Recovery Fund, because social services should not be forgotten
Alessandra Servidori's post
I signed the appeal / document launched by Ferruccio de Bortoli because I subscribe to all the requests for clarity and transparency that the Government is asked about the plans and projects to raise their heads.
For example, I am convinced that there is a wasted opportunity on the Recovery Fund and political reforms. Especially when it comes to the elderly and frail people.
The Commission's Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy for 2021 reiterates the need for interconnection between the Recovery Fund (RRF ) and the European Semester, since "the Union's priorities, subject to country-specific recommendations, should be reflected in defining the structural reforms of the Member States ".
The priority issues outlined by the Commission include: combating money laundering, fraud and corruption, improving the business environment, developing an efficient public administration and judicial system, and containing aggressive tax planning. Therefore, despite the severe effects of Covid-19 on social services and social care systems, the social impact of the pandemic appears to be a topic largely overlooked by the Commission's suggestions.
The Commission hopes that the agreement on the EU budget, agreed in July by EU leaders , will help Member States to address the critical issues identified during the European Semester and to achieve EU policy objectives, especially in terms of transition green and digital.
The reality, however, is that the bulk of the € 672.5 billion allocated in loans and grants will go to economic and financial priorities. This apparent subordination of funding to social priorities is not in line with the EU 2020 Strategy, which provided for a targeted commitment to the fight against poverty and social exclusion.
The emphasis placed on this goal appears to have faded over time. In the directives for the national implementation of the RF, the Commission suggests to the national authorities to articulate the reforms of the labor market, education, health and social policies according to the following guidelines: "Promote qualification and retraining, reduce labor market segmentation, enhance coverage of short-time working patterns and unemployment benefits, promote inclusion of people with disabilities, improve labor market participation – including vulnerable groups, improve resilience, the accessibility and effectiveness of health and care systems; o consolidate social protection (including long-term care) ”.
However, these proposals do not affect the social services and social care sectors, which have been facing a lack of adequate investment in public health and social services across Europe for years.
In addition to the lack of satisfactory long-term investment in the sector, Covid-19 has engulfed European nursing homes, causing the deaths of tens of thousands of residents.
According to data from different countries , on average the number of people who have died from Covid-19 in RSAs amounts to half of the total victims. These data show that, as part of the national implementation of the RRF, national governments need to invest in structural reforms that transform the residential care model for the elderly and people with disabilities into a model that promotes social prevention services at the of local communities, strengthen home care, ensure essential care services for patients discharged from a hospital and address the issues of staffing and skills shortages in social services and social care.
The European Parliament does not urge national governments to invest in the social services and welfare sectors. In doing so, it fails to understand the economic impact that the social services sector could have if well-resourced, and ignores evidence that more investment in the sector would promote labor market participation by vulnerable groups. Nonetheless, Eurostat data suggests that social services and social assistance represent a sizeable share of the workforce, despite the current staff shortage.
The residential and social care activities alone have 11 million workers, representing 5% of the EU workforce. Meanwhile, as ESN (European Service Network) we have calculated that the cost of social services has increased significantly during the pandemic and funding is urgently needed to ensure its resilience and sustainability. Costs are likely to further increase as digitalization processes, assistive technology and telecare are progressively developed to better respond to the needs of independent living and autonomy of users of public social services.
The Commission encourages Member States to seek the advice of their national productivity boards or independent tax authorities on their recovery and resilience plans. In addition, Member States are asked to describe, in their plan, how social actors and, where applicable, civil society organizations have been consulted and involved in the design of social / health care reforms especially for people. fragile. This perpetuates the bad habit of seeing the commitment of the parties involved only in terms of dialogue with employers, trade unions and NGOs. In this way, the need to find solutions at the local level is denied, in the communities where people live and form their families.
Unsurprisingly, there has been a disconnect between the European project and citizens' engagement, and once again this reality cannot be recognized.
In addition to social actors and social NGOs, local and regional authorities and the public social services they manage must be essential partners.
Social spending accounts for more than one fifth of subnational public spending, it follows that social welfare is a key policy area for promoting economic and social development.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/blog/recovery-fund-perche-non-vanno-dimenticati-i-servizi-sociali/ on Sun, 29 Nov 2020 10:08:30 +0000.