Public services
Public services such as healthcare, social care, education and transport are essential for achieving high levels of social protection, social cohesion and social inclusion. But it is the quality of and access to services that determines their success across a changing social and demographic landscape. The challenge for policymakers is to ensure the design and delivery of health and social services that meet the varied needs of citizens. That challenge has been compounded by severe financial constraints and by increasing demand, driven in part by demographic ageing and, in some part, by the influx of refugees to Europe. In addition to affordability and quality, newer issues are also emerging. These include the opportunities of digitalisation, along with the risk that new digital channels for service delivery may isolate already disadvantaged communities and the potential threat of increasing diversity of service providers on access to and quality of public services.
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31 July 2025
La promotion du bien-être des enfants et la lutte contre la pauvreté des enfants sont des objectifs clés de la nouvelle Commission européenne. Ce rapport analyse les tendances et les disparités en matière d’accessibilité des services pour les enfants qui doivent être abordées pour y parvenir. De plus, étant donné que le personnel joue un rôle essentiel dans la détermination de la qualité et de l’accessibilité de ces services, ce rapport décrit l’état des lieux des conditions de travail du personnel et des possibilités de formation. De bonnes conditions de travail et des services abordables de haute qualité, tels que l’éducation et l’accueil de la petite enfance, jouent également un rôle clé dans l’encouragement de la participation au marché du travail et l’augmentation de la productivité.
8 October 2024
This report focuses on unemployment and minimum income benefits for people of working age. Individuals with short or no employment records (mainly young people), the self-employed, those with non-standard working arrangements, and the long-term unemployed are often not entitled to higher-tier, or any, unemployment benefits. No Member State was identified where more than 80% of those entitled to minimum income benefits receive them. Benefit recipients at higher risk of having an inadequate income include those without access to social housing in areas with high housing costs, unemployed individuals whose most recent job was low paid and the long-term unemployed people. The report also investigates the rejection of applications (frequently, around 30% are rejected), the digitalisation of application processes (most common for unemployment benefits) and economic activation requirements (typically, 1–6% of benefit recipients annually are sanctioned for not complying with activity requirements) and service entitlements.
17 October 2023
The Treaty of Lisbon established territorial cohesion as the third dimension of European cohesion. Despite the high priority given in policy to achieving geographically balanced economic development, gaps in living conditions still exist between rural and urban areas. In some cases, these gaps are growing. This report documents rural–urban differences in social, political, cultural and economic outcomes. These differences may pose a serious threat to social cohesion in Europe. Indeed, this report finds that rural residents more often perceive themselves as disregarded by governments and have lower levels of trust in governments and institutions than urban residents. Moreover, public service provision in rural areas is poorer than in urban areas, and gaps in provision are continually emerging. To ensure a bright future for all areas, innovative solutions to combat economic decline must be found. This report outlines creative solutions that are being deployed across Member States to provide services in remote areas.
À propos Public services
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20 September 2023
Guaranteeing access to services for children in the EU
The European Child Guarantee was established in 2021 to ensure that children in need have access to a set of key services. This policy brief analyses trends and disparities in children’s access to early childhood education and care, education, healthcare, nutrition and housing. This is done using a convergence analysis, which tracks whether Member States are improving in respect of specific performance indicators and whether disparities between them are expanding or narrowing. The analysis, where possible, also looks at the differences between urban and rural areas and between children living in households with different levels of income and risk of social exclusion. The indicators chosen for analysis highlight the links between the Guarantee, the European Semester and the Social Scoreboard.
16 August 2023
Social services in Europe: Adapting to a new reality
This report addresses the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on social services in the EU. While the pandemic negatively affected social services, it nevertheless provided lessons on how to adapt them in response to new challenges and social risks. One lesson, for instance, is that policies should be developed to make better use of digitalisation in the sector, to improve access to new technologies and training for both workers and services’ target groups. And, most importantly, there is a need for clear contingency plans and funding for adaptation in times of crisis.
An increase in public expenditure on social protection, healthcare and education was a critical part of the pandemic response. However, there is uncertainty about the future development of social services in the context of the overarching policy interest and investment in the green and digital transition. This implies that the contribution of social services to the resilience of European societies needs to remain in the policy debate and that policies should be further fine-tuned.
7 September 2022
Access to essential services for people on low incomes: Energy, public transport and digital communications
In collecting information on essential services, the European Commission requested Eurofound to provide input on certain aspects of existing and planned measures in the Member States to improve access to essential services in reference to Principle 20 of the European Pillar of Social Rights. For this exercise, the scope was on energy services, public transport, and digital communications, and the focus on people at risk of poverty or social exclusion (in most cases in practice, people on low incomes). This paper provides an overview of the measures in the Member States based mainly on the inputs from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents, collected in February–March 2022. The paper reviews the measures across the entire EU by clustering the major types or targets of the measures to make essential services accessible, and by succinctly listing main country-level examples. It provides information for understanding the diversity and similarities of the measures applied and suggests pointers on areas where policy action could be developed.
30 September 2021
COVID-19: A turning point for upward convergence in health and healthcare in the EU?
The impact of COVID-19 has moved public health up the EU social policy agenda. As the EU directs its efforts towards establishing a European Health Union to guard against future health crises, this policy brief examines the extent to which the EU achieved upward convergence in terms of health and healthcare outcomes, as well as health expenditures and delivery, prior to the pandemic. It also examines convergence patterns in infections and deaths from COVID-19 and in the mitigating measures adopted by the EU and national governments.
The findings indicate that, from 2008 to 2019, the health of EU citizens improved overall, and Member States converged in health outcomes, but disparities in government expenditures and delivery of health services continued to widen. Against this background, the COVID-19 pandemic caused further divergence, with death and infection tolls varying greatly across countries. The policy brief stresses that a European Health Union would ideally not only reinforce the crisis preparedness of the EU but also ultimately enable convergence in health and healthcare indicators across its Member States.
14 December 2020
Long-term care workforce: Employment and working conditions
The long-term care (LTC) sector employs a growing share of workers in the EU and is experiencing increasing staff shortages. The LTC workforce is mainly female and a relatively large and increasing proportion is aged 50 years or older. Migrants are often concentrated in certain LTC jobs. This report maps the LTC workforce’s working conditions and the nature of employment and role of collective bargaining in the sector. It also discusses policies to make the sector more attractive, combat undeclared work and improve the situation of a particularly vulnerable group of LTC workers: live-in carers. The report ends with a discussion and policy pointers on addressing expected staff shortages and the challenges around working conditions.
8 October 2020
Access to care services: Early childhood education and care, healthcare and long-term care
The right of access to good-quality care services is highlighted in the European Pillar of Social Rights. This report focuses on three care services: early childhood education and care (ECEC), healthcare, and long-term care. Access to these services has been shown to contribute to reducing inequalities throughout the life cycle and achieving equality for women and persons with disabilities. Drawing on input from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents and Eurofound’s own research, the report presents an overview of the current situation in various EU Member States, Norway and the UK, outlining barriers to the take-up of care services and differences in access issues between population groups. It pays particular attention to three areas that have the potential to improve access to services: ECEC for children with disabilities and special educational needs, e-healthcare and respite care.
Experts en Public services
Les chercheurs d'Eurofound fournissent des informations spécialisées et peuvent être contactés pour des questions ou des demandes des médias.
Daniel Molinuevo
Senior research managerDaniel Molinuevo est chargé de recherche au sein de l’unité Politiques sociales, ayant rejoint Eurofound en 2010. Ses recherches sur la santé et l’aide sociale ont porté sur la qualité et l’accessibilité des services, leur transformation numérique et les conditions de travail du personnel. Son travail s’est principalement concentré sur les services destinés aux enfants, tant à Eurofound qu’à l’UNICEF, où il a travaillé en 2021 pour soutenir la mise en œuvre de la garantie européenne pour l’enfance. Il a étudié la sociologie à Salamanque, en Espagne, et à l’Université Humboldt de Berlin. Il est titulaire d’une maîtrise en études politiques et administratives européennes du Collège d’Europe à Bruges et d’une maîtrise en politique sociale européenne de la London School of Economics, où il a également travaillé en tant que chercheur.
Hans Dubois
Senior research managerHans Dubois est directeur de recherche principal au sein de l’unité Politiques sociales d’Eurofound. Ses sujets de recherche comprennent le logement, le surendettement, les soins de santé, les soins de longue durée, les prestations sociales, la retraite et la qualité de vie sur le territoire. Avant de rejoindre Eurofound, il était professeur assistant à l’Université Kozminski (Varsovie). Il a obtenu un doctorat en administration et gestion des affaires à l’Université Bocconi (Milan), après avoir travaillé comme chargé de recherche à l’Observatoire européen des systèmes et des politiques de santé (Madrid).
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