The Communication on Social Investment for Growth and Cohesion calls on member states to prioritise social investment and to modernise their welfare states. The Social Investment Package includes a Commission Recommendation against child poverty, calling for an integrated approach to child-friendly social investment.

The European Commission adopted a Social Investment Package that calls on member states to better performing active inclusion strategies and a more efficient and more effective use of social budgets. The Commission highlights that the Social Investment Package is an integrated policy framework which takes account of the social, economic and budgetary divergences between member states. Participants at the Second Annual Convention of the Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion which took place on 5-7 December 2012 agreed that there is the urgency for Member States and the EU to invest in adequate, sustainable and effective social policies.

In particular, the new package focuses in ensuring that social protection systems respond to people's needs at critical moments throughout their lives; also in simplified and better targeted social policies, to provide adequate and sustainable social protection systems; and upgrading active inclusion strategies in the member states.

In addition to offering guidance to member states on how best to use EU financial support, notably from the European Social Fund, to implement the outlined objectives, the package includes a Commission Recommendation against child poverty, calling for an integrated approach to child-friendly social investment. Investing in children and young people is especially effective in breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty and social exclusion and improving people's opportunities later in life.