Due to societal and economic developments during the two last decades, like increased female labour market participation, the ageing of society, changes in family structures and, above all, the changing preferences of people, the following issues have become increasingly important: work-family balance from the perspective of workers and accessibility of good quality care services from the perspective of children, the elderly and other groups with care needs. Moreover, greater gender equality in domestic roles may also mean that more men will have to balance paid work with child and elder care.
In this context, both child care (early childhood education and care, ECEC), and elder (long-term) care are becoming central issues. The project aims to respond to the following questions: How mutually ‘compatible’ are the strategies adopted by the relevant actors in solving the problem of ‘caring’? Subsequently, how effective are they in responding to the increasing demand for care services in times of economic austerity since the crisis?
These issues imply several aspects which need to be investigated:
The first aspect is the individual/micro-level: the needs, preferences and strategies adopted by individual households in the changing broad societal context need to be explored thoroughly. The strategies of families are closely linked to those of the other actors at the local level, like other families – whose members are volunteering, providing mutual support through both formal and informal networks, etc.
The second aspect is the meso- and macro-level: the preferences and strategies adopted by the actors which are involved in the regulation, financing and delivery of care services and their mutual interactions-synergies will be explored. This implies quite complex interactions (coordination) among the actors involved and a variety of care provisions, which may be analysed along the different dimensions.
The third aspect is social investment strategy: how the strategies of the actors involved are underpinned by the investments coming from various actors/stakeholders into care services, and how the actors shape their strategies concerning the social investments in social services.
The fourth aspect is social innovation. The purpose is to identify innovative solutions which improve the ability of the policies to meet social needs and/or increase the capacity of the actors involved to respond to the social needs more effectively.
The main research questions above will be studied in two countries: Norway and the Czech Republic, where the contexts differ to a large extent. We expect that the need or demand for services and supply of services may diverge for various reasons, thus the strategies of the actors might not be coherent. It will be interesting is to see what solutions are available for the actors involved in these different contexts and circumstances, and how social investment and innovation into care services are emerging.
Objective: WP1 aims at building a platform for further research integrated into other work packages in terms of theoretical background and methodological approaches. WP 1 provides an overview of:
Methods: theoretical analysis, methodological assessment of the approaches to the topic and secondary and comparative analyses of the key findings of the relevant studies
Deliverables:
Objective: WP2 will summarise and compare existing knowledge that describes and identifies:
In the end, we will identify child and eldercare deficits and key stakeholders as a starting framework for further WPs.
Methods: quantitative analysis of the existing data on demography, preferences/attitudes of households concerning care, quantitative/qualitative and institutional analyses of the policies and stakeholders’ roles.
Deliverables:
Objective: The main objective of WP3 is to explore the preferred, real and successful strategies of investors, regulators, formal providers of care and other national level stakeholders as they apply in the area of childcare and eldercare; and to reveal the reasoning and discourses behind these strategies in the Czech Republic and Norway.
Methods: collection of qualitative data – (semi-structured) interviews on the preferences and strategies of the stakeholders who regulate, finance and deliver care services and analyses.
Deliverables:
Comparative report on the strategies of investors and service providers in the Czech Republic and Norway.
Objective: The main objective of WP4 is to explore the strategies of service users, be it the clients of care services themselves, or the families who are to rely on these services in order to facilitate care giving. This applies to the area of childcare and eldercare aiming to reveal the reasoning and discourses behind these strategies as well as their innovative aspects, both in the Czech Republic and Norway. Equally, we will examine how the child/elder care policy package interacts with different parts of working life to produce different structures of opportunities and constraints for families with care needs.
Methods: collection of qualitative data – (semi-structured) interviews and focus groups on the preferences and strategies of the households in regards to how they use care services and innovative solutions to organise the care they need; the analysis
Deliverables:
Objective: The findings from the previous WPs will be compared and analysed in this final WP, especially with regard to two key concepts:
These analyses will be carried out taking into account different levels and scopes:
Methods: comparative analysis of the findings provided in WP 2-4
Deliverables:
AGE Platform Europe
Link: http://www.age-platform.eu/
CHILDONEUROPE – European Network of National Observatories on Childhood
Link: http://www.childoneurope.org/
COFACE – Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union
Link: http://www.coface-eu.org/en/
EUROCHILD
Link: http://www.eurochild.org/
EURODIACONIA – European Federation for Diaconia
Link: http://www.eurodiaconia.org/
EWL – European Women's Lobby
Link: http://www.womenlobby.org/?lang=en
FEFAF – European Federation of Parents and Carers at Home
Link: http://www.fefaf.be/home_en.php
IFA – International Federation on Ageing
Link: http://www.ifa-fiv.org/
Social Platform
Link: http://www.socialplatform.org/
Institutions, Myths and Beliefs: An Investigation of the Influence of Path Dependency on the Contemporary Discourses on Childcare in the Czech Republic, Sweden and France
Link: http://www.soc.cas.cz/en/node/174
The Parental Choices regarding Child Care in the Czech and Slovak Republic
Link: http://www.muni.cz/research/projects/10083/results
Family, Employment and Education
Link: http://www.vupsv.cz/index.php?p=projects&id=126&kateg=&resitel=&oddeleni=&rok=&site=en
The Revenge of History? An Examination of the Historical Roots of Childcare, Healthcare and Elderly Care Policies in the Czech Republic
Link: http://www.muni.cz/fss/research/projects/4522?lang=en
“Company of the Year” award – for firms with developed work-family arrangements and conditions for equal opportunities for men and women
Link: http://rovneprilezitosti.ecn.cz/cz/english
HELPS – Housing and Home-care for the Elderly and vulnerable people and Local Partnership Strategies in Central European cities
Link: http://www.soc.cas.cz/en/project/helps-housing-and-home-care-elderly-and-vulnerable-people-and-local-partnership-strategies
Discursive framing and day-to-day experience of elderly care in the Czech Republic
Link: http://www.soc.cas.cz/en/project/diskurzivni-ramovani-kazdodenni-zkusenost-pece-o-starsi-v-ceske-republice
The analysis and forecast of needs for social services providing for seniors and disabled people
Link: http://www.vupsv.cz/index.php?p=projects&id=150&kateg=&resitel=&oddeleni=&rok=&site=en
Analysis and research on ways to ensure long-term social and health care for recipients of care allowance
Link: http://www.vupsv.cz/index.php?p=projects&id=220&kateg=&resitel=&oddeleni=&rok=&site=en
Social services optimization analysis and creation of a communication platform for social services reform
Link: http://www.vupsv.cz/index.php?p=projects&id=219&kateg=&resitel=&oddeleni=&rok=&site=en