Evaluation of the European Social Fund as a Measure to Support Social Innovation in the Public Sector

The main objective of this research paper is to present how the public sector may contribute to the development of social innovations and to what extent this process may be supported by the European Social Fund’s (ESF) resources. The research method comprises critical analysis of the ESF reports. Discussion on the concept of social innovation is covered in the first part. Then determinants of social innovations are presented, followed by observations on social innovations in the public sector. The subsequent part is devoted to a short study of the ESF as an instrument to support social innovations in the public sector and finally a short empirical example of the ESF usage in Poland is delivered. Although the usage of the ESF funds as an instrument strengthening social innovations in the public sector is not always unproblematic, it may be assessed to be a useful measure of support in this area