Social Employers and Unipso launch a new project to strengthen social dialogue and reinforce the attractiveness of social services across Europe

On 22 March, the Social Employers launched together with Unipso, the leading partner, a new project called FORESEE. The project focuses on capacity building of EU and national-level social partners in social services and aims to promote the attractiveness of the sector.

The two-years project is co-financed by the European Commission (DG Employment) and brings together 13 partners from different EU countries:

• Nine employers’ organisations and social services NGO’s from across Europe (UNIPSO, Service Mensch GmbH, AGV AWO, NEXEM, Elisfa, APSS CR, WRZOS, FONSS, Margarita),
• 1 higher education institution (Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco),
• 1 European non-profit NGO in the disability field (EASPD),
• the EU sectoral social partners in social services: the Social Employers and EPSU.

During an online roundtable, all partners got to know each other and exchanged their views and expectations on the project. This was followed by an introduction of each work package, the tasks, outputs, and partners involved, and a discussion on the next steps.

The FORESEE project aims to:

• Strengthen European social dialogue in social services, taking into account the Coronavirus pandemic and its anticipated long-lasting impact on the social services sector. The Social Employers and the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) are in charge of a report on the role of social services and social dialogue during and after the pandemic, followed by European Thematic Meetings and the development of joint outputs.

• Develop national-level social dialogue through a training program, lead by NEXEM in cooperation with higher education & research institutions, and national-level employers & workers organisations. The training program will focus on how to develop independent social dialogue structures, including an illustration of its benefits, and good practice from other countries.
• Develop tailored practices for more attractiveness through the development of a report aiming at gathering existing national data raising awareness of the attractiveness issues at stake in the different countries. UNIPSO supported by ELISFA and, will elaborate strategies tailored to address the issue of attractiveness in the social services sector.

All the 13 partners will be involved in this project’s activities.

The Social Employers will work closely with UNIPSO in the management and implementation of the project, including the communication and dissemination activities. The Social Employers will also work in close cooperation with EPSU to further build on their good cooperation and strengthen the capacity of EU social partners in social services.

FORESEE is the newest project in a series of projects (PESSIS and DialogueS), that focuses on capacity building for national and EU-level sectoral social dialogue structures and achieving more attractive social services that are equipped to deal with current and future challenges.