Not-for-profit social & healthcare service providers

On Tuesday 12 January, the European Parliament held a Social Economy Intergroup public hearing on The social economy: creating good quality jobs in Europe. Luk Zelderloo, Secretary General of EASPD, spoke on behalf of SSE to stress the need to unlock the job creation potential of the social services sector. Mr Zelderloo called for reinforced EP engagement on this objective and asked MEPs in attendance to draw up an own-initiative report on actions needed to unlock the job potential in the sector.

 

He also stressed the dual nature of the social services sector, as both an integrator of people into the labour market and an employer itself. While social services is a growth sector which creates millions of jobs in the EU, it is also confronted with structural issues. Among these, the widening gap between the supply and the demand for services (ageing populations, rise in unemployment, etc.), further compounded by fiscal consolidation. Other structural issues specifically related to staffing are the difficulties to recruit and retain professionals or the challenge represented by the rise of personal and household services and the associated need to ensure quality of services and adequate working conditions. To overcome these challenges, Mr. Zelderloo underlined the need for sufficient and sustainable financing of social services, pro-actives policies to improve the attractiveness of the sector through higher wages and improved working conditions resulting from stronger social dialogue structures in the sector

 

For more information on the hearing, including Mr Zelderloo’s presentation, click here.