marmot perhaps best captured this spirit when he reminded delegates that “hope is the opposite of fear.”
In social services, hope is not abstract. It translates to the recognition that systems can intervene earlier and therefore people can be supported before crises escalate and in doing so, we can reduce all sorts of inequalities.
Conversations at the 2026 European Social Services Conference reinforced that resilient social services based on prevention, cooperation and strong local delivery can ensure fairer, more accessible and better placed social services to best support the people who need them.
