On 20 June the Council of Ministers for Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs adopted conclusions on the European Commission's Social Investment Package (SIP). The SIP is a new policy framework launched in February this year with proposals on a range of areas to encourage investment in human capital and promote measures strengthening people’s skills and capabilities throughout the life cycle.
The Council’s conclusions emphasise that reforms should aim at strengthening human capital, health and education, and enabling policies through more effective support, with a strong focus on early years. Intervention policies focusing on children’s education and care have a major potential to address income, health and social challenges.
The conclusions welcome specifically the Commission’s Recommendation on Investing in Children – ‘Breaking the cycle of disadvantage’, which is part of the SIP. The Recommendation urges Member States to design and implement child friendly policies that invest in children and break the cycle of social disadvantage through a multi-dimensional approach that combines access to adequate resources, good quality and affordable services, and children's participation in decisions affecting their lives.
The European Social Network (ESN), together with other European networks and UNICEF, prepared a joint statement ahead of the Council meeting calling on Ministers to promote measures which lead to the reduction of child poverty and social exclusion in their countries. The statement also argued for the use of EU Structural Funds strategically to inject much needed resources to reform policies and boost child and family services, and integrated strategies. Finally, the Network of Independent Experts on Social Inclusion will be publishing a report on Member States’ priorities for implementing the Recommendation by early September.
At national level, the Belgian government has recently presented the first national plan to fight child poverty and promote children’s wellbeing, which is a result of close collaboration between the federal government, the communities, regions and stakeholders. The plan follows the structure of the European Recommendation to ensure coherence with the European context and the three pillars (access to adequate resources, access to services and to participation) make up the strategic objectives of the Belgian national plan against child poverty. In addition, a fourth pillar aims to foster horizontal and vertical partnerships between various political sectors and administrative levels. The plan includes a total of 140 actions across all four pillars. You can find the action plan (in French) on the website of ESN member, the SPP Intégration Sociale.
The European Social Network (ESN) is currently contributing to the implementation of the Recommendation with a two year project that analyses the situation in terms of access to services in different countries, a cross-comparison and recommendations for public authorities with regards to how services should develop in line with the Recommendation.