Resolving the Workforce Problem in Health and Social Care Services in Europe: Towards an Evidence-Based Rationale for Public Services Investment and Growth

Europe’s health and social care systems are suffering from chronic staff shortages, rising inequalities and the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. These issues pose urgent questions about the sustainability and resilience of public services across the continent.

This edited volume offers the first evidence-based framework for tackling these issues. Drawing on cross-European case studies – from Scotland and Finland to Italy, Germany and Norway – the authors examine the structural, contextual and political factors shaping labour shortages. Using social democratic, neoliberal and corporatist welfare models, they present a compelling rationale for renewed investment and long-term growth in public services.

An original contribution to workforce theory, this book provides actionable strategies for tackling staff shortages and building resilient systems – offering both a diagnosis of the workforce crisis and a way forward for its resolution.

Antero Olakivi is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki.

Nigel Malin is Emeritus Professor of Health & Social Care at the University of Sunderland and an independent scholar. Between 2014 and 2021, he was Editor of Social Work & Social Sciences Review: An International Journal of Applied Research and Associate Editor for the British Journal of Learning Disabilities.

Marion Ellison is Reader in European Public Sociology and Social Policy at Queen Margaret University.