The demand of “Personal and Household Services” (PHS) – which covers a broad range of activities that contribute to the well-being of families and individuals at home – has significantly increased and so too has the role of care workers.

Employment in the home care sector is characterized by a high level of informality, a significant presence of a migrant and female workforce, low visibility of their work, which is often done in private spaces, and weak associational power.

Following the growth in demand, the public offer of services is not adequate to meet it, leaving extensive room for private actors to manoeuvre within a newly marketized regime of long-term care delivery. The increased level of marketisation and privatisation of the sector, the fragility of working conditions and the growing complexity of social needs to be answered have contributed to deeply redesign the welfare systems in the different models of capitalism. The emergence of digital platforms represents a new driving force that is intertwined with these processes. Digital platforms, as novel forms of organization, act as private regulators, creating their own institutional and societal embeddedness.