The European Social Network (ESN)’s Annual Review highlights our activities in 2021 which were mainly focused on recovery from Covid-19, with the concept of resilience becoming increasingly central to our work and that of our members.
2021 Activities and Main themes
Gathering inputs and lessons learned so social services can emerge more resilient from the crisis and better prepared for future shocks was central to ESN’s 2021 work and activities.
In March we gathered evidence from our members on the impact of Covid-19 on social services, followed by recommendations on the support necessary to reform and rebuild, as plans for the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility were developed. We revisited this theme in October during our first in-person seminar in two years in Ljubljana, where participants could discuss how social services are transforming the way they work to support the populations they serve, and what needs to be done to ensure crisis-proof and sustainable public social services in the future.
The 2021 European Social Services Conference, was another key moment to talk about the impact of Covid-19, this time from the perspective of the delivery of community care, and the lessons to be learned from the crisis. As Martin Knapp, Professor of Social Policy, London School of Economics stated, “Ensuring a good quality of life for people using care services should be the outcome against which the return of investment in community care should be assessed.”
During 2021, ESN also shone a spotlight on the different ways in which Social Services are being transformed and the challenges they face. For example our report and online discussion on digitalisation reflects how the increasing role of technology impacts social services management, and explores the challenges that the use of technology may bring for the adaptation of public administrations responsible for social services. Our panel discussion in November on improving the quality of care highlighted the need to update current quality standards and tackle the workforce crisis, so that everyone can receive the care they need.
Our 2021 Members’ Forum was another key moment to discuss ESN’s future strategy and plans, with Social Services transformation and resilience continuing to be the ‘red thread’ which will run through our work for the next four years.
2021 in numbers
- 153 members in 34 countries.
- 9 events
- 257 online participants, 27 speakers, 26 sessions at the 2021 European Social Services Conference
- 18,694 news subscribers
- 3931 publication downloads
- 544,200 Twitter impressions
- 50 submitted projects; 16,836 online votes over 3 weeks for the European Social Services Awards
ESN’s 2021 Annual Review is available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish
Looking forward to 2022
ESN closed 2021 looking forward to the 2022 European Social Services Conference in Hamburg, where social services professionals will meet to discuss how European and national recovery tools and the innovations implemented so far can be used to rethink the planning, implementation, and evaluation of community-based social services. Find out more here.
