“One step forward, two steps back?” EEG Joint Statement on the Report on the Transition from Institutional Care to Community-Based Services in 27 EU Member States
Report on the Transition from Institutional Care to Community-Based Services in 27 EU Member States
“COVID-19 crisis: People living in institutions must not be written off” EEG Joint Statement on the consequences of COVID-19 pandemic
List of resources from the EEG members about the COVID-19 health crisis.
Commissioner Helena Dalli speech at Towards Inclusion conference
What EEG is
The European Expert Group on the transition from institutional to community-based support (EEG) is a coalition representing:
- Children and their families;
- People with disabilities and their families;
- Homeless people;
- People experiencing mental health problems;
- Service providers;
- Public authorities;
- UN organisations.
EEG members come together because we believe institutionalisation of people must end.
Institutional is any residential care where:
- residents are isolated from the broader community and/or compelled to live together;
- residents do not have enough control over their lives and over decisions which affect them;
- and requirements of the organisation itself tend to take precedence over the residents’ individual needs.
What EEG does
The EEG advocates to replace institutionalisation with family- and community-based support. The EEG reminds the EU and member states of their obligation to stop funding and to replace institutionalisation with family- and community-based support; based on:
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
- The UN Guidelines on the Use and Conditions of Alternative Care for Children
- European Fundamental Rights Charter.
The EEG provides expertise on the transition from institutionalisation to family- and community-based support. We focus on how EU funding, law and policy should be used to facilitate the transition:
- no spending on institutionalisation;
- resources available to expand capacity and quality of family- and community-based support;
- resources available to facilitate access to housing, early child care, inclusive education and accessible general public services and built environment;
- resources available for monitoring of reforms at national level.
The EEG facilitates development of quality family- and community-based support; by quality we mean support that is:
- respecting human rights of all people with care or support needs;
- person-centred;
- empowering.
