The EU Care Strategy: a watershed moment for unpaid carers and care workers across Europe?
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About this episode
In this episode of the podcast we’re discussing the new EU Care Strategy, which was formally adopted by the European Commission in December 2022. Becky Driscoll, one of our Research Associates, is joined by guests Stecy Yghemonos and Zoe Hughes.
Stecy shares his insights as the Executive Director of Eurocarers, a pan-European organisation which was closely involved in advocating for what the Strategy should include in order to improve the wellbeing of unpaid carers and properly value caregiving.
Zoe is Senior Policy and Research Officer at Care Alliance Ireland, and shares her perspective from one of the EU member states which will now turn its attention to implementing the recommendations in the Strategy.
We discuss why it matters to have an EU-wide strategy – what value will it add to the piles of strategy papers produced in different countries? Where is it most likely to have an influence, and could this extend to non-member states such as the UK? What are some of the core values and commitments that are most exciting to see included? Finally, we examine some of the issues which would benefit from re-framing and our hopes for the first stage of implementation.
Becky joined the Centre for Care in June 2022 as a Research Associate, working closely with Professor Sue Yeandle. Her role is to ensure that our research makes a difference to care policy, using our evidence to respond to parliamentary inquiries and government consultations across the four nations of the UK. This includes working closely with the team to gather evidence on critical and emerging issues in care, as well as synthesising the grey and academic literature and engaging with our partners in the care sector.
The CARE MATTERS Podcast is produced by Dan Williamson at the Centre for Care.