• Areas of Expertise:
  • Business and society
  • Diversity
  • Employment status
  • Gender
  • Health
  • Human capital
  • Industrial change
  • Industrial relations
  • Labour market
  • Participation at work
  • Population and society
  • Quality of life
  • Quality of work
  • Social cohesion
  • Social protection
  • Time
  • Work-life balance
  • Work organisation

Social public services

Online casebook

The Foundation has produced an online casebook of best practice in Europe. The casebook gives examples from all fifteen member states of the EU and covers four client groups. The examples of best practice were extensively documented in the national reports and the synthesis report makes reference to them around specific themes. The online casebook goes further in documenting in more detail the cases and presenting them in an accessible format.

Social public services are services directly provided to citizens to meet their needs in relation to employment, health, housing, ducation, social security and care. The services are generally regulated and funded by public authorities at national, regional or local levels, but they may be provided by the public or private sector, voluntary or other third sector organisations.

These services have been subject to widespread reform and modernisation over the last decade, with policy attention to: costs, more coordinated provision, and responsiveness to user needs.

The Foundation’s research examines the impacts of quality improvement initiatives on both service to clients and on working conditions. In particular it is looking at service improvements that aim to meet the needs of client groups with multiple needs such as: adults with mental illness or learning disabilities, dependent older people, long-term unemployed young people.

National reports covering the fifteen Member States and a synthesis report (Quality in Social Public Services) have been completed as part of the research.

Related events

A seminar Quality in Social Public Services was organised by the Gabinet d'estudis sociales in Barcelona 13-14 December 2001 to discuss the National Report for Spain. Its results and conclusions are available to download (pdf format).
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At the conference Shaping the future of social services, Barcelona 5-7 June 2002, Rob Anderson, Co-ordinator, Living Conditions at the European Foundation, presented a paper on Social services, quality and the user – a European review of the development of indicators and standards.

For further information, please email Teresa Renehan.