Social services across Europe are under growing pressure to improve quality, respond to changing needs, strengthen their workforce, embrace digital transformation and make the best use of limited resources.
The European Social Network (ESN) supports public authorities and social services organisations through tailored technical assistance, drawing on evidence, practice, and expertise from across Europe.
Our support is available to ESN Members and non-members, and can range from a focused training session or expert workshop, to an in-depth service review or longer-term support for organisational and system transformation.
How can the European Social Network support you?
We undertake independent reviews of social services to identify strengths, challenges, and opportunities for improvement.
A review can include analysis of strategies and service models, European benchmarking, interviews and focus groups with managers, frontline professionals and people with lived experience, and practical recommendations for improvement.
We can also present findings to leadership teams and provide follow-up support to help turn recommendations into action.
Our approach is collaborative, ensuring that recommendations reflect the organisation’s context and can realistically be implemented.
ESN can help national, regional, and local authorities develop or strengthen approaches to quality assurance and evaluation in social services.
Support can include developing or reviewing quality standards, defining indicators for measuring quality and outcomes, reviewing monitoring arrangements, benchmarking against European approaches, supporting new quality structures, and adapting ESN’s European Framework for Quality in Social Services to national, regional, or local contexts.
The objective is not simply to check whether processes are being followed, but to understand whether services are achieving better outcomes for people.
One of ESN’s distinctive strengths is its ability to connect social services leaders and practitioners from different European countries.
We can identify relevant approaches from other systems, connect organisations with experienced peers and create opportunities to explore how solutions work in practice.
Support can include European benchmarking, expert missions, peer reviews, study visits, workshops, exchanges between quality and inspection agencies, and presentations at your events.
Our aim is not to transfer models unchanged, but to help organisations understand what can be learned, what needs to be adapted and what works in their particular context.
We design bespoke learning activities for social services professionals, managers and organisations.
Training can be delivered online or in person and can cover topics such as:
- Social services digital transformation;
- quality and outcomes;
- person-centred and community-based services;
- service modernisation;
- leadership and organisational change;
- workforce development;
- integrated services;
- evidence-informed practice;
- European social policy developments.
Training can range from a single focused session, to a broader capacity-building programme combining expert input, practical exercises and peer learning.
For organisations implementing significant reforms, ESN can provide support from initial diagnosis through to implementation.
We can help you understand the challenge, review evidence and stakeholder perspectives, identify relevant European examples, co-design practical solutions, translate recommendations into action plans and indicators, and review progress over time.
This allows technical support to go beyond a one-off report or workshop and contribute to longer-term service improvement.
There is no standard package because every social services system and organisation faces different challenges.
A technical-support project might involve:
- a specialist training session;
- a short expert mission;
- European benchmarking and analysis;
- a peer-learning exercise;
- a comprehensive service review;
- longer-term support for reform and implementation.
We begin by discussing your challenge, your context, the expertise required and the type of support that would add most value. We then agree the scope, methodology, outputs, timeframe and investment with you.
Why work with ESN?
European perspective, local relevance
We combine knowledge of developments across Europe with an understanding that solutions must work within each organisation’s specific context.
Expertise grounded in practice
Our network gives us access to leaders, managers and practitioners with direct experience of planning, commissioning, managing, delivering and evaluating social services.
Independent and constructive challenge
We provide an external perspective while working collaboratively with your teams. Our aim is not simply to identify problems, but to help organisations find realistic ways forward.
Evidence and lived experience
We combine research and comparative evidence with professional expertise and the experiences of people who use services.
From learning to implementation
Where useful, our support can continue beyond a report or workshop to help organisations translate findings into action and review progress over time.
Technical Support in Practice
Adapting a Quality Framework — Gipuzkoa, Spain
ESN provides technical assistance to adapt our Social Services Quality Framework to the Gipuzkoa context.
The process has contributed to the development of the new Agency for the Evaluation of Care and Social Policies and is supporting exchange with quality agencies and regional authorities from elsewhere in Europe.
Social Services Reviews — Foundation for Social Welfare Services (FSWS), Malta
ESN has worked with Malta’s Foundation for Social Welfare Services on reviews covering domestic and gender-based violence, child protection and alternative care.
The methodology combined European benchmarking, analysis of the local context, fieldwork with professionals and stakeholders, engagement with people with lived experience, and practical recommendations for improvement.
Professional Training — General Council of Social Work (CGTS), Spain
ESN has provided specialist training on the foundations of e-social work as part of a digital-skills programme for professional social work organisations in Spain.
Who can work with us?
Technical support is available to ESN Members and non-members, including national ministries and government agencies, regional and local authorities, public social services, social care and welfare agencies, quality and regulatory bodies, service providers, professional bodies and organisations involved in the planning, financing or improvement of social services.
Tell us how we can help
Whether you are reviewing an existing service, developing quality standards, planning a reform, strengthening your workforce or looking for expertise from elsewhere in Europe, we would love to discuss how ESN could support you.
We will work with you to define the challenge and propose a tailored approach, identifying the expertise, methodology, timeframe and support that would bring the greatest value to your organisation.