Care work in Europe: Current understandings and

future directions

Peter Moss

Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education

University of London

The Study• EC funded (Framework 5)

• 2001 - 2005

• 6 Partners: Denmark, Hungary, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and UK

• Main objective:To contribute to the development of good quality

employment in care work in services that are responsive to needs of changing societies

Specific aims

• What is ‘care work’? Analyse and compare understandings of care work across different types of care work and different countries

• How is ‘ care work’ structured? Identify different approaches to and models of care work

• Why is ‘care work’ women’s work? Examine the causes and consequences of the gendered nature of the care workforce

• What directions to take? Identify conditions necessary for the development of good quality employment in care work

Why is care work important?

• As a potential source of good quality employment

• As a condition for reconciliation of work and family life increased employment &gender equality

• As the main determinant of quality of care servicesgood quality of life for Europe’s citizens

Changing context

• Changing values : choice, flexibility, decentralisation, privatisation, rights, participation

• Changing images : e.g. the child as active subject and citizen

• Changing demands: increasing demand for paid care work, increasing recognition that care work is complex and demanding

Changing context

• Changing supply: care work – unpaid and paid – dependent on women working in poor conditions and subsidizing costs – but this ‘traditional’ supply is decreasing.

The problematique – in this changing context, is the current system sustainable? desirable?

Three stage study1. Mapping the care workforce; surveying use and demand for

care services; reviewing literature on quality, job satisfaction and gender issues

2. Three cross-national case studies of work: with young children (HU, DK, SP);

with older people (SW, ENG, SP + HU); with adults with severe disabilities (DK, NE, SW)

Development of video-based method for cross-national study of practice in care work (SOPHOS)

3. Innovative practice (36 examples); dissemination

All reports at www.ioe.ac.uk/tcru/carework.htm

Focus of study

• Childcare and out-of-school services• Child and youth residential and foster care• Care for adults with disabilities, including eldercare+• paid ‘front line’ care work – but recognise

importance of relationship with unpaid work

Border crossing

• Cross national• Cross-sectoral – from 0 to 100

– Differences and common ground• Policy and practice, structures and

understandings• Multi-method (secondary analysis of

LFS→video-based study of practice→in-depth interviews)

Main findingsWhat is care work?

‘Care work’ is a problematic term and concept, and can be an integral part of a wider field (such as education or pedagogy). Where it exists as a separate field, it is often weakly conceptualised.

Main findingsWhat is ‘care work’?

• Concept often unclear, e.g. many have difficulty defining ‘social care’?

• Border between ‘care’ and other fields is blurring, e.g.– Children: (child)care into education, e.g.

Spain moving from ‘childcare’ to ‘education for young children’ (guarderia > escuela infantile)

– Elderly people: (elder)care into health and housing

Main findingsWhat is ‘care work?’

• ‘Care’ not understood as a distinct field of policy, practice or employment, e.g.– Denmark, care as inseparable part of pedagogy, holistic approach to

working with people…not ‘care work’ but ‘pedagogical work’, not ‘care workers’ but ‘pedagogues’

– ‘pedagogy’: important theory, practice and profession in Continental Europe…but almost unknown in English-language world

Main findingsHow is care work structured?

The workforce is three tiered and highly gendered, though with considerable cross-sectoral and cross-national differences in size and quality of employment

Three tier workforce

High (tertiary level education)• Mainly work with children and young people; only

small groups (except Denmark) work with adults. Include teachers and (social) pedagogues

Medium (upper secondary education)• Mainly work with adults (e.g. auxiliary nurse in

Sweden), but also ‘childcare’ workers (e.g.nursery workers in Hungary, UK)

Low (secondary education)• Home-based workers; some assistants. Include family

day care, home carers, personal assistants

Profile of the workforce

• Highly gendered (% women highest with children and elderly)

• Mostly 25-44 (like total workforce) - many have own care responsibilities but no information

• Often (not always) low paid • Mostly specialist• Career prospects usually limited – vertically

and horizontally

Cross-sectoral/nationaldifferences

• Highest level in work with children…lowest in work with elderly people

• Highest level overall in Denmark, then Sweden…UK at lower end

• Largest workforce in Denmark (10%) and Sweden (9%); Netherlands and UK (7-9%, but high % part time); Hungary and Spain (<5%, but low % part time)

Danish pedagogue

• High level of education• Less gendered – 25% male in some services• Better pay (and other conditions)• Generalist - work with people from 0 to 100;

main worker with children, young people and younger adults

• Broad career prospects - vertical and horizontal

Main findingsWhy is ‘care work’ women’s work?

• NOT poor pay

• BUT understandings of the work as essentially female, replicating the gendered nature of care work in the home

• AND gendering of the workforce is reproduced in training and employment practices (which presume female students and workers).

Main findingsCommon requirements and

competencies

There are strong commonalities in work across different sectors: whether with children, young people or adults, it is becoming more complex and demanding and requires many common competencies.

Commonalities in care work

• Fulfilling fundamental physiological needs and needs for protection

• Supporting development and/or autonomy • Relating: communication, listening, empathy• Supporting the integrative relationship between the

individual, family and friends and wider communities• Networking (with family, community) and

teamworking (with other workers and services)• Working with diversity.• Renewing knowledge

Common competencies

• Communicative (many languages, listen)• Reflective and analytic; make contextualised

judgements• Understanding and valuing learning as lifelong

process• Personal competencies/experiences + the ability to

connect the personal & professional• Working between theory and practice• Working with complexity, diversity, change• Teamworking and networking• Musical and aesthetic

Main findingsQuality of employment

Much care work has features of poor quality employment (e.g.pay and other employment conditions, levels of education). But reported job satisfaction is high, and much care work has features of good quality employment (e.g. job autonomy). The social status of the work, however, is perceived by workers to be low.

Good qualityemployment

• Pay, benefits and employment • Education, initial and ongoing (Lifelong learning) • Supportive environment • Health and safety• Career prospects• Decision latitude (autonomy)• Meaningful employment• Social recognition and status• Equal opportunities and non-discrimination• Work and family reconciliation

Main findingsRecruitment and retention

There is evidence of actual or envisaged shortages of care workers, which may reflect an emergent crisis of care.

What directions to take?Conditions for good quality

employment• Strong valuation of all those who are ‘cared

for’ (older people as well as children)• Well organised workforce with strong and

articulate public voice• Making the work more visible• Development of ‘learning organisations’

• Recognition that good quality employment needed for sustainability and quality

• Strong funding base (e.g. Nordic welfare state – but what other possibilities?)…government requiring high standards

• Reconceptualisation of ‘care work’ – ‘care work’ is low quality work

What directions to take?Move to two tier workforce

Care work requires:

• Reflective professional practitioner with tertiary level education working with…

• …“other worker” with upper secondary education

What directions to take?Diversifying the workforce

Diversifying the workforce – especially gender and ethnicity – is :

• necessary

• desirable

Concluding questions

• What proportion “professional” and “assistant”? Does the professional supervise and manage or also do ‘front line’ work? Who blows noses?

• A generalist workforce educated to work across all/most of the life course or more specialist groups? Nursery worker or lifecourse worker?

Concluding questions

• Is a market/managerial orientation compatible with a a reflective professional adopting a holistic approach and exercising contextualised judgement?

• What are the implications for care work of ‘cash-for-care’ policies?

Concluding questions

• Is there an emerging ‘crisis of care’ as women’s socio-economic position changes fundamentally?

• What solutions?

– Recruit non-employed (welfare to work)

– Recruit under-represented groups (e.g. men)

– Recruit migrant labour

– Revalue work, improve quality

“Wherever the present standard for any category of job is ‘low qualified women around the age of 30’, there will unmistakably be a strong need to improve the quality of job so it will be acceptable to people with higher educational attainments. And if no improved professionalisation of the job is achieved then it will rapidly end up in a severe labour supply shortage” (Géry Coomans, 2002)

Concluding questions

• How to pay for good quality employment? – Per capita GDP: DK= $31600; Ire=$35800;– Tax as % GDP: DK = 49%; Ire=28%

• Is ‘care’ a distinct field of policy, practice and employment? Or is ‘care’ part of other fields, e.g. education, pedagogy, health? Does ‘care work’ have an independent future?