Eldicare 2.0, as the continuation of the Project Eldicare: Matching Skills in a growing European Silver Economy, aims to strengthen the cooperation among sectoral partners on elderly care and educational providers in healthcare, as well as to update the occupational profiles and competencies of professionals in the elderly caregiving sector, by providing a sectoral skills long-term strategy that will tackle skills gaps on the labor market and anticipate future skills. In parallel, its specific objectives include the a) up/reskilling of the elderly care professionals, b) upgrade the existing and emerging Occupational Profiles with up-to-date and essential skills for the elderly care practitioners, c) establishment of a joint methodology for addressing future skills needs, d) enhancement of the quality and the attractiveness of training in the health care sector at a European, National, Regional and Local Level. In order to achieve these objectives, the following activities will be implemented:-Definition of a forward-looking Upskilling and Reskilling Strategy for the elderly care sector-Development of a set of up-to-date Occupational Skills Profiles for elderly care practitioners-Design of modular competence-based training curricula for the reskilling and upskilling of elderly care practitioners based on the new Occupational Profiles-Pilot delivery of Trainings-Offering hands-on solutions to generate long-term impact and sustainability in the elderly care sectorIn the consortium, we are going to involve Educational Providers of Healthcare Trainings (VET & HEI), Market Representatives (elderly care nursing homes, EU Associations) and Partners that provide specific expertise. We are going to train 850 learners, while 60 mobility flows will be implemented. Inter alia, the following results are expected: Blueprint Report on the future Elderly Care Providers, 6 Competence Based Curricula, Policy Recommendations, updated Occupational Profiles in caregiving sector.

Young carers are children and young persons under 18 providing significant or substantial care, assistance or support to family members who have a disability, suffer from chronic illness, mental health problem or other condition connected with a need for care. They assume a level of responsibility that would usually be associated with an adult. Young carers 18-24 years old are referred to as young adult carers. Although there are no data available for all countries involved in the partnership, we know that the phenomenon is wide-spread. For example, according to statistics 6,2% of German teenagers provide care for a ill family member, 7% of Italians 15-24 years older are young carers. In Scotland, 4.33% of the total number of young people aged between 16 and 24 identified themselves as carers. On the other hand, when surveying in schools among students living with parents with some kind of chronic illness or disabilities, figures in Italy reached almost 20% of students. Young carers undertake a wide range of caring roles and responsibilities, including emotional support, personal care, housework and household budgeting. While research has found that caring can result in positive impacts, there is a relatively strong body of evidence on the adverse impact of caring on health outcomes, social activity, educational engagement and employment opportunities for young carers (e.g. Aldridge, 2008; Becker, 2007). As such, children who live with and care for parents or other family members who are ill or disabled may require support in their capacity as children and/or as young carers.Young carers are still very much invisible. On one hand, significant proportion of young carers have not disclosed their caring responsibilities to their school, they are no more likely to be in contact with social services than are their peers, and only a minority have had an assessment of their needs or been informed about sources of help (Barnardo’s, 2006; Dearden and Becker, 2004; The Children’s Society, 2013). On the other hand, many families do not recognise their children as ‘carers’ (Smyth et al., 2011), some children do not recognise or identify with the role, and there can be a degree of reluctance, even anxiety, among families in disclosing caring responsibilities.Building on this information, the TOGETHER project aims to support social inclusion and engagement of young carers in DE-OS-IT-GR and UK by helping young carers and professionals to adopt a whole family approach, where: members of the household (including the care-recipient) are encouraged to communicate openly about the illness and caring; the condition of the care-recipients are explained clearly to the younger members of the family; helping relationship building within the family; professionals are encouraged to take a whole-family approach when working with care-recipients. The TOGETHER project intends to reach this aims by developing, testing and dissemination three intellectual outputs: (1) awareness rising material to inform children and adults about how important is to cooperate and be supportive with each other when there is a caring responsibility in the family - IO1 (2) a training workshop curriculum for young carers and their families, to support the creation of an open dialogue about the illness / condition of the care recipient, the impact on the young persons and how the whole family can respond to this - IO2 (3) an e-learning programme for professionals about how to promote a whole family approach for young carers and how to replicate the workshop elaborated in IO3.Our ultimate goal is to have an impact on families where there are caring responsibilities and where there is a young member, in order to prevent / reduce negative impacts on him/her, as well as improving his/her well-being, social inclusion and community engagementAll partners involved in the proposal are organizations with solid backgrounds of work with and for young informal carers. All of the partners have also been working with or researching young carers and the issues that affect them.The coordinator is DWBS from Germany, while partners are ANS (Italy), EUROCARERS (BE), Carers Trust (UK) and EDRA (GR).

<< Background >>Family and Community Nurse (FCN) is identified as a key actor in the new Primary Health Care (PHC) models. Despite this, no standardized Professional Profile nor training path are defined at EU level. ENhANCE targeted an existing mismatch between the skills offered by nurses working in PHC and those actually demanded by the health care sector. To be noted that the recent pandemic has made even more evident the (already existing) need of FCNs, to decentralize our PHC on the territory.<< Objectives >>Main objective was to increase the specialization level of nurses working in PHC regarding Family and Community Nursing skills. Moreover, the project aimed to foster the development of FCN curricula based on a formalized EU profile drawing on WHO and EU recommendations. Ultimately, the goal was to enhance the shift from old PHC models to new ones.<< Implementation >>Implementation encompassed the development of:- A EU Professional Profile for FCN - A EU Curriculum for FCN - Guidelines supporting VET designers and teachers to design effective training for FCNs- An Open Online Tool supporting practice sharing for FCNs- A European e-learning for VET teachers in the field of nursing- Free Open Contents targeting VET teachers - Design documents of 3 localized curricula in Italy, Finland and Greece. - 3 pilot courses in Italy, Finland and Greece.<< Results >>- 150 graduate nurses were trained according to the EU Curriculum and became FCNs; more than 30 already got employed. Others will be employed soon- Nurse professional associations and Regulatory bodies across Europe can benefit from the EU Professional Profile for recognition and mobility of the profession - VET providers and teachers acrosso Europe can offer innovative and standardized training for FCNs

Facing the ageing population challenges of the 21st-century, & the dependency or need of support from people who have chronic diseases, mental disorders, or other incapacitated illness, the provision of care is becoming one of the most important occupations. However, estimates suggest that as much as 80% of care across the EU is provided by informal carers which are at least twice as many as the formal carers. In the project partners’ countries, the statistics show a spread of informal care prevalence: 30% of the total population in Belgium are informal caregivers or personal assistants, 20% in Poland, 16% in Spain, 15% in Slovenia & 13% in Portugal (EQLS, 2016). Despite the challenges/needs that this occupation may have, initiatives to increase the training opportunities for carers remain extremely fragmented in the EU. Moreover, it is well known the need for the formal recognition of the provision of care as a paid profession, through the validation of an occupational profile.Recognizing these needs, the main objective of the GivingCare is to empower formal & informal personal caregivers & personal assistants, & other health professionals, by developing technical, soft & digital skills, responding to the gap in the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) provision, through the design & implementation of an innovative Continuous Education Programme (CEP) & respective materials/resources, based on independent modules. The consortium will offer a Guide for Personal Caregivers & Personal Assistants & health professionals supporting the professional development of the target groups & their daily activities (e.g. Good Practices for Caring; How to take care of who cares; & a selection of storytelling videos based on real cases with visual examples of care practices. Besides, the project will also develop & promote a professional occupational profile for personal caregivers & personal assistants fostering their social & professional recognition, giving them the support & tools they need to take care of themselves & others. Direct TG: formal & informal personal caregivers & personal assistants, health professionals in general, associations/NGOs/business that provides care services & supports carers, HEIs in the health sector, & also decision-makers, including employment services & national ministries responsible for the recognition of professional occupations.Indirect TG: adult education providers & individuals in need of care & their families.GivingCare outputs & methodology are designed to promote a holistic approach & to promote impact in the specific target groups.A CEP will be co-design between the consortium & representatives of the TGs (40 participants) to provide the necessary knowledge & skills for those who work as informal & formal personal caregivers & personal assistants or as health professionals, aiming to empower & enhance their performance & also to enabling them to better cope with the burden of providing care. Within this programme, a Toolkit for students & a set of educative resources for teachers will be developed, as well as distance-learning materials available online, adapted from the modules addressed in the CEP, for those who cannot attend in the face-to-face classes have equal access to learn & participate in this innovative programme.To empower individuals who provide care, a Guide addressing formal & informal personal caregivers & personal assistants & health professionals will be produced, designed based on best practices in the caregiving field, testimonies of those who provide care, & their needs and challenges, difficulties & concerns, helping them put also take care of themselves. Inside this Guide, a set of storytelling videos will be also produced, based on caregivers & personal assistants’ testimonials (12 participants) Complementing the project approach, partners will design and validate an occupational profile for Personal Caregiver & Personal Assistant aiming to promote the recognition of this profession, designed in co-creation journeys with representatives of the TGs (48 participants).The project strives to reach, both at face-to-face & at distance, 672 participants including students, professors & caregivers & personal assistants & other health professionals in the testing phase of the educational programme and materials.As an added value, Multiplier Events will be implemented, reaching all the beneficiaries & end-users of the project results, & also policymakers such as ministries & employment services, aiming to present the project key results and to discuss & validate an occupational profile for Personal Caregivers & Personal Assistants to promote the recognition of this occupation, reaching a total of 160 participants.

The project had a partnership made of 5 European countries Italy, France, Belgium, Romania and Portugal, and had Fondazione IRPEA from Padua, Italy, as coordinator.The focus of the “DARE” pathway were the services for home assistance as central element to be reformed in the wider context of the assistance to the person, a choice motivated by the conviction that the support the persons in difficulty and their carers might receive at home influences their right to be cared at home, avoiding also the recoveries in residential structures, already not enough compared to the number of requests.The perspective of a change of paradigm in this sector, focused on the a holistic approach regarding the needs and the resources, was confirmed during the whole project. Starting from the obvious lack of dedicated public resources, in most of the European countries, and from the deep changes appeared in the modern families, the project facilitated the approach to very diversified initiatives.The 5 visits for the exchange of best practices – to Bucharest, Brussel, Bastia, Coimbra and Padua – involved 106 available places – but some of the professionals participated to more than one visit. The two internal Focus Groups (in Bucharest and Padua), the Final Workshop (Padua) and the intense exchanges via e-mail between the project coordinators of each partner confirmed that the objective of creating a “community of practice” had been reached: the group will continue to pay attention to the innovation in the sector of home and residential care and will search for opportunities of building projects centered on the transfer of best practices, perhaps also enlarging the partnership to other countries.The diversity of the professional profiles involved was another objective reached (directors and coordinators of organizations associated to the partners, professional educators, healthcare technicians, home assistants, responsible for the communication, occupational therapists, psychologists, physiotherapists, experts from the planning department). In terms of direct impact, the opportunity to participate to one or more visits facilitated a training “on the field” and contributed to the widening of their vision on the utility and the functioning of integrated services, which also imply the rethinking of the necessary competences. Besides, the direct contact with different cultures of approaching care and cure gave them the elements of a necessary intercultural approach.As it emerged from the Observation Form of the Best Practices, filled in by each partner after each visit, TRAINING and CONTINUOUS REQUALIFICATION of the professionals from the different home assistance services, are essential in order to educate them to the vision of the integration of interventions/services meant to improve the quality of life of the assisted persons and to favor the social inclusion process of the disadvantaged persons.Through the continuous dissemination activity, around 36.000 persons were reached, a public made mainly of experts from the third sector at the national and European level, local/national/European stakeholders, professionals from the healthcare and education sector, public institutions.The partnership had started from an initial situation of differentiation both due to the type of organization and to the integration level of the existing services. According to the options expressed by the partners during the final Focus Group, the model of the “integrated desks/CARE HUBS” remains the ideal one needed for a real innovation of the assistance services (domiciliary and non), even if differentiated according to the culture and to the existing legislation of each country.The collection of the 26 best practices in a e-book (available in EPUB and PDF format) allowed a deeper reflection on the models and initiatives observed and the collection of the organizations and the territories involved.The partnership followed the double meaning of the word “DARE”: “to donate”, in Italian, and therefore aim at the quality of life of the persons for whom, as professionals, we are responsible, and “to dare”, in English, as a really sustainable welfare allover Europe, homogenous in terms of quality and quantity, cannot be possible without OVERCOMING the traditional division of the assistance and care services based on “target groups”.Being convinced that that innovation is possible event with small (but strategic) steps, the idea of foreseeing, on more territories, the creation of Integrated Desks for care and assistance (not only domiciliary one) remains an objective to be carried on. The “DARE” project helped the partners also in facing the real dimensions of the needed changes in order to reach, even partly, this objective.