Social Investment Package (SIP)

Image: Social Investment, Third Sector

The Social Investment Package

The Commission defines social investment as 'policies designed to strengthen people’s skills and capacities and support them to participate fully in employment and social life'. 'Social investment is about investing in people'. 

To that aim, the Commission set up the Social Investment Package (SIP), an integrated policy framework which takes account of the social, economic and budgetary divergences between Member States. It focuses on:

• Ensuring that social protection systems respond to people's needs at critical moments throughout their lives. More needs to be done to reduce the risk of social breakdown and so avoid higher social spending in the future.
• Simplified and better targeted social policies, to provide adequate and sustainable social protection systems. Some countries have better social outcomes than others despite having similar or lower budgets, demonstrating that there is room for more efficient social policy spending.
• Upgrading active inclusion strategies in the Member States. Affordable quality childcare and education, prevention of early school leaving, training and job-search assistance, housing support and accessible health care are all policy areas with a strong social investment dimension.