Peer Review Programme 2010
Newsletter 2010-2
Publication date : 2010-06-14
The Szécsény micro-region consists of 13
independent settlements, totalling 20,000 people and a significant Roma population. A pilot programme was launched in 2006 with a
view to breaking the cycle of poverty and social exclusion faced by children in
the region. Its participative and comprehensive approach combines the improvement
of nutrition and healthcare for children, the modernisation of social and childcare
services, the improvement of housing conditions, the development of public education
and of the information society, and the development of employment opportunities
for parents. The programme has proven successful and
Hungary hopes to share its experience with other Member States and to contribute
to the development of guidelines for future local/ micro-regional programmes for
combating poverty and social exclusion, particularly of Roma children. One
of the key goals of the social services reform launched in Romania in 2004 was to increase
their quality by introducing an accreditation system for social service
providers. The system sets minimum quality standards that both public and
private providers have to respect in a bid to better respond to beneficiaries’ expectations. Accreditation
is awarded at a decentralised level and is based on a methodology inspired from
the concept of total quality management, which implies that quality standards must
not only apply to the service but also to the organisation in charge of
providing the service. The
Peer Review will provide an opportunity to evaluate the role of accreditation
systems and quality standards in improving social service provision and to
discuss the possibility of developing EU principles of
excellence for social services. Thanks to the Generalitat de Cataluña’s
Programme for Developing Local Plans for Social Inclusion, which was launched in
2006, 32 local authorities within the region have developed their own plans to
promote social inclusion at the local level. The main target groups of these
Plans are the unemployed, young people, the disabled, the Roma population, immigrants
and refugees, and the homeless. Administrative cooperation, involvement of
local agents, proximity of local administration, participation of the socially-excluded
and knowledge- sharing among contrasting local experiences form the basis of
the programme. The aim for the future is to widen the
Programme to the 103 local authorities that are part of the territory. The Peer
Review will serve as an opportunity to identify areas for improvement and to
further consolidate Cataluña’s territorialsocial inclusion strategy. With
Europe’s population aged 65 and over projected
to rise by approximately 77% by 2050, the number of people requiring long-term
care is likely to grow sharply. To meet these needs, a vast continuum of
long-term care services has emerged, ranging from nursing homes to alternative
noninstitutional settings. However, ensuring the quality of these facilities
has not always proven easy. A
multitude of initiatives have been undertaken throughout Europe to assess and
regulate the quality of long-term care for older people, and the purpose of the
German Peer Review is to enable Member States to exchange their various experiences. Key
questions of the Peer Review will be how Member States actually define quality of
life in residential facilities and what kind of means are used to assess this
quality. Although
an increasing number of Member States have adopted comprehensive and participative
homelessness strategies, this has mostly occurred in northern European countries.
In contrast, many southern and eastern countries still face difficulties and constraints,
in particular with regard to strategy design and stakeholder involvement. Portugal’s
own homelessness strategy, launched in March 2009, was not only designed by a
large group of public and private stakeholders, it also involved them in the
implementation, monitoring and evaluation phases. The
Peer Review is aimed at gathering information, enhancing mutual learning and exploring
good practices in these fields. It will enable participants to share their
experiences and to learn from the elements of good governance and of
stakeholder involvement and commitment present in the Portuguese homelessness strategy.
Norway’s
social inclusion policy, under which it is compulsory for all newly-arrived adult
refugees and immigrants to participate in language training and civic
education, has proved successful in increasing participation in further
education and in the labour market and in raising the share of immigrant women
in the labour market. With
a number of European countries having already introduced similar citizenship tests
or considering doing so, the Peer Review will enable a debate on how these
types of tests can contribute to a more inclusive society by improving individuals’
skills and opportunities. It will also raise a number of important questions relating
to the methods used, the content and quality of the training courses provided, the
level of difficulty of the tests imposed, and the monitoring and evaluation of
policy results. In
February 2008, the Finnish Government adopted a programme aimed at halving long-term
homelessness by 2011. The
programme is based on the “housing first” principle, which considers that appropriate
accommodation is a prerequisite for solving other social and health problems. What’s
more, the programme includes projects aimed at providing supported housing for
recently released prisoners, reducing youth homelessness and preventing
evictions, e.g. by providing and expanding housing advisory services. The
programme is based on a comprehensive partnership approach between the central government
and the country’s ten largest cities affected by homelessness. The
Peer Review will seek to assess the programme’s success and to exchange
experiences with countries that are implementing or preparing similar national
programmes or strategies to reduce longterm homelessness. Facing
a novel situation in which the number of citizens over the state pension age exceeds
those younger than 16, the UK
is on a mission to make each village, town or city a place where the
independence, well-being and participation of older people is supported and
developed, and where the challenges and opportunities of an ageing society are
addressed. UK
Government departments and agencies and other local umbrella organisations have
been invited to sign up to a national commitment to translate this joint vision
into practical, local responses.
The
Peer Review will serve to assess the UK experience and to foster
learning on how to release the creativity and energy of citizens, interest groups
and policymakers to achieve a practical response to the demographic challenge at
local level.Hungary, 27-28 May 2010 – Promoting social inclusion of
Roma children in a disadvantaged rural environment - the micro-region of
Szécsény
Romania, 29 June 2010 – Achieving
excellence in social service provision
Spain, 7-8 October 2010 – The
Programme for developing local plans for social inclusion in Cataluña
Germany, 18-19 October 2010 – Achieving quality long-term
care in residential facilities
Portugal, 4-5 November 2010 – Building a comprehensive and
participative strategy on homelessness
Norway, 18-19 November 2010 – Making a success of
integrating immigrants into the labour market
Finland, 2-3 December 2010 – The Finnish National
Programme to reduce long-term homelessness
United Kingdom, 18-19 January 2011 – A good place
to grow older
