PEOPLE

16/12/11

One of the most important outcomes from PEOPLE Project refers to the Policy recommendations stemmed from all the activities conducted during the 3 years programme.
The process of exchange, discussion, debate and learning took part in conferences, study visits and Sub-projects. Furthermore, best practices were collected and selected. One of the results of this process - in which many experts, policy makers and stakeholders were involved - is a series of sixteen concrete policy recommendations.

The former are the result of a process of almost five months of close collaboration of all partners involved in PEOPLE Project. This process started with collecting and elaborating the policy recommendations with the help and input from the experts and policy makers in the seven regions. Every policy recommendation had to be put into context and justified. All the procedure for delivering the PEOPLE Policy recommendations can be found in the Final report.

All the 16 PEOPLE Policy recommendations are listed below under their corresponding Sub-objective, together with the link to their complete description. Open debates on these recommendations can be found at the PEOPLE Policy Forum.

Sub-objective 1: Reconciliation of work and private life

European Legal Framework promoting reconciliation

We recommend the promotion of a European Legal Framework stimulating the reconciliation of work and private life of women and men to guarantee an equal participation of both sexes in all spheres of lives. This by means of:

· Supporting the final approval for the proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Council Directive 92/85/EEC on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health at work of pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth or are breastfeeding and on the introduction of measures to support workers in balancing work and family life.

· Regulating by law the implementation of gender equality plans at workplace as obligatory.

Public interventions promoting reconciliation

We recommend the implementation of public interventions/actions/policies to facilitate reconciliation of work and private lives of women and men by means of:

· achieving the "Barcelona Targets" in the field of public infrastructures for children less than three years, dependent and older people

· the implementation of Local Reconciliation Agreements

· promoting studies on gender issues and reconciliation

Cross cutting measures promoting co-responsibility

We recommend cross-cutting measures to promote co-responsibility of women and men by means of:

· Advancing towards a coeducational school model by public administration

· Consolidation of time policies to achieve a better organization of daily time, based on equality basis

SO2: e-Health & Independence

E-Health publicity

To stimulate increased support for the wider implementation of telecare technologies, government must first establish policy to raise awareness about the potential of technologies in health and care.

SO2-SO4: e-Health & Independence combined with Social & e-Inclusion

Empowerment civilians

Governments have to stimulate and facilitate the empowerment of civilians regarding more self organization and to reinforce their social and informal care network. Several factors have to be taken into account:

· In regions where there is a history of centralised coordination of the government, governments have to take a step backwards to give more space to self organization of civilians. Apart from this change of culture, procedures and legislations the welfare state has to be changed.

· It is important that governments raise awareness to all stakeholders about their changing relationship with civilians and that civilians have to take more responsibility for themselves and of others in their social network.

· The government has to stimulate and facilitate active and inactive civilians in realising digital (local) communities together with good access to internet and web 2.0 tools for every one and improvement of digital skills to use these tools

Supply & Demand

To bridge the gap between the supply and demand of services for healthy ageing, social cohesion and sustainable economic growth, governments must by 2013 establish policy to fulfil 4 key roles:

· Raise awareness about issues affecting society, especially vulnerable groups

· Link existing networks and build new co-operations

· Empower people to play a more prominent role in societal change

· Stimulate a combination of public and private sector funded services, supporting innovation in e-health and the integration of comprehensive telecare and telehealth services

Use of social media tools

The government has to integrate the use of social media tools in their (communication) policies, processes and procedures by 2012 to harness the value and opportunities created by social media tools. The government has to get familiar with social media and improve the skills of it's employees to use them and understand it's benefits.

SO3: Silver economy

Age management principles

To introduce Age Management principles in the strategies of public and private sectors by:

· mentoring programmes

· flexibility

· life long learning

Employment support to older people

That EU MS consider issuing guidance about different forms of employment support sensitive to older people, adapted to meet their experiences and needs.

Raising awareness to eradicate stereotypes

To raise awareness (of working force and consumers) about the social participation and value of people over 50 in order to eradicate stereotypes that negatively influence younger generations and employers.

SO4: Social & e-Inclusion

Premises of a European integrated model of Homeless Care

To create the premises at European level for a common integrated model of resources and programmes for homeless people. This model should:

· take into account the needs of specific people (like homeless women or homeless with mental disorders, among others) in order to adapt all services to the real needs of the citizen.

· facilitate also the creation of local/regional networks of public and private organizations which work for homeless people in order to design policies and programmes jointly and from an integrated point of view.

· ensure collaboration and creation of wider European networks.

SO5: Social entrepreneurship

Legislative and institutional framework for social economy

To improve legislation on social enterprises and develop a comprehensive and coherent support system to help social enterprises start up and improve their sustainability.

Social clauses in public procurements

To improve and regulate standard inclusion of social clauses in public procurement.

SO6: Civil society empowerment

Equal access to ICT and Internet for active Civil Society

An equal access to ICT tools and internet in particular, which needs to be enhanced at the local level in terms of infrastructure and skills.

Encouraging processes of deliberative democracy

Participatory processes must be established by local and national authorities to let citizens be part of local decisions through different modalities.

Sustainable and inclusive economic growth

Put in place a system of non-monetary incentives to promote the social and cultural value of activities such as volunteering, community of practices and informal work.