In recent years, the discussion about the promotion of familysupporting services has grown more intense both in Europe as a whole and in Germany. Familysupporting services create more time for the family and generate economic growth. People with children or relatives who require special care need a broad range of supporting services to enable them to reconcile their working life with their family obligations. Moreover, the potential this represents for economic growth can create new jobs, reduce illegal employment and generate additional revenues from taxes and social security contributions.

1 In order to systematise the multiple aspects of family-supporting services and to exchange good practice examples from other European Member States, the Observatory for Sociopolitical Developments in Europe, acting on behalf of the German Federal Ministry
for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), hosted an international conference entitled “Family-supporting services in Europe: current challenges and developments” in Berlin on 29 January 2010.

The objective of the event was to foster professional interaction between experts across Europe and receive impulses for the national discussion here in Germany. Speakers
came from Belgium, France, Sweden and Germany. The 70 or so participants also included experts from other European states such as the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Spain.

In his welcoming address, Malte Ristau-Winkler of the Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth outlined the main characteristics of German family policy and its continuous evolution, particularly since 2004. He stressed the central role of family-supporting services for better family/career compatibility and for improved support to caregiving relatives. He also emphasized the importance of developing a reliable and demand-oriented infrastructure so that families could spend more time with each other.
While Mr. Ristau-Winkler focused on the situation of family-supporting services in Germany, Dominik Enste from the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft outlined the situation
of family-supporting services in Europe. He described the market for family-supporting services in Germany, pointing out that demand is greatest among the elderly, regardless of whether they are living alone or with a partner, and that families tend to make less use
of family-supporting services. This, he explained, was often the result of the financial situation of families. In addition, family-supporting services are often perceived as a
luxury. Mr. Enste presented the various European models and their goals (for instance gender equality,reduction in illegal employment and lowering of unemployment among persons with low qualification levels) and explained that in other Member States family supporting services are subsidised and that they therefore create jobs that are subject to social security contributions.

In the workshops that followed this overview of the situation in Europe as a whole, participants were given more details on the various systems of family-supporting services
in Europe and an opportunity to discuss them. The first workshop presented the voucher systems used in Belgium and France. On the one hand, these models are intended to create incentives to foster legal employment; another objective is to reduce bureaucratic
obstacles so as to encourage demand for this type of service. In the second workshop, participants discussed conditions of employment in the services sector. Good examples from Sweden and France were presented. In both of these countries, the objective is to improve framework conditions in the sector with the largest proportion of illicit services so as to create good conditions for legal employment and give these activities enhanced recognition. The third workshop dealt with the integration of enterprises in support
schemes, with examples of the positive involvement of companies as employers and market participants.

Practical examples from Germany, France and the United Kingdom showed how important
it is to develop incentives that are well-adapted to the circumstances of the country concerned and to adequately distribute the costs of financing the system between the
state, the employers and the employees. The comparative approach of the conference showed how different the development of family-supporting services is across Europe.
The good practice examples from France, Belgium and Sweden showed that conscious improvement of the framework conditions for family-supporting services can also change the behaviour of both providers and users and generate market growth. With regard to the
situation in Germany, studies have demonstrated that if prices are fair and the quality of family-supporting services is good, both families and senior citizen households will be more willing to use them on a legal basis. The conference identified a number of crucial factors for success, for instance facilitated access to services via vouchers or cheque systems, the involvement of companies in support schemes, e.g. service vouchers co-financed by employers, fostering professional providers and structures as well as improving the flow of information, for instance through referral agencies. It showed clearly that only an overall strategy combining a range of different instruments can foster dynamic development in the market for family-supporting services.