Personal care and household services have been at the heart of European policies over the past two decades. They respond to increasing social and health needs and are an important source of employment. But what quality of jobs and services performed? For Quality! proposes a qualitative analysis of the current status of personal care and household services (PHS) in eleven European countries and provides stakeholders with recommendations and practices for improving working conditions in the sector.

Main steps in the For Quality! project

The first step covers an overview of the situation of PHS in 11 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The second step includes the elaboration of a general comparative report, of policy recommendations for policy makers and of a toolbox presenting good practices and their transferability criteria. All publications and results will be shared at regional seminars and a European conference in Brussels spring 2016.

Project partners

For Quality! is co-funded by the European Commission through the PROGRESS Programme, by the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

The project implementation is managed by nine organisations or networks established in Belgium, France and the United Kingdom:

• European think & do tank POUR LA SOLIDARITÉ, project coordinator
• ORSEU
• European Federation of Services to Individuals (EFSI)
• Social Services Europe (SSE)
• DIESIS
• European Social Network (ESN)
• European Regional Organisation of Union Network International (UNI EUROPA)
• European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT)
• European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU).

For Quality! in short

• Kick-off meeting - Brussels, December 2014
• 11 national reports on the PHS sector
• 1 general comparative report
• 3 Regionals seminars - Rome (6 May 2015), Brighton (27 May 2015), Vienna (22 September 2015)
• 1 policy recommandations
• 1 toolkit
• 1 final public conference - Brussels, March 2016
• 1 website: http://forquality.eu