Public services
Public services such as healthcare, social care, education and transport are essential for achieving high levels of social protection, social cohesion and social inclusion. But it is the quality of and access to services that determines their success across a changing social and demographic landscape.
The challenge for policymakers is to ensure the design and delivery of health and social services that meet the varied needs of citizens. That challenge has been compounded by severe financial constraints and by increasing demand, driven in part by demographic ageing and, in some part, by the influx of refugees to Europe.
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Quality of life data show that in most countries, the capital city has advantages compared to the regions outside the capital. In light of the continued growth of capital city populations and the concentration of resources within them, this policy brief explores the source of the advantages of capital cities in quality of life. Are these advantages mostly related to specific demographics that these cities nurture and attract? Or do these advantages stem from opportunities that major cities provide due to their scale and economic growth?
The policy brief aims to clarify why policy should focus on both the economy and society when it comes to advancing economic, social and territorial cohesion.
Social protection 2.0: Unemployment and minimum income benefits
This report focuses on unemployment and minimum income benefits for people of working age. Individuals with short or no employment records (mainly young people), the self-employed, those with non-standard working arrangements, and the long-term unemployed are often not entitled to higher-tier, or any, unemployment benefits.This section describes the research that Eurofound carries out on a topic.
Eurofound examines the needs of citizens generally, with a special focus on young people, older people and those with physical or mental health problems. It monitors and analyses changes in public services brought about by budgetary constraints, changes in policies and advances in technology and digitalisation. Eurofound’s research into public services also examines the perspectives of service providers and their response to changing user needs.
Future research will focus on mental health services and services facilitating independent living. Furthermore, the impact of the inflow of mobile citizens on the public services of EU Member States will be an important consideration.
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This describes the EU context.
The European Commission’s Social Investment Package, launched in 2013, urged Member States to put greater emphasis on high-quality public services. It highlighted the importance of improving access to early childhood education and care, as well as quality healthcare as a key element in improving overall health and maintaining the productivity of the workforce. In May 2019, the Council of the EU adopted the Recommendation on high-quality early childhood education and care systems to support Member States in improving access to and quality of the services they provide. Following this, the European Child Guarantee was adopted in June 2021 and aims to ensure that all children have access to the most basic of rights like healthcare and education.
Furthermore, the Commission’s Digital Single Market strategy for Europe, adopted in 2015, puts an emphasis on modernising public services as a way to boost competitiveness. Embracing new technologies, online public services and cross-border interoperability are critical to increasing cost-efficiencies and quality of services. The EU Digital Decade, announced in 2021, sets out a vision for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030. It outlines four key areas, one of which is digitalisation of public services.
This is a selection of the most important outputs for this topic.
1 November 2024
This report describes the employment and social situation of young people in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia – the WB6) and also looks at employment in Türkiye.
It focuses on young people because they were particularly hard hit by COVID‐19. It disrupted the quality and quantity of their education and training, and many lost their jobs. As elsewhere, the crisis disproportionately impacted young people’s well-being in the WB6 and Türkiye.
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December 2024
This policy brief investigates how organisations are adapting their work organisation and practices to hybrid work. Based on case studies and on data from the European Working Conditions Survey 2024, the policy brief examines how hybrid work is being managed in organisations and profiles
21 November 2024
Psychosocial risks to workers' well-being: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic
Psychosocial risks represent a major challenge to the health and well-being of workers in the EU. While the COVID-19 pandemic intensified some of these risks, it also increased awareness of them among policymakers. Using data from the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey 2021 and building on a theoretical model that differentiates between job stressors and job resources, this report examines key psychosocial risks in the workplace and their impact on health. It also assesses job characteristics that could help to protect workers’ health and well-being in post-pandemic workplaces. While the prevalence of psychosocial risks varies across the Member States, work–life interference and work intensity are the most widespread risks in the EU, and the prevalence of the latter increased during the pandemic. Job stressors such as adverse social behaviour and job insecurity continue to be experienced by a significant proportion of workers in the EU. Although resources are available to combat some risks, these may not be sufficient, and preventive policies need to be implemented to prevent risks from arising in the first place.
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Researchers at Eurofound provide expert insights and can be contacted for questions or media requests.
Sara Riso 3
Research managerSara Riso
Research managerHans Dubois
Senior research managerSara Riso 2
Research managerThis section provides access to all content that has been published on the topic.
