Services of general interest – in particular needs-based personal services such as social ones and health care – play an important role in promoting the social inclusion of disadvantaged young people. They help them cope with personal challenges, provide support and create opportunities, thus allowing for the development of young people’s full potential. This is why one of the EU Youth Strategy’s main aims is to promote not only access to but also the quality of these services.

Different mechanisms can be employed to ensure the quality of services affecting the social inclusion of young people. These include monitoring policies and the number of vulnerable people reached, satisfaction surveys or other types of impact assessment methods. These quality assurance mechanisms can be systematic or ad hoc.

Across Europe, two thirds of the surveyed countries have implemented measures (systematic or ad hoc) in order to assess the quality of their services. National public authorities or national institutes (e.g. research centres, inspectorates, etc.) are mainly in charge of quality assurance in both sectors.

Among the various social services, social and family welfare is usually subject to quality assurance mechanisms. Health care services are also subject to quality assurance mechanism in several countries, most often together with social services.