Eurodiaconia’s network of members collectively account for decades of experience in providing quality integrated care services, including childcare and long-term care, that enables everyone to actively participate and contribute to society. As a result, Eurodiaconia was able to submit relevant input regarding the Commission’s upcoming Care Strategy, as well as the Council Recommendations for Long-Term Care (LTC) and the revision of the Barcelona Targets for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC).

Based on the experience from our members, we identified key challenges and guiding principles specific to the care sector, accompanied by separate focuses on the LTC and ECEC. These challenges and principles shaped Eurodiaconia’s vision for the future of care, to a care strategy which prioritizes rights-based and human centered approaches accompanied by integrated, inclusive affordable and accessible services across one’s life cycle. To achieve this objective, Eurodiaconia proposed recommendations such as collecting standardized up-to-date data across the care sector to inform policies, measure accesses and barriers as well as to monitor the implementation process of care-related national strategies. Additionally, Eurodiaconia proposed for the establishment of quality indicators to assess the impact services have on quality of life, and for adequate and sustainable funding as years of underfunding and underinvestment have limited the care sector.

Importantly, Eurodiaconia is proposing the establishment of a European Care Guarantee to ensure everyone living in the EU has access to affordable and quality care services throughout their life cycle. This Guarantee should provide a cohesive framework for Member States to deliver high quality services, which are rights-based and person-centered, including decent working conditions and training opportunities to support formal and informal carers.

To know more about Eurodiaconia’s proposals for a European Care Strategy and the two related Council Recommendations, please have a look at our contributions to the consultation:

Eurodiaconia will continue to closely follow the development of the European Care Strategy and we invite all interested members to save the date for this year’s Social and Healthcare Services Network Meeting, which will focus on long-term and take place in Vienna on 6 and 7 October 2022.