Co-production, which is built on the principle that people who use a service are best placed to help design it, was central to debate at the annual conference of the European Social Network (ESN) in June, when delegates from 35 countries met in Milan to discuss how to raise the quality of care and support in a post-austerity era.

The ESN, which is funded by the European Commission but also draws members from outside the EU, shares knowledge and best practice in social services. It wants the commission to draw up a new framework for quality to guide EU states and others as policy moves on from a primary focus on ensuring continued provision of services in the face of the financial constraints of the past decade.

Katarina Ivanković-Knežević, the commission’s director for social affairs, told the conference that quality was “as important as the availability of social services” and a golden thread running through the 20 principles of the European pillar of social rights proclaimed in 2017.

It was work from Scotland, in the form of health and social care standards introduced last year, that helped shape much of the discussion in Milan. These are intended for all services, not just those regulated by statute, and are based on underlying principles of dignity and respect, compassion, inclusion, responsiveness of care and support and wellbeing.

Peter Macleod, chief executive of the Care Inspectorate in Scotland, said the principles were rooted firmly in a human-rights approach to care and support, and that the goal should be for the individual to be able to say: “I am receiving high-quality care that is right for me.”