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Last week I participated in a conference on “Public policies for accessible social services” organised by the Civil Society Development Foundation in Romania. I explained that Social Platform wants to promote social services that invest in users’ present and future capacities and skills by empowering them. We need to avoid promoting services that might make people even more dependent on them. Services that are successful in empowering users not only improve their well-being, but are also more effective, efficient and less costly because they reduce the time people will require support.

I highlighted that users’ empowerment is an essential dimension of quality social services. Empowerment is crucial to foster users’ autonomy and self-confidence. A pre-condition of empowerment is the user’s participation in decisions regarding the planning, delivery and evaluation of services, so that these services respond to their individual needs. Some of our members have developed very useful material about users’ participation and empowerment, including Eurodiaconia, AGE Platform Europe and FEANTSA (European Federation of Organisations Working with the Homeless).

Partnership between civil society organisations, public bodies and other actors such as social partners, businesses and academics is another essential dimension of quality social services. Partnership is essential to:

• Exchange good practices
• Find solutions to common challenges
• Carry out peer-reviews and evaluations
• Detect social needs in a local area
• Pull resources together and avoid duplications
• Develop integrated services
• Influence policies

The participation and empowerment of users is one of the nine principles in our guide on achieving quality social and health services, alongside partnership with communities and other actors. This work heavily influenced the work of the Social Protection Committee on the European Voluntary Framework for Social Services. The Framework includes users’ participation, empowerment and partnership as key to achieving quality social services. These principles have also been included in the 2014 update of the EU’s Public Procurement Directive, the European Structural and Investment Funds and the Social Investment Package.

But have any of these principles been implemented in Romania? It seems very few have, from what I heard at the conference. For example, a representative from the Ministry of Labour, Welfare, Family and the Elderly stated that fight against poverty must be based on economic and employment policies. This resonated within me, as I was wondered: what space is there for social policies and services? In the EU, Romania is the country that invests the least public money in social services: the average is €1,061.87 per person against the EU average of €7,279.45. Participants said that public and non-profit social service providers are not treated equally; for example, no public social service providers have been shut down because of their failure to achieve results. Quality guidelines have been established, but are only followed by non-profit social service providers.

Another problem in Romania is the migration of social and care workers to western Member States, as they can benefit from much better working conditions. Migration happens not only with professionals, but also with users. A representative from Caritas Romania reported that homeless people try to move to the Netherlands, as they know that standards of living – including at shelters – are higher. All this underlines the urgent need for social investment.