On the 26th of May 2025, rEUsilience researcher Wim Van Lancker moderated a rEUsilience Workshop: ‘Critical dialogue regarding Belgian and Flemish family policy’ which brought together a diverse group of stakeholders including researchers, civil society organisations, government representatives and social service providers.
The workshop centred on the core rEUsilience question: ‘How do families cope with socio-economic and other risks in the context of evolving labour markets and welfare systems?‘ and zoomed in on the Belgian (Flemish) context. Special attention was given to what happens within families and how responses vary between them based on different capacities and vulnerabilities.
‘Structural dimensions are at play regarding individual childcare decisions’
Van Lancker started off with presenting the research findings concerning adult care within and beyond households. Drawing upon data fielded in Belgium through The Social Study (TSS) [1], more insight was provided into adult care responsibilities provided within and outside households and its potential repercussions for employment and income. Looking at the data, Van Lancker underlined that individual childcare decisions are shaped by broader structural dimensions such as costs, availability of childcare, work patterns and gender norms. Participants raised useful comments after this presentation, regarding, for example, the need for figures on newly-composed-families as well as data on care for the group children between 12 and 18 years old, as this is often an important transition period in educational and care systems.
‘Families define their family life from experiences, needs and expectations, not from policy domains’
After, Gianni Loosveldt from the Centre for Family Studies, Odisee University of Applied Sciences, followed with insights from the ‘family cabinet’ research [2] on integrated family support. Loosveldt discussed challenges in current family policy, such as fragmented family support systems, lack of information trickle down, and lack of governance and coordination between governmental levels and policy domains. A key takeaway was that families do not organise their lives along policy lines, but around lived experiences, needs, and expectations. This challenges policymakers to design family policy with a ‘family reflex’ that starts from the family’s perspective, and where ‘the best interest of the child’ should be the main driver of integrated family policies instead of the socio-economic status of parents or caregivers.
‘Addressing the Needs of Families with Children Requiring Extra Care’
The workshop also focused on families with children who have additional care needs. New research of Eef Gijbels (KU Leuven) concerning “The needs of children in need of care: costs and income protection” used the Reference Budgets (RBs) [3] for social participation to map out the ‘minimum necessary direct cost’ for families with children with an additional care need, based on hypothetical household types. These different typologies revealed that those families face significant extra costs, for example related to mobility and education, while current financial support is often insufficient and fragmented, leading to an underestimation of the additional costs and poverty risks among this group. The need for more accessible and integrated information and subsidies support systems was highlighted as policy recommendation.
‘Integrated care starts with integrated information’
In response to these presentations, Noor Seghers from Magenta vzw stated ‘integrated care starts with integrated services.’ Families in Belgium frequently struggle to navigate complex systems, which increases stress and inequality, particularly for families with children with a disability or additional care need. Furthermore, especially for parents with a child in need of additional care, besides from working part-time, some parents also need to stop working to care full-time. The data presented on adult care responsibilities and the ‘rEUsilience’s compendium of families and households’ [4] was therefore received as very useful in better identifying the impact of care responsibilities within and outside the household on carers’ employment and/or education status, and well-being, for example for adults being ‘sandwiched’ between caring for children and adults.
‘Childcare, parental leave and child benefits’
Further presentations and discussions highlighted multiple structural barriers to accessing formal childcare in Belgium, particularly affordability and availability. These barriers disproportionately impact low-income families and those with irregular work schedules. A gendered dimension also emerged, showing that caregiving duties and reduced working hours often fall on women. The geographical inequality of childcare services was also discussed as a priority for the current Flemish Minister of Welfare and Poverty Reduction, Culture and Equal Opportunities.
Furthermore, rEUsilience researcher Toon van Havere presented findings on the ongoing reforms in the Flemish child benefit system (Groeipakket). Based on administrative data, four reform scenarios were tested, where models were explored for their potential to reduce poverty more effectively without disincentivising work. The discussion amongst policy and administrative stakeholders highlighted the need for more research and scenario-thinking with regards to the future of the Flemish child benefit system, given its crucial importance in combating child poverty.
In terms of parental leave, Jonas Wood (UAntwerpen) presented that, despite the premise that parental leave systems have the aim of supporting all families, thus to support social inclusion, stark inequalities in access were found. The leave system is highly dependent on employment status and is therefore often less accessible for lower-income and parents with a migration background. Men often face both cultural and structural challenges in taking parental leave, despite gender-equal design in theory and parental leave is increasingly seen as ‘favour’ from the employer instead of a right that parents should be granted. In this case too, knowledge or information about the modalities is often difficult to access, making it more challenging for parents to know what they are entitled to.
This Belgian Stakeholders’ event focused on various types of care for and from various types of family members, in-and outside the household. We are thankful for all the stakeholders who presented and participated and for their important contributions and critical insights to current and future family policies in Belgium. We are looking forward to continuing the discussion at our final conference event soon.
[1] The Social Study (TSS) is a Belgian, representative social survey based on self-completion questionnaires designed for both web and paper, covering a wide range of social, economic and behavioural topics. https://thesocialstudy.be/
[2] https://kcgezinswetenschappen.odisee.be/onderzoeksprojecten/gezinskabinet
[3] https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/research-groups/csb/data/featured-datasets/reference-budgets/
[4] https://reusilience.eu/compendium