LeTs-Care
Learning from
Long-Term Care Practices
for the European Care Strategy
Within the LeTs-Care project (Learning from Long-Term Care Practices for the European Care Strategy) we investigate meaningful practices to contribute to the advancement of LTC policies and practices in the European Union.
Launched on April 1, 2024, LeTs-Care is funded under the “Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society” area of the Horizon Europe Programme.
EU societies have a unique opportunity to advance long-term care (LTC) policies and practices, positioning them as a core strategic infrastructure in the face of current multiple challenges.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated serious structural weaknesses in national LTC systems already struggling to meet the challenges linked to their ageing populations. The rising demand for care – coupled with national cost-containment measures – has led to pressures on service coverage. Reliance increased on informal carers or migrant care workers. Working conditions for care professionals deteriorated, leading to high turnover rates and widespread labour shortages. In one way or the other, all of the EU’s LTC systems face common challenges: affordability and accessibility, securing quality of care and quality of care work, addressing inequalities and reaching financial sustainability.
LeTs-Care combines the analysis of territorial indicators with qualitative/ethnographic approach to provide a new, in-depth, reflexive understanding of LTC challenges and their diversity as well as their similarities across seven EU countries.
The project is an essential tool for policy makers, stakeholders and researchers, providing invaluable insights on patterns and drivers of the shortcomings in LTC systems as well as highlighting the potential contribution of emerging practices and the development of contextualised sustainable methods.
Our mission is to disentangle the meanings of taken-for-granted LTC concepts such as “care” or “integrated care”, and show how they carry different meanings in different contexts. We are committed to produce new evidence and a novel approach to handle territorial inequalities in LTC, their drivers and interdependencies.
The project’s commitment to Open science will maximise its impact and inform care policies in the agenda in the years to come.
The project is led by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, with seven participating partners from The Netherlands, Spain, Lithuania, Denmark, Portugal, Austria, and Belgium.
News
Dutch Long-Term Care Practices Take Centre Stage at LeTs-Care Meeting
What happens when researchers step out of the theoretical realm and into the heart of real-world care practice? From February 4-6, 2026, the LeTs-Care team addressed this issue during an intensive meeting hosted by the University of Amsterdam.
Barbara Da Roit and Teppo Kröger as the new Co-Chairs of the Transforming Care Network
We are delighted to announce that Professor Barbara Da Roit, Principal Investigator of the LeTs-Care project and distinguished scholar, has been appointed Co-Chair of the Transforming Care Network (TCN). This prestigious role recognizes her outstanding contributions to research and her unwavering commitment to advancing care policies and practices.
Initial thoughts on the OECD-European Commission’s Report “Social Economy in Europe: Contributing to Competitiveness and Prosperity” – Just released!
The newly released Report “Social Economy in Europe: Contributing to Competitiveness and Prosperity”, as a joint effort of the OECD and the European Commission, offers important insights into the role of Social economy in many economic and social domains, including social services of general interest.
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