Social policy innovation was the title of a high-level conference organised by the European Commission this week from 19 – 20 May in Brussels. The objective of the conference was it to contribute to a new focus and a better understanding among public authorities and stakeholders on how social policy innovation catalyses structual reforms. It also looked specifically at the role of evidence-based research and knowledge-sharing for implementing innovative social policy reforms.
László Andor, the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Social emphasised in his opening remarks that policy innovation needs to be embedded in policy-making and linked to social policy priorities. He also stated that social policy innovation can only play its role if we further invest in capacity building of policy makers and stakeholders involved. This remark was picked up throughout the conference, making capacity building of all stakeholders involved in policy shaping one of the most important criteria for social policy innovation. Frank Vandenbroucke, professor of Social Economic Analysis at the University of Antwerp, made the case for a European Social Union that supports national welfare states on a systemic level. He suggested to promote unifying policy concepts that guide all member states in the same direction in order to tackle poverty and social exclusion in the EU. Another interesting point he made was that there is a correlation between the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results of a country and its unemployment rate. Therefore, it is important to invest in innovative preventive measures, for example in the field of education. Other speakers supported this argument saying that investment in education is as important as investment in jobs.
Lieve Fransen, who is Director for Social Policies and Europe 2020 in DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission, said that the financial crisis is deeper and longer than expected. In order to overcome the social implications of the crisis there is a need to focus on change at the systemic level and therefore innovation should test systems approaches of social policy reforms.
A number of speakers focused their intervention on the distinction between outcomes and impact. Thus, social innovation and social investment cannot be measured on a short- or medium term basis but need to be looked at on a long-term basis. Also, the impact is something that will be visible only in a few years’ time.
Furthermore, participants agreed that social policy innovation needs to be based on partnerships bringing together public sector, civil society organisations, social entrepreneurs and other private actors. Ariane Rodert from the European Economic and Social Committee stated that new ways of working in multi-disciplinary teams at multi-ministerial level have to develop in order to innovate social policies. Furthermore, there was a remark that stakeholders should engage in partnerships in order to develop as well as improve social policies and to improve knowledge. Here, it could be the role of the European Commission to facilitate contacts between different stakeholders.
In his final remarks Michel Servoz, the Director-General of DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, highlighted that the European Commission is giving guidelines to Member States through the European Semester process to help them on the way to social innovation. The 20% of the European Social Fund earmarked for social inclusion measures is a tool that can be used to develop social innovation. Moreover, the European Commission announced the first call for proposals under the new EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation.