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Published on: 30/10/2019Updated on: 30/10/2019
On October 4, Baptiste Lenfant, CEO of IPERIA, spoke at the annual international conference "Staff Matters! Disability Workforce of Tomorrow" organized by the EASPD -- European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities in Helsinki.
This invitation to participate in the round table "Personal Service Professionals in a Changing World" on behalf of the European Federation for Family Employment (EFFE), of which IPERIA is a founding member, demonstrates the recognition beyond our borders of the "French model" in professionalizing domestic work.
The Importance of Establishing a Professionalization Framework and Policy
After presenting EFFE and providing an overview of the domestic work sector in Europe, Baptiste Lenfant explained its specificities, emphasizing the importance of professionalizing sector employees and developing tools to this end, as EFFE calls for from European leaders in its White Paper published last March. The following were reviewed:
- The "disability" specializations for the "Dependency Personal Carer" and "Childcare Provider/Childminder" qualifications in France provide certified professionals with specific skills for supporting people with disabilities
- The European project CARER+, led by IPERIA, which has established personal carers as actors in the digital transition
- The European project PRODOME, coordinated by IPERIA, whose final conference was held on October 10 at the ENA in Paris. It demonstrated that family assistants can play an active role in social representations related to their occupation through professionalization.
In conclusion, Baptiste Lenfant discussed European perspectives on the sector through the Advancing Personal and Household Services project (Ad-PHS) involving EFFE and EASPD. The project's main objective is to create a single point of contact to support, guide, and advise European public authorities in developing their policies regarding Personal and Household Services (PHS).
