Over the past 10 years, the number of Europeans living in institutional care has increased by 29% for adults with disabilities, 14% for children, and 11% for older persons. These alarming figures were recently published in a study by Eurofound, which analysed progress in deinstitutionalisation across EU Member States. This shows that, despite deinstitutionalisation efforts at EU and national levels, Europe is still struggling to provide many people with access to community-based services and independent living. Therefore, the European Social Network (ESN) is calling for the new European Commission and Parliament to work on a European community care strategy that would ensure the transition towards community-based care and support.
Independent living is a key element, but there is more
The European Commission’s new guidance on independent living is a first step forward, especially regarding the development of community-based services for people with disabilities. The guidance, with its practical recommendations to EU Member States on the use of EU funding, will help accelerate the transition from institutional care to community-based services and independent living for persons with disabilities. But there are other groups who should profit from EU initiatives towards de-institutionalisation, such as children, older people or people in homelessness. A broader EU strategy would compel action and targets for all those groups.
Monitor progress for all groups
The EU guidelines on independent living state that local, regional, and national deinstitutionalisation processes “can only be effective when they are underpinned by a strategic long-term framework, with a clear timeframe, time-bound targets, allocated budget, monitoring tools and performance review process.” This applies not only to the independent living guidelines but to any broader EU strategy for community care. Such a strategy should measure progress in the transition to community care in all services. This includes, for example, services addressed to children in alternative care, who in many EU countries are too often taken into residential care instead of being accommodated with families. This trend emerged from the data analysis made in ESN’s 2024 Social Services Index.
Include prevention programmes
Prevention should be a key element of a future EU strategy on community care. The central role of addressing needs at an early stage was showcased recently in a webinar organised by the European Expert Group (EEG,) of which ESN is a founding member, the transition from institutional to community-based living. For instance, the newly introduced Socio-Educational Intervention Service (SIS) in Catalonia, Spain, strengthens existing prevention programmes such as the City of Lleida’s new Triangle+ service. This service improves the skills of parents in difficult social situations, such as single-parenthood or unemployment, to avoid a negative impact on their children.
Social services and people using them should be involved
For the new independent living guidelines and any broader future EU community care strategy to unfold its full potential, the involvement of local authorities and social services in the design, planning, and evaluation will be key. Those who plan, finance, provide, and evaluate services should be key interlocutors in the strategies’ preparation and implementation. ESN provided input into the independent living guidelines and will do so for any broader EU strategy around deinstitutionalisation. It is evident, too, that any future strategy should be co-produced as well with the people who will most profit from such services, the people who receive them. In this case, people with disabilities. ESN recently highlighted how social services are driving the development of community care in collaboration with people using services, for instance, in Sardina, Italy, Co-designed Care Plans for People with Disabilities have become the norm and will be rolled out across the whole of Italy in 2025, illustrating how progress can be in a co-creative manner.
Taking comprehensive EU-level action across sectors
As we have seen with the EU strategy for people with disabilities and its flagship, the EU guidelines for independent living of people with disabilities, EU action on promoting community care is fragmented into different initiatives per target group and sectors. With the new European Commission disintegrating disability inclusion policies from DG EMPL into DG JUST, this risk becomes more accrued. As explained by ESN’s CEO, Alfonso Lara-Montero, “Instead of advancing by sector, we need an overarching European community care strategy clearly led and implemented to ensure we see progress across all social services. Our 2023 report on the key components to set up community-based services is a well-documented basis for a future roadmap”.
