Administering social care in the European Union: moving towards one-stop shops?

Protection and inclusion have for long been some of the guiding principles of the European welfare states. The crisis of 2008 placed social investment high on the social policy agenda in the EU and specific policies that the new paradigm embraces have been in focus. Unfortunately, little attention is paid to administering policies. Creating one-stop shops, as a new way of easier and more efficient use of available resources for citizens, is perceived as the most suitable way for administration of specific policies. This paper is a contribution to this debate, looking at ways social policy is administered across the EU, from a double perspective. First, having social investment as the theoretical but also practical approach and second, looking at different welfare state regimes. This approach should point to major differences in social policy administration but also present which models perform the best. Most importantly, the paper aims to show how administering social care influences implementation of policy changes across the European Union.