On the 1st of January 2021, Luk Zelderloo, Secretary General of the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) assumed the Social Services Europe Presidency for the next six months. Social Services Europe (SSE) brings together eight European networks of not-for-profit providers of social and health care services. Together, Social Services Europe represents more than 100,000 not-for-profit social and health service providers across Europe, works towards strengthening the profile and position of social services, and advocates for adequate economic, social and legal conditions to ensure quality social and health care services in Europe.
EASPD together with the rest of the SSE members have ambitious plans for the organisation this first half of the year. We will prioritise the impact of COVID-19 on the social services sector. COVID-19 has shown social services are essential services to guarantee quality of life to Europeans, and our sector and people we support were hit hardest by the pandemic. Workforce in our sector is significant and over the last 5 years our sector has created more new jobs than any other. We plan to make sure it can benefit appropriately from the EU’s recovery plan. We want to further develop our capacity for communication with the European Institutions so that we can work together effectively and explore how we can contribute to the implementation of the EU Pillar of Social Rights, Social Economy Action plan, Child Guarantee and long-term care debates.
With even more energy than ever before, this coming year SSE will work to make the social sector more visible and better understood.
You can find out more by visiting SSE’s website here.