Author (Person) | Pavolini, Emmanuele, Ranci, Costanzo |
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Series Title | Journal of European Social Policy |
Series Details | Vol.18, No.3, August 2008, p246-259 |
Publication Date | August 2008 |
ISSN | 0958-9287 |
Content Type | Journal | Series | Blog |
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. |
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Source Link | Link to Main Source https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/journals |
Countries / Regions | Europe |