The specific project objectives were 1) providing European care managers with skills to lead the change towards the adoption of person-centred care (PCC) approaches in their working contexts; 2) offering care managers with a space and a methodology to support reflection, reflexivity and learning from work-based experience while also start developing a network of professionals exercising this job at national level and willing to share a professional development process; 3) developing a European Community of Practices (CoP) of care managers and care workers on PCC for older persons with the goal to share experience and skills, build a common language, and support the consolidation of a new professional vision on humanistic care.
The overall need that the project addressed was to increase the actual implementation of PCC practices in elderly care services across Europe. In detail, the COMPASS project aimed to support care managers working in elderly care services, who as a group have often been neglected by training and continuous professional development programmes aimed to promote PCC and are an overlooked group when it comes to research about their role and practices, to adapt their skills to provide PCC leadership and to effectively support front-line workers in implementing PCC services in the context of COVID-19. The project wanted to innovate VET practices in the care sector, equipping professionals with skills to better respond to actual labour market needs and thus also improving the quality of services towards older persons with disabilities. COMPASS responded to the programme priorities in a strategic sector, which was significantly impacted by the pandemic, whose demand of services is expected to grow because of population aging and whose work-force, according to EU statistics, is predominantly female, middle-aged, low skilled and often from a migrant background.