Home care for the elderly and disabled in foreign countries
Researchers: Caroline Glendinning, Alison Wilde, SPRU
Tine Rostgaard, National Centre for Social Research, Denmark (co-ordinator)
Cristiano Gori, Personal Social Services Research Unit, London School of Economics
Teppo Kröger, Department of Social Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
August Österle, Institute for Social Policy, Vienna University of Economics, Austria
Marta Szebehely, Department of Social Work, University of Stockholm, Sweden
Virpi Timonen, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Mia Vabø, NOVA, Oslo, Norway
Funder: Ministry of Health and Sports, France
Duration: January 2010 – March 2011
Aims
The study aimed to identify how European countries had reformed their home help and home care systems in order to achieve:
- High quality care which met increasingly diversified and individualised needs
- Effective and efficient services
- Stronger user orientations in the provision of care
- An optimal balance of responsibility between formal and informal care
- The best way of attracting and retaining home care workers.
Key areas of interest included:
- Drivers/pressures for reform
- Boundaries of home care
- Arrangements for organisation, funding, provision and regulation of home care
- Home care workforce
- Quality assessment
- Impacts on users
Methodology
Each participating researcher contributed a report on developments in her/his own country, written to a common structure, but emphasising particular unique national features where relevant. All participating researchers contributed to a concluding comparative chapter.
The May 2012 special issue of the journal Health and Social Care in the Community entitled 'Reforming Home Care in Ageing Societies' contains papers from the project.
Policy and practice aims
The study was commissioned by the French Ministry of Health and Sports specifically to inform proposed changes in the organisation, regulation and delivery of home care services in France at the time.
If you require further information about the project, please contact Caroline Glendinning 
Publications
2012
Home care in England: markets in the context of under-funding, 2012
Glendinning, C., Health and Social Care in the Community, 20, 3, 292-299.
Reforming home care in ageing societies. Guest editorial, 2012
Rostgaard, T., Timonen, V. and Glendinning, C., Health and Social Care in the Community, 20, 3, 225-227.
2011
Livindhome: Living independently at Home: Reforms in home care in 9 European countries, 2011
Rostgaard, T. with Glendinning, C., Gori, C., Kroger, T., Osterle, A., Szebehely, M., Thoebald, H., Timonen, V., Vabo, M., SFI - Danish National Centre for Social Research.
