The Recovery and Resilience Funds and the future ESF + offer the opportunity to make a robust investment in public social services, and aspire to transform the care, social support and welfare models of our societies. The European Commission’s recommendations to national governments have been focusing on well-functioning minimum income schemes to help support the most vulnerable in our societies. But with the evidence gathered over the years we are very much aware that minimum income needs to be combined in an integrated manner with access to quality social services to ensure the social inclusion of beneficiaries. This briefing aims to address and explore the challenges outlined in an online European Social Services Conference session on minimum income and social services held in June 2021 to contribute to the debate on improving integrated income and social services programmes, a key aspect of our work at the European Social Network.