Sustainable care in Europe
A sustainable care system for Europe in the context of reconciling work and family life
With the current demographic trends that see the European population getting older, families have more and more care responsibilities towards their ageing or dependent family members. 80% of care hours for ageing or disabled persons is provided by family or informal carers, free of charge.
Care providers within families are often women and because of the difficulties they face in reconciling their paid employment with the care responsibilities and also because of insufficiency or lack of quality, accessible and affordable services, they often end up dropping out of the labour market. This has a serious impact on their possibility to re-integrate paid employment, and directly effects their pension contributions and their social inclusion, exposing them to a higher risk of poverty and social exclusion.
On the other hand, a growing trend for families in Europe is to hire an external carer, often from a migrant background, that provides 24h care, living with the person in need of care. However, this model has some social consequences, on care workers and the person cared for, and it is urgent to reflect whether, in its current application, this is a socially sustainable care model for Europe.
In this conference, COFACE and its member Anziani e Non Solo aim to discuss and present, under the auspices of the Italian Presidency of the EU, policies and practices developed at local and national level that can support families in reconciling their work and care responsibilities and reflect on the sustainability of the current growing trends of care.
Venue: Spazio Europa, Via IV Novembre n°149 (ground floor), 00187 Rome, Italy
Time: 9:30-17:00
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