Restructuring the welfare state: reforms in long-term care in Western European countries

Faced with the problems associated with an ageing society, many European countries have adopted innovative policies to achieve a better balance between the need to expand social care and the imperative to curb public spending. Although embedded within peculiar national traditions, these new policies share some characteristics: (a) a tendency to combine monetary transfers to families with the provision of in-kind services; (b) the establishment of a new social care market based on competition; (c) the empowerment of users through their increased purchasing power; and (d) the introduction of funding measures intended to foster care-giving through family networks. This article presents the most significant reforms recently introduced in six European countries (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK) as regards long-term care. It analyses their impact at the macro- (institutional and quantitative), meso- (service delivery structures) and micro-level (families, caregivers and people in need). As a result the authors find a general trend towards convergence in social care among the countries, and the emergence of a new type of government regulation designed to restructure rather than to reduce welfare programmes

Urban Policy in Times of Crisis: The Policy Capacity of European Cities and the Role of Multi-Level Governance

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The policy framework in Bologna

The FLOWS (Impact of local welfare systems on female labour force participation and social cohesion) project has been funded under the EU FP7 program, grant Agreement no: 26680

Nem mind arany, ami fénylik: a tartós gondozás reformja Európában az elmúlt két évtizedben

A tanulmány a tartós gondozás (long-term care – LTC) terén az elmúlt két évtizedben végbement reformokat vizsgálja hat európai jóléti államban. Ennek során három kérdéssel foglalkozik: (1) miért történtek a reformok, (2) melyek a reformfolyamat mögött levő fő szereplők, szövetségek és intézményi mechanizmusok, (3) mik a reformfolyamatok fő eredményei? Az LTC-politikák elemzéséhez a tanulmány a történelmi institucionalizmus elméletét alkalmazza. Értelmezésünk szerint az LTC-politikákban az intézményes változás egy olyan hosszas intézményi dinamikában ment végbe, amelyben a kontinuitás és diszkontinuitás elválaszthatatlanul összekapcsolódott, és ahol döntő szerepet játszottak a feszültségek és ellentmondások. Az eredmények vizsgálatakor a tanulmány a lefedettséget és a gondozó szektorban dolgozók állampolgári jogait és munkakörülményeit, valamint a gondozás defamilizálásának és refamilizálásának folyamatait elemzi. A változások végső eredményeként az univerzalizmus szintje általában nőtt Európában, de ez részben egy újfajta „korlátozott univerzalizmusban” jelent meg. Ezt az LTC-juttatásokhoz való univerzális hozzáférés jellemzi, az ellátásokat azonban behatárolják a pénzügyi kényszerek és költségvetési plafonok

Trapped in a blind spot : the Covid-19 crisis in nursing homes in Italy and Spain

Altres ajuts: Govern de Catalunya (2020FI_B1 00049)This article investigates the delay in implementation and inadequacy of specific policy actions in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing homes. The analysis focuses on Lombardy and Madrid, the two wealthiest regions in Italy and Spain. These were the most severely affected by the onset of the pandemic, both country-wise and at the European level. We compare the chronology of policy decisions that affected nursing homes against the broader policy responses related to the health crisis. We look at structural factors that reveal policy legacy effects. Our analysis shows that key emergency interventions arrived late, especially when compared to similar actions taken by the national health services. Weak institutional embedding of nursing homes within the welfare state in terms of ownership, allocation of resources, regulation and coordination hindered a swift response to the onset of the crisis

Stima del fabbisogno e della spesa long term-care in Italia: valutazioni ex-ante di una proposta di riforma

Questo rapporto intende contribuire all’analisi e discussione sulla riforma del sistema italiano di long-term care (LTC) attraverso una stima della spesa necessaria a finanziare la nuova Prestazione Universale per la Non Autosufficienza, prevista dall’articolo 4 della legge 33/2023. Il rapporto è articolato in tre parti. La prima fornisce una stima sintetica della spesa necessaria all’implementazione della Prestazione Universale a partire da come questa è stata disegnata nella legge. Le parti successive presentano le relazioni tecniche. La seconda parte presenta una stima dell’entità del fabbisogno assistenziale a cui la Prestazione Universale dovrebbe rispondere. La terza parte illustra nel dettaglio i contenuti della stima economica