Somewhere in Europe right now, a social services team has cracked a problem you have been dealing with for months. They found a better way to coordinate across agencies, designed a programme that actually keeps people safe, or figured out how to deliver the right service to the right people. You just have not met the person who has it yet.
This is why you should attend the European Social Services Conference 2026.
Europe's largest platform for social services
The European Social Services Conference (ESSC) is the largest public social welfare policy and practice forum in Europe. Last year's edition in Aarhus brought together almost 700 delegates (decision-makers from public authorities, third sector organisations, technology providers, researchers, and frontline professionals) all in one place, all with the same goal: to learn from each other.
This year, the 34th edition of the ESSC comes to Valletta, Malta, on 17–20 May. Leaders in social services from across Europe and beyond will gather to do what the sector does best: share, reflect, and build on each other's experience to help build better outcomes for others
Learning that crosses borders
The theme of ESSC 2026, Bridging Boundaries: International Insights into Social Services, captures something that ESN has long understood: that the most transformative ideas in social services rarely stay where they started.
Every country is facing versions of the same challenges. How do you design child protection systems that support families rather than simply manage risk? How do you build long-term care that preserves the dignity and autonomy of older people and people with disabilities? How do you tackle poverty and homelessness not through fragmented crisis responses, but through coordinated, systemic change?
No single country has all the answers. But together, we can benchmark approaches, compare models, and test ideas against peers' experience. That is the unique value of the Conference: being part of the conversations.
Connections that outlast the conference
Significantly, the value of the ESSC is not limited to what happens in the conference rooms. It is in the conversation over lunch with an expert from a country you have never visited. It is in the session where a researcher from outside Europe challenges assumptions you did not know you were making. It is in the moment when a colleague describes a solution that you realise you can adapt and bring home.
The programme is designed with connection in mind: from dedicated networking breaks and informal exchanges between sessions, to the Conference Networking Dinner, which brings all delegates together for an evening of conversation in one of Valletta’s most atmospheric settings.
ESN built the ESSC 2026 on the conviction that peer exchange is one of the most powerful tools available to social services professionals. Across 34 editions, the Conference has become the place where relationships are formed, partnerships begin, and new thinking takes root.
Register and bring your questions
Delegate registration for ESSC 2026 is open until 8 May. Whether you come with a challenge to solve, a practice to share, or simply the ambition to connect with the people shaping social services across Europe, Valletta is where you need to be this May.
