Skip to Main Navigation
Events

Strengthening social services at the local level: Harnessing the power of human resources in social services

May 13, 2025
Virtual
Seminar 4 banner

Human resources are the backbone of good quality social services. However, low wages, limited training programs and career advancement opportunities hinder the recruitment and retention of qualified personnel. These factors contribute to persistent workforce shortages, high turnover rates, and caregiver burnout, undermining the effectiveness of social service delivery. Family caregivers, who provide essential support to households, also face significant physical and emotional burdens, which national policies often fail to adequately address.

This session will explore policy frameworks and strategies aimed at improving the working conditions and well-being of both paid and unpaid caregivers. It will focus on the role of policies that support family caregivers, as well as initiatives to enhance the training, formalization, and retention of paid caregivers. Drawing on experiences from international organizations and country case studies, the session will identify best practices for enhancing care quality and advancing the professionalization of the caregiving sector.

  • Image
    Irene Bertana
    EASPD Senior Policy Officer and Parliament Liaison

    With extensive experience in the disability field, she focuses on deinstitutionalisation, inclusive living, and early childhood intervention, currently serving as facilitator of the EASPD Member Forum on Inclusive Living and organising the conference “Empowering families, enabling selfdetermination: rethinking support at every life stage” to be held in October 2025.

  • Image
    Thijs de Blok
    Director and CEO, Buurtzorg International | Director, Buurtwonen Netherlands

    Thijs de Blok is the Director and CEO of Buurtzorg International, the advisory and licensing arm of the renowned Dutch community care organization, Buurtzorg Nederland. He also serves as the Director of Buurtwonen Netherlands, an initiative focused on creating small social housing communities for the elderly, promoting informal care, and enhancing autonomy.

    Thijs joined Buurtzorg in 2017 following a successful career in the hospitality industry across various countries. He is a frequent public speaker on healthcare and organizational change, passionately advocating for the Buurtzorg model. He played a key role as a protagonist in the Harvard Business School case study on Buurtzorg, published in 2022.

    Recently, Thijs participated in the Harvard Executive Education Module on Leadership for System Change, organized by the Schwab Foundation. He has lived in South Korea and Japan to support and promote Buurtzorg’s partnerships and projects in the region.

    Currently, Thijs resides in the Netherlands and France with his wife and two dogs. In his free time, he enjoys road cycling, cooking, and traveling.

  • Image
    Marija Lukec Presker
    Assistant Director

    She graduated from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, majoring in behavioral disorders and after years in education in various professional roles, she started working at the then social welfare center where she worked at the Department for Children, Youth and Family for seven years. 

    After the Social Welfare Center, she worked as the head of the Service for the Protection of Children, Youth and Family at the Ministry of Labor, Pension System, Family and Social Policy for three years, during which she participated in the work of various working and advisory groups, and mostly dealt with the topics of child protection, especially unaccompanied children, victims of human trafficking, gender-based violence and domestic violence.

    From April 1, 2024 at the Academy of Social Welfare.

  • Image
    Dr. Natia Partskhaladze
    Associate Professor of Social Work at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University

    She is a founding member of the Georgian Association of Social Workers and a pioneer in the development of academic social work education in Georgia. As an independent expert and Senior Technical Advisor with the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, Dr. Partskhaladze has supported governments in more than 30 countries to strengthen child protection systems and the social service workforce. She brings over 20 years of experience in child protection, with a background spanning policy, program development, and academia, including a decade of service with UNICEF Georgia and the UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia in Geneva.