# EUR-Lex - 52012SC0095 - EN

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# 52012SC0095

**COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT on exploiting the employment potential of the personal and household services Accompanying the document COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Towards a job-rich recovery /* SWD/2012/0095 final */**

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COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT

on exploiting the employment potential of
the personal and household services

Accompanying the document

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

Towards a job-rich recovery

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1........... INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 3

2........... DEFINING AND MEASURING PERSONAL
AND HOUSEHOLD SERVICES....... 4

3........... LABOUR MARKET AND POLICY
CHALLENGES................................................ 10

4........... THE WAY FORWARD.............................................................................................. 15

Disclaimer: This document is a European Commission staff working
document for information purposes. It does not represent an official position
of the Commission on this issue, nor does it anticipate such a position.

1.           INTRODUCTION

To create job
opportunities in times of fiscal consolidation and help bring the 20-64
employment rate to 75% by 2020[1],
the Annual Growth Survey 2012 emphasised the need for Member States to give
priority to "developing initiatives that facilitate the development of
sectors with the highest employment potential, including in the low-carbon,
resource-efficient economy ("green jobs"), in the health and social services
sector ("white jobs") as well as in the provision of other services
to the individuals and households and in the digital economy"[2]. As part of the Europe 2020
strategy, the flagship initiative "An Agenda
for New Skills & Jobs"[3]
aims to contribute to the achievement of the 2020 targets through
better skills upgrading, anticipation and matching.

Activities that
contribute to well-being of families and individuals at home such as care
services and housework services have an important job-creation potential. Home
care services form part of "white jobs" together with healthcare
services and residential care activities, while housework services are at the
border of this category. Demand for care and household services is expected to
increase due to an important trend population ageing in all Member States,
combined with the expected decline of the number of potential carers within the
family circle.

In policy debates
in many Member States, personal and household services are often mentioned as a
possible answer to the following issues:

· 
Better work-life balance, achieved through increased externalization
of daily tasks made at home as well as of child and elderly care. Accessible
and affordable care services are also an important precondition for increasing
female participation in the labour market.

· 
Creation of job opportunities for the relatively low-skilled, in particular as far as housework
services are concerned, at a low cost for public finance by encouraging the
provision of housework services in the formal economy rather than in the shadow
economy. Job creation is also a factor in considering the cost of different
options for long term care.

· 
Improvement in the quality of care, thanks to a workforce having the right skills and benefitting from
good working conditions, subject to quality controls on the service providers.

Moving these services from the shadow to
the formal economy will also contribute to the creation and growth of micro-
and SMEs and given that many of these services are provided by self-employed
persons and small and medium-sized undertakings.

Even though employment in personal and
household services falls under Member State responsibility, a common reflection
is useful as all Member States face the same challenges. Sharing good
practices, analysis and experiences could contribute to find right answers to
the problems currently existing in this area of the economy but also to the
future needs arising from demographic developments. In compliance with the
principle of subsidiarity, Commission services submit this document for debate
to all stakeholders, in particular national authorities, social partners,
service users and providers.

2.           DEFINING
AND MEASURING PERSONAL AND HOUSEHOLD SERVICES

For the purpose of this document, the term
"personal and household services"(PHS) covers a broad range of
activities that contribute to well being at home of families and individuals: child
care (CC), long term care (LTC) for the elderly and for persons with
disabilities, cleaning, remedial classes, home repairs, gardening, ICT support,
etc.

Based on statistical information available,
we can only indicate an approximation of the NACE[4] coverage of PHS and the magnitude
of formal employment in this area which is estimated at 7.5 million.

CC and LTC for the elderly and for people
with disabilities are social services, often provided by social economy actors,
and play an essential role in maintaining social cohesion. They are generally
considered as being of general interest and are often financed from public
budgets. At EU level, policy coordination on the provision of these social
services takes place within the Open Method of Coordination on Social
Protection and Social Inclusion[5].
As far as LTC is specifically concerned, the Social Protection Committee
adopted a special report on LTC in April 2008 and launched a further reflection
on avenues worth exploring with regard to LTC challenges. Moreover, CC and LTC,
together with other services of general interest, have been the object of a
debate concerning the application of internal market and competition rules: in
this context, the Commission made in December 2011 a set of proposals which
allow strengthening social considerations in public procurement, and has put
forward a new, simplified state aid regime[6].
Finally the Commission has promoted the development within the Social
Protection Committee of a voluntary European Quality Framework for social
services[7]
which should serve as a reference for defining, assuring, evaluating and
improving the quality of these services.

Personal and household services have a
number of interesting characteristics from the point of view of employment
policy:

· 
Low import content (activities produced locally),
implying low import loss in case of public intervention;

· 
High employment content, implying a potentially
important effect on job creation in case of public support;

· 
Varying levels of technical skills requirements (possibilities
of “do it yourself” in some areas, higher requirements in the case of care),
but generally a need for a decent level of e-skills and good relational and
social skills;

· 
Low productivity in some of the tasks involved,
but a potential for indirect productivity increases if clients of PHS are able
to focus more on their own, higher-productivity work;

· 
Given the predominance of undeclared workers in
these sectors, public intervention is not likely to trigger a shift of
employment from other sectors;

· 
A growing need for these services due to
population ageing and to the need to increase female participation in the
labour market. PHS activities help to improve work-life balance as well as earn
back effects via an increase of working hours or a return on the job market.

Traditionally PHS are provided
by and within the household, mostly by women. Parts of
these tasks have been progressively externalised outside the house (catering,
laundering, day nursery and institutions for elderly) or inside the home to external
workers directly or indirectly employed by the household. As mentioned above,
public authorities have also been involved in the organisation and financing of
LTC and CC as tools of social policies.

2.1.        Provision of PHS within
the household

OECD[8] estimates show that adult
household members in European Member States of the OECD spend on average 2.5
hours per day on housework and care. Women are much more involved (3.5
hours) compared to men (1.5 hours) (see figure 1). The largest part of unpaid
work are routine housework tasks (cooking, cleaning, gardening and home
maintenance) and care activities.

Assuming that the 331 million of EU population
aged 15-65 (active and inactive) each spend 2.5 hours per day on housework and
care, this represents +/- 830 million hours/day of household work in the EU or
nearly 100 million full time equivalents. The externalisation of some of these
activities could represent an important source of new jobs (self-employment,
creation or development of SMEs).

Figure 1: Minutes per day devoted to the activity by men and
women

Source: "Society at a Glance 2011-OECD
social indicators"[9]

In addition, a
Eurofound report[10]
from 2011 concluded that about 80% of time spent caring for people with
disabilities or dependent elderly persons is provided by informal care
providers especially from within the same household, or among friends and
neighbours, with no impact on public spending. Even though an informal care provider
may receive informal payments from the person receiving care, this does not
correspond to an employer-employee relationship.

However, the increase of the female
employment rate (from 51.2% in 1997 to 58.2% in 2010) implies less time spent
at home, and a need to re-think informal household-based care for children and
the elderly as well as housework. Also, increasing divorce rates[11] may reduce traditional household
support to the elderly. The data available for the period 1970-2007 shows that
this trend is common across Europe, with certain differences among a number of Member
States. At the EU level, the absolute divorce rate[12] has grown from 0.9% in 1970 to
2.1% in 2007, with peaks in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Finland,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden and the UK.

The Second European Quality of Life
Survey-Family life and work[13]
emphasized that the feeling of an excessive workload due either to professional
or family obligations leads to a substantial reduction in life satisfaction. Also
the Fifth European Working Conditions Survey[14]
showed that almost one fifth of European workers are having difficulties achieving a satisfactory work–life
balance. Women who are gainfully employed full time outside their home experience
work–life conflict and tend to be less satisfied with life than women who work
solely at home. Since female employment is an important part of our economic
prosperity, better conditions should be put in place to contribute to a better
work-life balance and support women's labour market participation.

A good coverage of childcare facilities is
crucial for further increasing women employment rates and meeting the
employment headline target agreed in the framework of Europe 2020[15]. In the case of childcare
facilities, expenditure should also be seen as an investment in the future.
Quality childcare can help develop the skills and learning capacities of young
children (especially disadvantaged ones). In general, families have a choice
between using the services of a day nursery, paying someone to take care of
their children individually at home, involving family members or taking care
themselves. The choice will depend on the price of the services and on the
availability of places. Consequently, their choice will impact on the
employment rate. Overall, the lack of formal CC or LTC might be compensated by
informal arrangements which support participation in formal employment of the
users, but not of the providers.

2.2.        Public
authorities' support to childcare and long-term care

At Member States level, public authorities
support CC and LTC in line with social policy objectives, as these services
play and essential social inclusion role and are a precondition for increasing
female participation in the labour market. Public intervention in the
organisation and financing of CC and LTC aims at ensuring the right for all to
have access to high-quality services, independently of wealth or income, as
well as the long-term sustainability of the delivery systems.

Public authorities either provide the
services directly or support their provision by private providers (either
profit or non-profit), while having to ensure compliance with EU State aid
rules. Often care at home for the elderly, among whom the incidence of
impairments or disabilities is higher, and for people with disabilities needs
to be complemented by housework services.

Public authorities can also support the
demand of CC and LTC through dependents allowances (e.g. in Germany, Italy and
France), family allowances or tax reduction on the costs incurred for care
services[16].

Care for the elderly

LTC services
are necessary for people who depend on help to carry out daily activities such
as getting up, eating, bathing, dressing, going to bed, or using the toilet.
LTC is delivered either informally (see previous section) or formally by care
assistants. Formal care is given at home or in institutions (such as care
centres and nursing homes) and generally a part of the cost is supported by
public authorities.

Some Member
States have had reasonably comprehensive care services at home in place for
many years and the LTC needs of the population are fully covered within the
formal system. In other Member States that have more family-oriented welfare
traditions, comprehensive approaches to long-term care have started to develop
only relatively recently. In contrast, large numbers of people do not receive
formal care services and rely exclusively on informal care in other Member
States[17].

Child care

The needs of families and the offer of
child-minding vary with the age of children (maternity/parental leave, time between
maternity/parental leave and entry into compulsory schooling, and during compulsory
schooling). An affordable and accessible quality CC provision is extremely
important for working parents. Throughout Europe, however, the availability,
quality and affordability of CC differ extensively. The
European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data
indicate that some Member States have extensive formal arrangements (including pre-school
education), whereas others rely more on other arrangements (such as
childminders and/or family, friends or neighbours). In the age category 0–2
years, the use of formal CC arrangements varies from 73% in Denmark to only 2%
in the Czech Republic and Poland[18].
In the framework of the Strategy for equality between men and women, the
Commission will report on the Member States' performance with regard to
childcare facilities.

The demand for
CC is influenced by the participation rate of parents in the labour market
(mothers), the actual part-time number of hours worked, the levels of
unemployment, the length of parental leave, the opening hours of school and the
availability of alternatives like grand-parents and/or other informal
arrangements[19].

2.3.        Provision
of PHS by undeclared workers

Without public support, formal employment in
PHS is quite costly for the majority of the population and the formal market
(see 2.2) for PHS is quite limited. Hence, a noticeable part of PHS is provided
informally by undeclared workers. This is clearly due to the difference between the net wage of the user and the cost of the
service provider for activities that the user can realise him or herself.

Due to its nature, undeclared work is very
difficult to estimate. Only a limited number of studies have been conducted to
shed light on the extent of undeclared work in the EU. A special Eurobarometer
(n°284) on "Undeclared work in the European Union"[20] based on a direct survey with
interviews of 26,755 EU citizens aged 15 and older living in the 27 EU Member
States was published in October 2007. In the survey the definition of
undeclared work was not restricted to work carried out for money but comprised
also work done in return for payment in kind. According to the survey, 11% of
the EU27 population admitted that they have bought goods or services connected
with undeclared work. Among them, 17% of buyers said they bought household services
(e.g. gardening, house cleaning, child and elderly care) and 8% personal services
(e.g. hairdressing or private teaching), which represents 7.7 million and 3.5
million individuals respectively.

If we take these figures into account and
factor in that we have more or less 410 million individuals aged 15 years or
older in Europe, it is possible to conclude that 45.1 million[21] people used undeclared work.
Since undeclared workers do not typically work full-time[22], the potential number of
undeclared workers in the household services is estimated at 1 million. This is a conservative estimate taking into
account the probability of under-reporting in surveys on undeclared work.

However, this Eurobarometer-based
projection may underestimate the real situation. In fact, recent data from
Germany and Italy[23]
alone seem to exceed this estimation. Germany is one of the Member States with
the highest level of informal employment in private homes as it is assumed that
90-95% of these activities in private homes are rendered informally. This
figure includes informal employment of irregular migrants as well as informal
work performed by neighbours, friends and acquaintances. Informal work is
especially widespread in the households of elderly people with at least 500,000
to 600,000 informal domestic workers. Italy has also a large share of informal
employment in private households where most of the domestic work is carried out
by irregular immigrants. The actual number of migrant care workers (called
"badanti"[24])
is unknown, due to the nature of the phenomenon. However, their number is
estimated between 0.7 and 1 million which is far higher than the workers in the
formal care sector[25].

2.4.        Public
support to the PHS supply in order to fight against the undeclared work

Taking into account the importance of
undeclared work in the PHS sectors, public authorities can consider intervening
with the aim of encouraging the provision of PHS in the formal economy. This
intervention can cover both care activities and housework activities.

This could
notably take the form of a direct intervention in the price paid by the user
via e.g. services vouchers which targeted at specific tasks. The consumer pays
only part of the real price (close to the price on the black market) and public
authorities pay the difference.

The service
voucher is one instrument, among others, that improves solvency of the demand.
It is also an interesting tool as it is flexible and easy to use. The latter
feature is particularly important for the elderly (dependant or not) who need
to get assistance. It also simplifies administrative procedures, allows for a
continuous verification to whom it has been distributed, and it favours the
development of local business activities. It also enables financial tracing,
allowing an easier evaluation of cost and earn-back (see 3.2).

In France the system of CESU vouchers[26], which households can get from a bank or as a benefit from
their employers[27], aims at creating
formal jobs in private households. In
2005 the "Borloo Plan" addressed simultaneously a number of policy issues
related to personal services: labour law, social protection legislation,
quality control, and organizational issues[28]. As a consequence, between
2005 and 2009, France succeeded in creating 500,000 new jobs subject to social
contributions in private households, mainly for groups on the fringes of the
labour market. Informal employment could thus be reduced by 70%[29]. There is
also the possibility for households to be the direct employer of housework
workers with simplified administrative procedures[30]. The
market volume for domestic services for the year 2009 was 16 billion Euros.
Since 1987, a specific "70+ Rule"
has been set out to strengthen the demand of the elderly with the aim that a
private household of 70 years or older does not have to pay any social
contributions for directly employed workers.

In Germany,
several instruments support creating formal employment in this sector, for
example the institution of "Mini-jobs", which
enables private households to use a simplified
procedure for registering their domestic worker ("Haushaltsscheckverfahren").
The latter may earn up to 400 Euros per month and the households as employers
profit from reduced tax rates for social security contributions (14.34% flat
rate contributions including shares for health pension and accident insurances
as the most important articles)[31].

In Austria[32] informal
work in private households is traditionally widespread with the exception of
LTC. A legalisation strategy targeting long-term assistance in private
households started in 2007 and succeeded in reducing informal (migrant)
employment in the households of the elderly by 80% within two years. In other
areas of domestic services, most of the work is still performed informally.
Austria also launched a voucher system to promote formal employment, however
only 1,000 vouchers are sold per year. This could be explained by the fact that
the cost of this voucher for the household is above the current informal market
price for these services.

3.           LABOUR
MARKET AND POLICY CHALLENGES

3.1.        Better
work-life balance

Bringing the employment rate to 75% of the
population aged 20-64 by 2020 will require that Member States give particular
priority to encouraging women to work and improving the overall work-life
balance.

According to recent projections, the number
of Europeans aged 65+ will almost double over the next 50 years, rising from
87.5 million in 2010 to 152.6 million in 2060[33].
At the same time the working-age population is starting to decrease, after many
decades of continuous increase.

With regard to LTC delivery, the reservoir
of informal careers will contract over the next years and decades, as a result of
higher employment participation of women and older workers. An in-depth
analysis of demographic trends over the next decades shows a decline (see
figure 2) of the Oldest Old Support Ratio (OOSR: 50-74 / over 85). Recruitment
of carers from outside the family will be increasingly important for meeting
LTC needs. A recent UK-focused study[34]
concluded that the supply of intense informal care to disabled older people by
their adult children is unlikely to keep pace with demand in future years.

Figure 2:
Evolution of the Oldest Old Support Ratio - OOSR

Source: 2008; Pickard et al., 2009

In order to identify the future number of
people in need of LTC, a precise analysis is required of factors underpinning
LTC needs, such as activity limitations, disability, and diseases or conditions
that cause them. Clear and precise connections between all these factors are
not always easy to demonstrate. Research has shown that the major driver for
LTC needs is disability, the latter being connected with age structure of the
population and prevalence of specific diseases and conditions. Based on this finding
and on the demographic trends mentioned above (especially evolution of
population above 80), an extrapolation has been made on the potential number of
LTC beneficiaries (see figure 3).           
Figure 3: Projected number of beneficiaries in various long-term care
settings in the EU-27 according to alternative scenarios

Source: European Commission/Economic Policy
Committee (2009)

In addition to the cost of pension schemes which might be harder to sustain as
the size of the active population decreases, ageing will inevitably lead to
increasing pressures on governments to provide social services[35]. These changes will lead to a
reduction of the household supply and the gap between the need for care and the
supply of formal care will increase. As consequences, there is a risk that
households hire undeclared workers to help them in these activities to find a
solution to their needs.

3.2.        Potential
of job creation with a low cost for public finance

The possibility of a higher public
intervention needs to be carefully analysed in respect of its possible impact
at increasing the public deficit. Therefore an in-depth analysis is necessary
to estimate the real cost of further possible public interventions. As already
mentioned, various Member States are already supporting the supply and demand
of PHS. Although these systems can seems expensive for the public purse at
first, the state gets back part of its intervention via:

· 
Additional personal taxes/social security
contributions and reductions in unemployment benefits related to the job
creation (earn-back effects).

· 
Externalities which are more difficult to
quantify, such as better work–life balance, which also contributes to higher competitiveness
through less stress, less absenteeism and higher productivity; savings achieved
in comparison with costs of alternative solutions (especially for LTC and the
possibility for elderly people to stay at home); job creation for the
management of the provider; more consumption by the service workers, increasing
aggregate demand, etc. (indirect earn back effects).

Belgian Service Vouchers: a precious source of
quantitative data

Service vouchers in Belgium can be used for
activities done at home (cleaning, laundry and ironing, cooking and sewing) and
outside the house (shopping, ironing in an ironing atelier, and providing
assistance with the transportation of persons under specific conditions). For
the time being, these vouchers cannot be used for home repair or gardening. The
user pays per hour €7.5 for the service, the real cost is €20.80 and the
difference (€13.30) is financed by the RVA/ONEM[36]. In addition to the
supplement, governments allow households to deduct their spending on vouchers
from their taxable earnings (price after fiscal deductibility = €5.25).

Based on a study[37]
realised for the Belgian government, the net cost of intervention of the system
is:

Gross cost      € 1,430,432.704

Earn back effects       €
629,734,509

Indirect earn back effect       between          € 418,275,083 and 534,575,083[38]

Net cost          between          € 382,423,112
and 266,123,112

According to this report, the user seems ready to
pay €8.59 on the black market. In this case, the fiscal deductibility could be
suppressed and the price for a service-voucher increased up to €8.59. The net
cost for the public authorities becomes equal to €82,478,861 or becomes
negative (then a benefit) €-33,821,139. In average, the net cost is €24,328,861
or an intervention of €304 per job (80,000 full time jobs created by the
implementation of the service-voucher system). Assuming that cost for users is equal
to the price on the black market seems realistic and logical.

The report also shows an interesting impact of
the vouchers: 10.4% of the users declared that they could increase their
working time/employability as they delegate some tasks with the use of the
service vouchers and 0.6% of the users declared that they could enter again the
labour market as they can make a paid work instead to spend time for housework.
10.8% of the users declared that without service vouchers they would be obliged
to reduce their working time.

Public authorities should have a broad
vision of the cost as often the department which invests and the one which
receives the benefits are different. This will help to understand the real net
cost of the public support given to job creation in this sector. A global view
on the beneficiaries is also necessary. For example, the tax reduction
mechanism favours high-income families while very low-income families benefit
from exemption from co-payments, leaving middle-income families to shoulder a
comparatively larger share of the financial burden of the incumbent system[39].

The long-term impact of a stable
development of PHS should also be taken into account in considering provision
of public financial support to their supply and/or demand.

Simple extrapolations should always be
undertaken with care. But in view of previous findings (demography-related
needs, elementary occupations, limited net fiscal costs), some basic
calculations can be helpful in to illustrating the potential job opportunities
that greater support to PHS could trigger EU-wide:

· 
An extrapolation of the Belgian system to the EU
(taking into account the respective size of both populations, simple
multiplication by 50) gives a net cost of 1.2 billion euros for 4 million of
new jobs in housework services.

· 
If each person currently employed (215,000,000)
externalises only 1 hour/week (compared to the 2.5 hours which adult Europeans
on average spend on household work each day, as noted in section 2.1), a
potential of almost 5.5 million of new jobs[40]
exists.

3.3.        Quality
of services and quality of work

Workers in the PHS sectors are mostly women,
mainly working part time, with relatively low skills and often from migrant
background. They are often employed directly by families on an irregular basis which
may affect quality of service, in particular as far as care services are
concerned. To ensure quality services, workers should have a stable employment
with a minimum of working hours, the right skills as well as good working
conditions. Public intervention could therefore be warranted regarding certain aspects
concerning the quality of the services.

Quality

The Social Platform[41] in its recommendations
"to achieve the quality social and health services" suggest that
"quality must be defined at a local level-the closest level to the users
of the services". It is important to respect the needs of the user
(gender, age, religion, ethnic origin, etc) and training should be provided in
this sense.

A project launched by the European Social
Network on the changing relationships between financer, provider and user of
services for elderly people in Europe[42]
suggests that control mechanisms could be put in place to assess and control
the quality of the services provided and that Member States should ensure that
people who employ irregular migrants are sanctioned in line with Directive
2009/52/EC. This should apply to individual organisations, agencies or
services. Quality indicators remain to be developed.

In this context the voluntary European
Quality Framework for Social Services mentioned above[43], is a useful tool to promote
CC and LTC quality: it identifies quality principles referring to the
characteristics that a social service should have in order to address the
multiple needs and expectations of the service user and to various dimensions
of service provision (availability, accessibility, affordability,
person-centeredness, comprehensiveness, continuity, orientation towards
outcomes, respect for users' rights, participation and empowerment,
partnership, good governance, good working conditions and working
environment/investment in human capital, adequate physical infrastructure). It
also suggests operational criteria which might be of help for the monitoring
and evaluation of social services quality. Moreover, it articulates
methodological elements for developing quality tools (standards or indicators)
at national or local level.

As suggested by the EU Disability High
Level Group position paper on social services of general interest, sustainable externalisation
of services requires a good quality of care as well as of domestic activities[44]. Binding quality standards and
appropriate public control mechanisms are also called for.

Skills and training

The Europe 2020 EU flagship initiative "Agenda
for New skills and new jobs" supports initiatives in the Member States to
recognise the skills acquired during the delivery of care to dependent
relatives.

CC and LTC do not demand as high technical
skills as, for instance, professional health services. Therefore they may be
attractive to allow people to get a good foothold in the labour market while
opening possibilities for later up skilling and possible upgrading. Training opportunities
should be available to ensure such up skilling and it should be possible for
carers to go through a certification process. In this perspective there is a
need to improve the cooperation between the world of work and the world of
training[45]
in order to foster the recognition of "informal and non formal
learning".

The recent Commission Communication on
childcare[46]
places, for instance, a great emphasis on the need for better qualifications of
staff in CC.

In 1996, the European social partners in
the cleaning industry have signed a joint memorandum on new sources of
employment[47]
where they underlined the importance of the skill enhancement and quality of working
conditions for the development of cleaning activities at home.

Technology

Externalisation of PHS could improve the
productivity of such activities due to better use of technologies and
investment in training, as externalisation is usually associated with specialisation.

The CARICT project[48], steered by the Commission’s JRC-IPTS
has evaluated systematically and at EU level 52 ICT based practices for
domiciliary care in several Member States in terms of impact and
cost–efficiency. Inspiring examples could be shared between Member States (e.g.
SOPHIA (DE), CAMPUS (IT) and E-Care (IT)). Technology can be used to support
training and certification efficiently at a large scale, organise labour
markets (e.g. FEPEM (FR)), create new opportunities for volunteering, improve
attractiveness of work in care, and help carers to balance care and other
activities.

Information and Communication Technologies can
enable distance and self-learning for caregivers with significant time and
mobility constraints to attend regular face-to-face courses due to their care
duties (e.g. City and Guilds – Learning for Living; Caring with Confidence in
the UK, Coidanet in Spain, Aspasia in Italy)[49].
ICT can also support large-scale certification of competences.

4.           THE
WAY FORWARD

Given the foreseeable impact of demographic
evolution on our societies, European labour markets need to become more
inclusive and the employment rate needs to rise. PHS offer significant
opportunities in this respect, allowing to improve work-life balance, increase
productivity and bring undeclared work into the official labour market.

With the present document, the Commission
services invite all stakeholders to comment on possible actions to address the
issue of promoting new jobs in the PHS sectors. In particular, views are sought
on:

· 
Ways to improve measurement and monitoring of
the employment levels in PHS, taking into account the impact of the on-going
crisis, loss of purchasing power, labour market exclusion issues and the
potentially positive effect on the creation or growth of SMEs;

· 
The utility of developing sharing of
experiences, especially concerning the tools used or planned to support the PHS
with a specific attention to the cost effectiveness and to the reduction of
undeclared work;

· 
Ways of ensuring quality services and jobs
(skill needs, working conditions), including possibly through development
quality standards;

· 
Other ways to ensure greater professionalisation
of PHS jobs.

The present document commits only the
Commission's services involved in its preparation. The text is prepared as a
basis for comment and does not prejudge the final form of any decision to be
taken by the Commission.

Responses can be sent to empl-household-services@ec.europa.eu

Alternatively, for those without web
access, responses can be sent by post to:

European Commission
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion
Discussion on Personal and household services
Unit C2
Rue Joseph II 2 - 1040 Brussels - Belgium

Deadline for responding: 15 July 2012

[1]               http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/index_en.htm

[2]               http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/reaching-the-goals/monitoring-progress/annual-growth-surveys/index_en.htm

[3]               http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=958

[4]               These activities cover
several NACE sectors or parts thereof , especially NACE Rev.2, 88 (social work
activities without accommodation), 97 (activities of households as employers of
domestic personnel), 96 (other personal service activities), 82.99 (other
business support services) and 78 (activities linked to employment).

[5]               http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=755&langId=en

[6]               See specific State aid rules
on Services of General Economic Interest in: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/overview/public_services_en.html.
See also Communication on social services of general interest 'Implementing the
Community Lisbon programme: Social services of general interest in the European
Union’, COM(2006) 177, 26 April 2006; Communication on "Services of
general interest, including social services of general interest: a new European
commitment", COM(2007) 725 final of 20 November 2007; First and Second
Biennial Reports on social services of general interest (SEC(2008) 2179 of 2
July 2008 and SEC(2010) 1284 of 22 October 2010); Guide to the application of
the European Union rules on state aid, public procurement and the internal
market to services of general economic interest, and in particular to social
services of general interest, SEC(2010) 1545 final of 7.12.2010; Communication
"A Quality Framework for Services of General Interest in Europe",
COM(2011) 900 of 20 December 2011.

[7]               SPC/2010/10/8 final.

[8]               Society at a Glance 2011-OECD
social indicators, pages 12 & 22. OECD

[9]               A distinction can be made
between: physical care, educational and recreational childcare and travel related
to any of the two other categories, e.g. driving a child to school, to a doctor
or to sport activities

[10]             http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/htmlfiles/ef1093.htm

[11]             Demography report 2010 page 68:
http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=6824&langId=en

[12]             The ratio of the number of
divorces during the year to the average population in that year (Eurostat).

[13]             Second European Quality of Life
Survey: Family life and work, Eurofound (March 2010)

[14]             Fifth European Working Conditions Survey
2010: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2010/74/en/3/EF1074EN.pdf

[15]             "Progress on equality
between women and men", Commission Staff Working Document, to be published

[16]             In France additional benefits
of taxes reductions have been put in place for elderly care (personal allocation
of autonomy - APA) and for child care until 3 years old according to the
revenue of parents (allocation for young children - APJE).

[17]             Extract of the report of the
project "Living independently at home: reforms in organisation and
governance of European home care for older people and people with disabilities
in 9 European countries " LIVINDHOME:     
http://www.sfi.dk/livindhome-7284.aspx

[18]             Review of 30 European countries, 2009 http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&newsId=545&furtherNews=yes

[19]             Early Childhood Education and
Care: Providing all our children with the best start for the world of tomorrow,
COM(2011) 66 final

[20]             http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_284_en.pdf

[21]             This is the number of the users
of undeclared work, e.g. 11% out of 410 million.

[22]             On the basis of an average
number of 200 hours/year/undeclared worker (around 1/8th of the average working
time of a full time worker)

[23]             http://www.iwak-frankfurt.de/documents/brochure/april2011.pdf

[24]             Mainly migrant women often
co-habiting with a dependant older person and often working in the grey market,
with no residence permit.

[25]             http://www.iwak-frankfurt.de/documents/brochure/april2011.pdf

[26]             CESU voucher (Cheque Emploi
Service Universel) http://www.cesu.urssaf.fr/cesweb/home.jsp

[27]             Concerning the principle of
pre-financed service voucher, see "Le cheque-service, un instrument pour
le développement des services de proximité", Fondation Roi Baudouin,
Belgique, Octobre 1994.

[28]             http://www.travail-emploi-sante.gouv.fr/actualite-presse,42/dossiers-de-presse,46/presentation-du-plan-de,82.html

[29]             See footnote 25

[30]             http://www.fepem.fr/

[31]             See footnote 25

[32]             See footnote 25

[33]             Ageing Report 2012 page 20: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/2011/pdf/ee-2011-4_en.pdf

[34]             Source: 2000/01 and 2001/02
GHS, Government Actuaries Department population and marital status projections,
2001 Census, PSSRU modelling, extracted from Pickard et al., 2009

[35]             Ageing Report 2009:
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/publication14992_en.pdf

[36]             RVA (Rijksdienst voor
Arbeidsvoorziening)/ONEM (Office national de l'emploi)

[37]             IDEA CONSULT "Evaluation
du régime des titres services pour les services et emplois de proximité 2010":
http://www.ideaconsult.be/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48&Itemid=54&projid=277

[38]             Page 114 of the IDEA report ,
see footnote 37

[39]             EU Expert Group on Gender and
Employment Long-Term Care for the elderly. Provisions and providers in 33
European countries

[40]             215,000,000 hours / 40 h

[41]             http://cms.horus.be/files/99907/MediaArchive/Policies/SocialPlatform_Nine_Principles_EN.pdf

[42]             http://www.esn-eu.org/commissioning-for-quality/index.htm

[43]             See section 2 and footnote 7

[44]             http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=4483&langId=en

[45]             Bruges Communiqué: http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc/vocational/bruges_en.pdf

[46]             http://ec.europa.eu/education/school-education/doc/childhoodcom_en.pdf

[47]             http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/dsw/public/actRetrieveText.do?id=10713

[48]             http://is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/EAP/eInclusion/carers.html#projects

[49]             Kluzer S., Redecker C. and
Centeno C. (2010) Long-term care Challenges in an Ageing Society: The role of
ICT and Migrants, JRC IPTS Scientific and Technical Report Series, EUR 24382 EN
available at:              
http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=3299