EU policy-makers must ensure that all families are given support and guidance to access and navigate the digital environment in a meaningful way. This includes strong legal frameworks as well as strong and “low-threshold” evidence-based support and prevention measures for families. COFACE has produced a policy brief highlighting the importance of digital technologies for children and their families, and analysing whether existing and currently debated EU frameworks aimed at ensuring safe and empowering digital experiences for children integrate a families perspective.

Most children in Europe today live in media-rich households where digital technologies are part of their everyday lives. Nevertheless, the ways children and their families engage with digital technologies are complex and have varying effects. On the one hand, digital technologies offer unique opportunities for all family members. Digital technologies support children in their education and leisure activities, for example, but also make it easier for family members to stay in touch with each other or to play together. On the other hand, children – and adults – face online risks and challenges. Some of these risks include, but are not limited to, cyberbullying, mis- and disinformation, harmful and illegal content, and online child sexual abuse. These risks have a major impact on a child’s safety, and the mental and physical well-being of both children and their families. Some families may face additional challenges in the digital environment due to specific vulnerabilities linked to poverty, disability or discrimination.

The negative effects of technology need to be addressed through a mix of strong legal frameworks as well as strong and “low-threshold” evidence-based support and prevention measures for families. This means on the one hand to create inclusive and accessible online environments, including through appropriate self-regulation by the industries concerned. On the other hand, it means supporting educators (formal and non-formal), parents and carers in their digital literacy, but also promoting work-life balance, so that parents and carers have time to support their children.

This COFACE policy brief highlights the importance of digital technologies for children and their families, presents some activities that are in place or in current debate at EU level and draws some findings for further measures to support families in the digital era. To do this, the first section analyses some of the EU frameworks which include measures to ensure safe and empowering digital experiences for children, and whether they integrate a families perspective. The second section of the policy brief spotlights some practices of COFACE member organisations from 9 different European countries. The practices are diverse, ranging from boosting digital parenting skills to tackling and preventing specific risks, such as child sexual abuse online. Finally, the concluding section brings key messages and recommendations for EU policy makers.

Implementation of the European legal and policy frameworks mentioned in this brief is key, and these should be strengthened and continued under the new 2024-2029 European Union mandate following the June 2024 European elections.  Besides the State level and the ICT industry, action is also needed at community level, involving all key stakeholders close to the lives of the families and children. Such community-level actions, for example, can be strengthened by channelling funding to key stakeholders (e.g. local authorities, non-profits, schools), through a mix of operating and project grants. Family organisations, like the ones united in COFACE and its members are among those stakeholders.

COFACE will continue to monitor closely the various EU initiatives impacting families, using the COFACE Digitalisation Principles as the key compass for assessing them.

Read the full brief here.

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COFACE Families Europe together with its members is very active in addressing the social challenges faced by families of today and advocating for policies to support their well-being.

In 2019, COFACE Families Europe mobilised voters locally through its member organisations (representing families of all types, without discrimination). A call was launched to the COFACE network to vote and speak out in May 2019 using 10 key values as a compass: non-discrimination, equal opportunities, empowerment, internet for all, social inclusion, sustainability, respect of human rights, solidarity, child well-being, accessibility. Following the election of the new European Parliament and the publication of the European Commission’s political guidelines, COFACE Families Europe published its New Deal for Families of Today which is a list of key short-term demands (also available in Easy-to-Read language) to be achieved by the new European Commission from 2020-2024, which are to be seen as concrete steps to meet the long-term goals of the European Pillar of Social Rights and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

These demands reflect the needs and challenges of families of today and call for a mix of European actions (policy, law, funding, benchmarking, innovation) to drive real change. These recommendations are addressed at EU-level policymakers in the European Commission, European Parliament and Council of the EU, from whom we expect joint leadership to ensure tangible results for Europe’s citizens.  It is on this basis that we have assessed  the European Union’s work from 2019 to 2024, and how it contributes to achieving eight positive outcomes for families of today (see more here). While this assessment refers to various initiatives to support families, it cannot fully assess the real impact on families at local level yet. It is crucial for the EU institutions to conduct monitoring and evaluation of their policies to understand the impacts (positive and negative) on families, in order to review and consolidate existing frameworks under the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and adopt any new measures needed to strengthen the Pillars.

Read the full assessment here.

See the 10 key actions we want integrated into the EU’s 2024-2029 programme here.

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TOO OLD TO CARE: Reflection on the specificities of the ageing family carers population in the EU.

Principle 18 of the European Pillar of Social Rights stresses: the right to affordable long-term care services of good quality, in particular homecare and community-based services. Since its adoption in 2017, the European Union has been looking more intensively at the topic of Long-Term Care (LTC), most notably with the adoption in 2022 of the European Care Strategy[1] and the Council Recommendation on Long-Term Care.[2]

With the Recommendation, governments across the EU have agreed to present by June 2024 the measures they have taken to reform their LTC system to achieve the transition towards high quality, affordable and accessible care that will respect the rights and needs of the persons who draw on care and support services and of the carers, formal or family carers. As EU governments take a closer look at the shortcomings of their system, the COFACE Disability Platform calls on them to stop ignoring the question of family carers. In the EU, it is estimated that 80% of the LTC is provided by informal carers.[3]

As the LTC Recommendation suggests, the first step to support these persons is to identify the family carers. In order to do so, it is crucial to realise that family carers are not a homogeneous block and consider that several factors need to be taken into account when proceeding to their identification, which then can influence what type of support is the most appropriate for their situation.

In this important time, the COFACE Disability Platform launched this thematic note to spark the debate on the diversity of family carers. While the lion’s share of family carers is currently of working age and need urgent actions to support them, including through strong work-life balance measures, around 10% of the carers are past the retirement age.[4] While the need for recognition, support and formal care and support services can be extended to all family carers, it would be wrong to assume that there can be a single formatted answer for all.

In this thematic note, the COFACE Disability Platform explores one of the dynamics that should be considered when identifying and designing support measures for family carers: the age of the carers.

Read the thematic note here.

[1] European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs, European Care Strategy for caregivers and care receivers, 2022.

[2] Idem.

[3] Council of the EU, Recommendation on affordable high-quality long-term care, 2022.

[4] EIGE, A Better Work–Life Balance: Bridging the gender care gap, 2023

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 Overcoming sectoral fragmentation in supporting families with young children

Families with young children have complex necessities in the period before the start of compulsory schooling. Often, these needs cannot be reduced to educational, healthcare or caregiving demands alone. They are multifaceted and require multidisciplinary responses that span across a number of public services and agencies.

Successful fulfillment of these needs requires a joint effort of different governmental organizations to build ties and form functioning networks of cooperation over a long period of time. This comparative report aims to investigate possible responses to the multisectoral needs of households by providing an overview of the current alignment and coordination between complementary services and policy areas in four European countries (Finland, Germany, Italy, and Poland) and the Belgian region of Flanders.

This report focuses on three key cross-sectoral needs. The first is the requirement for an extensive reconciliation framework of work and family life over the early months of the child’s life, which entails coordination between parental leave frameworks and formal day-care services to ensure that when parents’ paid leave has ended, they have the opportunity to transition their child into formal childcare and education services without experiencing a gap in coverage.

Another one of these demands puts emphasis on the complementarity of ECEC services for different age groups (including day-care nurseries for the very young and preschool settings for older children) in constructing a continuous, coherent, high-quality educational and care atmosphere able to accompany children and their families in a soft, linear manner, without interruptions or traumatic changes during the essential first years of life. In examining this level of interconnection in different case study countries, this report explores how it is organised, evaluates whether there are pedagogical guidelines for both levels and scrutinises alignment between minimum qualification levels for those two workforces.

The third transversal need is for cooperation and coordination between services catering to care and support during the perinatal stage. This report conceptualises this space as a convergence point between health and social care professional domains to bring together a variety of services involved in promoting family welfare during this vital time period; endeavouring to facilitate dialogue and cooperation while placing emphasis on its complementary functions.

Nowadays, the significance of family policies is growing notably across the European Union. Following the launch of the European Pillar of Social Rights in 2017, we have witnessed an increase of initiatives concentrated on improving national parental leave laws, remedying child poverty, setting higher goals for the participation in ECEC services, as well as establishing national frameworks for long-term care and disability rights.

It is essential in this situation that family policy frameworks are not just established, but are constructed with close ties to their complementary domains, such as parental leave and formal early childhood education and care, prenatal maternal care, perinatal guidance support, parenting network groups, day-care for infants and preschool education for three-year-olds. Ultimately, this report advocates for the exchange of information across Europe regarding what is being done in other countries to realize significant advancements in the integration of these family policies.

Read the full report here.

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The EU and its governments must act swiftly for a families-sensitive approach to energy policy and planning. This includes integrated policy solutions that combine energy and social policies – these are vital in addressing the multifaceted nature of energy poverty. COFACE has developed a policy brief to highlight the family dimension of energy poverty often overlooked by policy makers.

Recently, COFACE members have reported worrying impacts of energy poverty on families. Given the negative effects of the current energy crisis, they are at increased risk of poverty and social exclusion. This policy brief builds on inputs from COFACE members to highlight the family dimension of energy poverty often overlooked by policy makers. This especially applies to families which may be in more vulnerable situations, such as single parent households, women-headed households, families with disabled family members, as well as larger families and intergenerational households.

The policy brief examines what factors contribute to supporting a more families-sensitive approach to energy policy and programming for the effective implementation of social rights, namely factoring in the impact of energy poverty on children and their rights, on women and on persons with disabilities.  In the light of the current energy crisis, this brief also considers what further policy adjustments are needed to address new emerging challenges. For instance, due to the inflation resulting from the economic crisis, the increase of child benefits or subsidies for low-income households to help them afford rising energy costs, through energy vouchers or through affordable basic energy packages.

The policy brief stresses the challenge of energy poverty focusing on families formulated together with our members mentioned above. The second part highlights the issues of different types of families in terms of energy poverty. The third part provides a general overview of EU policies tackling energy poverty, highlighting their social aspects and impacts on families. The fourth part of the brief brings in the national perspective and presents national measures to help energy poor citizens. For this part, the brief is based on crucial input from COFACE members. Finally, the concluding section highlights some COFACE messages and priorities for future EU policy and legislation, providing recommendations in this regard.

EU policies and Member States must recognise the unique challenges faced by these families in vulnerable situations and implement effective measures to alleviate their energy poverty. This includes developing tailored support programmes, by promoting energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources, investing in housing measures and public transport and targeted subsidies for low-income households.

By prioritising the specific needs of these families, civil society is ready to work towards co-creating a more inclusive energy system that leaves no one behind.

While existing EU policies provide a solid framework, it is crucial that the families dimension be fully integrated into these frameworks, taking into account the specific needs and vulnerabilities of households with children and dependents. Therefore, it is essential for Member States to proactively implement and adapt these measures, ensuring that no European family is left in the cold at home. By prioritising the family perspective and facilitating collaboration between EU institutions and national governments, a comprehensive and inclusive approach can be created to tackling energy poverty, where all families have access to affordable, reliable, and sufficient energy services. This commitment to tackling energy poverty at the families level will contribute to a more sustainable and socially just Europe.

Read the full brief here.

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Assessment of the European Child Guarantee National Action Plans from the perspective of children with disabilities and their families 

More than 18 million children living in the European Union are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.[1] This represents 24.4% or 1 in 4 children in the EU. The European Child Guarantee, established through a Council Recommendation on the 14th of June 2021, is a key step in achieving the European Pillar of Social Rights target to reduce the number of children at risk of poverty and social exclusion.[2] However, this promise cannot be achieved without strong implementation at the national level. EU Member States agreed to develop National Action Plans (NAPs) outlining how they will implement this Council Recommendation up to 2030, but five National Action Plans are still missing and the submitted ones reflect different levels of commitment.

Two years after the historical adoption of this Recommendation and the promise of all EU Member States to act to lift children and their families out of poverty, COFACE Families Europe assessed the plans submitted by April 2023 from the perspective of children with disabilities and their families who experience specific barriers when accessing key services and have a more significant risk of poverty and social exclusion.[3] Children with disabilities are one of the six target groups highlighted within the Child Guarantee Recommendation. In the assessment, specific attention was paid to the following dimensions: inclusive education and school-based activities, inclusive (digital) educational tools, accessibility of key services, intersections with other policy fields or discrimination forms, involvement of children with disabilities, their families and civil society organisations, and broader measures to support families of children with disabilities.

One of COFACE’s key findings from the assessment is that children with disabilities are a clear target group in most of the National Action Plans, but sufficient data and clear definitions are still lacking. Moreover, most measures for children with disabilities are related to inclusive education, but more measures are needed in relation to access to housing, healthy nutrition, and healthcare. COFACE Families Europe and the COFACE Disability Platform have high expectations for the full implementation of the Child Guarantee and call on Member States to use a two-generation (based on the interrelated well-being of children and their caregivers) and intersectional approach which complements efforts of other EU policy and legal frameworks to design policies which are inclusive of all children and their families. We call on the European Commission to reflect this commitment in the upcoming monitoring framework on the European Child Guarantee.

Consult the full assessment here.

[1] Eurostat, 2021, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Children_at_risk_of_poverty_or_social_exclusion.

[2] Council of the European Union, Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/1004 of 14 June 2021 establishing a European Child Guarantee; European Commission, The European Pillar of Social Rights, 2017.

[3] European Disability Forum, “Increasing cost of living: Persons with disabilities hit harder”, 2022; European Disability Forum, “EDF Resolution – Prioritising persons with disabilities in the action against inflation and energy costs”, 2022; European Commission, “Feasibility study for a child guarantee – Target group discussion paper on children with disabilities”, 2020, p.15-16.

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COFACE-Disability and AIAS Monza held a 1-day European expert meeting on inclusive education in Monza (Italy) on 28th March 2023.

Taking the Italian system as a starting point for discussion with European peers, we brought together organisations of families of persons with disabilities and service providers, education professionals, persons with disabilities and their families and policy-makers from several countries to examine key actions to implement inclusive education in line with the UNCRPD and the General Comment n4.

We aimed to apply the COFACE whole-family lens to the topic of inclusive education as a way to build inclusive societies for persons with disabilities and their families:

• Education for building independent living and meaningful inclusion in society;
• Inclusive education from a life course perspective, namely inclusive education beyond compulsory education;
• Looking at the continuum of services between formal and non-formal education with an added focus on culture and sports.

This meeting supported innovation and knowledge transfer between civil society organisations, created new synergies between COFACE and COFACE Disability members and key Italian and European stakeholders, and contributed to the S.H.I.F.T. towards more inclusive education systems in Europe.

See full meeting report here

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COFACE Disability Policy Brief

Breaking policy silos to better support children with disabilities and their families

#BeTheSHIFT #IDPD2022 #DisabilityRights #ChildRights #childrenwithdisabilities

In the run-up to 2022 International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the COFACE Disability Platform for the rights of persons with disabilities and their families launched a policy brief looking at how children with disabilities are covered in recent EU Social Policy Frameworks. With this brief COFACE Disability wants to launch a reflection on the intersection between disability and age and how to integrate it in policies and programmes. For this EU Year of Youth COFACE Disability has focused this first brief on Children with Disabilities and their families.

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The aim of this policy brief is double:

• First to take stock of how children with disabilities are covered in EU social policies;
• Second to launch a broader reflection on how to deepen the interaction between disability and age in policy making.

In this exercise, the COFACE Disability Platform has looked at some recently adopted EU frameworks. This brief does not have the ambition of offering a holistic view of all the EU policies and measures that can have an impact on children with disabilities and their families, rather it aims to lay down the foundations for reflection around the development of more inclusive and intersectional policies, with a specific focus on policies falling under the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan:

• The European Child Guarantee;
• The European Strategy on the Rights of the Child;
• The European Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030;
• The European Care Strategy.

The policy brief starts with clarifications, describing the whole-family lens of the 2030 COFACE Child Compass as well as key references to children in international and EU human rights law. Then follows the analysis of the selected EU policy frameworks, giving an overview of measures which specifically include or target children with disabilities. This leads into a reflection on interrelated well-being of children and their families, highlighting the need to consider children with disabilities within their family and community context to ensure two-generation supports are put in place for positive and sustainable outcomes. The concluding section reflects on the results of the analysis and on the steps needed to address gaps at the intersections of these EU social policies.

Read the full brief here.

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