As the overwhelming majority of older people prefer to remain in their own homes and communities, innovative service provision aims to promote independence of older people despite incremental age associated frailty. Reablement is one such service intervention that is rapidly being adopted across high-income countries and projected to result in significant cost-savings in public health expenditure by decreasing premature admission to acute care settings and long-term institutionalisation. It is an intensive, time-limited intervention provided in people's homes or in community settings, often multi-disciplinary in nature, focussing on supporting people to regain skills around daily activities. It is goal-orientated, holistic and person-centred irrespective of diagnosis, age and individual capacities. Reablement is an inclusive approach that seeks to work with all kinds of frail people but requires skilled professionals who are willing to adapt their practise, as well as receptive older people, families and care staff. Although reablement may just seem the right thing to do, studies on the outcomes of this knowledge-based practice are inconsistent-yet there is an emerging evidence and practice base that suggests that reablement improves performance in daily activities. This innovative service however may lead to hidden side effects such as social isolation and a paradoxical increase in hospital admissions. Some of the necessary evaluative research is already underway, the results of which will help fill some of the evidence gaps outlined here.

In her Work—Lifestyle Choices, Hakim argued that attitudinal factors like work—lifestyle preferences are more important than institutions or structures in explaining female employment. Our aim is to study whether we can substantiate Hakim's preference theory or whether we should lay more emphasis on institutional factors. We ask whether there are systematic differences in attitudes to work and family life as proposed by Hakim. To what extent do the attitudinal dimensions react to institutional variables such as day care and family leave possibilities? What are the relative roles of opinions on family life and working life and traditional sociological variables such as education, income and socio-economic status? How does a spouse's opinion affect women's choices (intra-family attitudinal consistency)? We utilize the International Social Survey Programme data from 2002 and combine it with indicators of the quality of child-care and parental-leave policies in Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Our findings suggest that opinions matter but they are constrained by opportunity structures which are not alike for all women across different countries; opportunities depend not only on structural factors but also on institutional factors, such as the availability of day care. In addition, the opinion of male partners seems to influence women's decisions about employment.

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European Union policy encourages men and women to share parental leave to balance work and family life and promote gender equality in the labor market. A new directive extends parental leave to four months and introduces a quota, so one month is reserved for each parent. This article explores to what extent government-provided, paid parental leave and quotas for fathers could bring about equality in the division of leave between men and women by focusing on the pioneers in the field, the Nordic countries Á the first nations to offer fathers parental leave and introduce quotas. First, we describe the extent to which parental leave policies have been established and implemented in a way that is likely to promote equal sharing of leave. Next, we evaluate the impact of particular configurations of gender equality incentives in present parental leave policies for the actual division of leave time between men and women. Findings contribute to the conceptual as well as empirical understanding of whether fathers' rights and use of parental leave can help bring about an egalitarian division of leave between mothers and fathers, often thought to be the foundation for gender equality.La politique de l'Union européenne encourage les hommes et les femmes à partager le congé parental, pour mieux balancer le travail et la vie familiale et pour avancer la parité dans le marché du travail. Une nouvelle disposition législative prolonge le congé parental jusqu'à quatre mois et fournit un système de quota, sous forme d'un mois réservé pour chaque parent. Cet article explore dans quelle mesure le congé parental proposé par le gouvernement et les quotas des pères puissent affecter la parité en ce qui concerne la distribution du congé. L'article se concentre sur les pionniers de ce domaine (les pays nordiques)-les premiers pays à offrir aux pères le congé parental et à établir des quotas. D'abord, l'article décrit le contexte dans lequel la politique du congé parental a été établie et les mesures qui ont contribué au progrès de la parité dans la distribution du congé parental. Puis, l'article évalue le vrai impact des configurations spécifiques aux incitations à la parité dans la distribution du congé parental. Le résultat de cette étude contribue à la compréhension conceptuelle et empirique d'une question souvent considerée fondamentale à la parité: Est-ce que les droits des pères et l'utilisation du congé parental pourraient aider à réaliser une distribution égalitaire du congé parental entre mères et pères?

With an ageing society, the demand for health and social care is increasing. Traditionally, staff provide care for their clients rather than with them. In contrast, reablement aims to support people to maximise their competences to manage their everyday life as independently as possible. There is considerable variation between and within countries regarding the conceptual understanding of the approach. This variation affects the ability to evaluate reablement approaches systematically, compare and aggregate findings from different studies, and hinders the development of a robust evidence. Therefore, a Delphi study was conducted in 2018/9 with the aim of reaching agreement on the characteristics, components, aims and target groups of reablement, leading towards an internationally accepted definition of reablement. The study consisted of four Web-based survey rounds. In total, 82 reablement experts from 11 countries participated, reaching agreement on five characteristics (e.g. person-centred), seven components (e.g. goal-oriented treatment plan) and five aims (e.g. increase clients’ independency). Furthermore, most experts agreed that reablement is an inclusive approach irrespective of the person's age, capacity, diagnosis or setting. Based on these features, a definition of reablement was developed, which was accepted by 79 per cent of participating experts. This study is a significant step towards providing conceptual clarity about reablement. Future research should focus on evaluating the implementation of agreed reablement components to inform practice, education and policy.

Despite pursuing the policy of ageing in place, the two Nordic countries of Denmark and Sweden have taken diverse roads in regard to the provision of formal, public tax-financed home care for older people. Whilst Sweden has cut down home care and targeted services for the most needy, Denmark has continued the generous provision of home care. This article focuses on the implication of such diverse policies for the provision and combination of formal and informal care resources for older people. Using data from Level of Living surveys (based on interviews with a total of 1,158 individuals aged 67-87 in need of practical help), the article investigates the consequences of the two policy approaches for older people of different needs and socio-economic backgrounds and evaluates how the development corresponds with ideals of universalism in the Nordic welfare model. Our findings show that in both countries tax-funded home care is used across social groups but targeting of resources at the most needy in Sweden creates other inequalities: Older people with shorter education are left with no one to resort to but the family, whilst those with higher education purchase help from market providers. Not only does this leave some older people more at risk, it also questions the degree of defamilialisation which is otherwise often proclaimed to be a main characteristic of the Nordic welfare model.

The Nordic childcare policy model is often reviewed and even recommended internationally for its contribution to gender equality, high female labour force participation and, perhaps more indirectly, to a high fertility rate. Nordic childcare services and parental leave schemes have thus been portrayed in the literature as policies which have managed to facilitate a work-family model of dual earners and dual carers. However, the recent introduction of cash-for-care schemes seems to go against the Nordic dual earner/dual carer model and ideals of gender equality, in supporting parental (maternal) care of the child in the home. At the same time, new upcoming trends of political fatherhood and the perspective of lifelong learning for the child are also changing the Nordic childcare model.This article provides an analysis of how new childcare policy goals have been articulated into policies from the late 1990s to the late 2000s and how these may challenge the traditional goals of the Nordic welfare states.

Despite relatively generous coverage of the over-65 population, Danish home help services receive regular criticism in the media and public opinion polls. Perhaps as a consequence, reforms of Danish home care policy for senior citizens have placed a strong emphasis on quality since the 1990s. This reform strategy represents a shift from the welfare state modernisation programme of the 1980s, which built mainly on economic strategies of cost-efficiency and New Public Management principles, including contract management and performance management. Recent reforms have instead attempted to increase the overall quality of care by increasing the transparency at the political, administrative and user levels. However, reforms have revolved around the conflicting principles of standardisation and the individualisation of care provision. This approach has succeeded in increasing the political and administrative control over home help at the expense of the control by users, care workers and case managers.