UNIC Project Publishes Key Reports

The UNIC Project is underway. This is an important EU funded project to develop a new framework for the funding of all Long Term Care and Support in all EU states. This three year project receives financial support from the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation “EaSI (2014-2020)”. 

The projects partners are:

• European Association of Services Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) based in Belgium
• European Ageing Network (EAN) based in Luxembourg
• Disability Federation of Ireland
• Flemish Agency for Persons with a Disability (VAPH) from Flanders in Belgium
• The Association of Social Care Providers of the Czech Republic
• Support-Girona from Catalonia in Spain
• Service Foundation for Persons with an Intellectual Disability (KVPS) from Finland
• Lebenshilfe Salzburg from Austria
• Citizen Network Research from the Yorkshire in the UK

The UNIC (towards User-centred funding models for long term Care) project aims to develop, test and validate a set of innovative tools to help key stakeholders to implement Personal Budgets funding model. These tools, together with a set of policy recommendations & capacity building activities, will result in a comprehensive preparatory reform mechanism to support public authorities in the deployment of a user-centred funding model – based on the concept of personal budgets – for Long Term Care.

At the end of 2021 the project published two major reports to guide the development of the project:

• Models of Good Practice Report on Personal Budgets
• European Roadmap for User-Centred Funding for Long-Term Care and Support

Tools developed by UNIC will be tested for 12 months in Belgium by VAPH and will then be transferred to the Austrian, Czech, Finnish and Spanish contexts. 

You can find out more about the details of the project here: https://www.unicproject.eu

Dr Simon Duffy of Citizen Network Research is providing technical assistance on good practice in Personal Budgets and implementation strategies:

"I am very proud to be involved in this important work. It is exciting to see the EU and a wide range of European partners commit to the development of new systems of funding for all forms of Long Term Care and Support and to build those systems on the bedrock of human rights. There is a widespread recognition of the need for change at many levels and the determination of the Flemish governmental agency VAPH to design their systems to the highest standards is particularly heartening. Likewise it is encouraging that service providers, who are naturally fearful of changes to funding systems, realise that it is time for change. We have been consulting widely with representatives of many different groups and I hope we can apply the lessons from the long history of developments in Personal Budgets and Self-Directed Support to give European countries the best start possible on this important work."