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For activation policies to succeed, the provision of social services in addition to labour‐market services is essential, as social services are a prerequisite for integrating groups with complex social problems into the labour market. Activation policies based on social services can be termed inclusive. They require not only a sufficient financial basis, but also governance structures that deal with the organisational challenges associated with coordinated service provision, including fragmented competences and conflicts between different political arenas and territorial levels. This article analyses the capacity of five countries − Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK − to provide coordinated labour‐market and social services from a multidimensional, multilevel and multi‐stakeholder perspective. The findings show that coordinated service provision requires profound changes to national and local governance structures. Future research should take into account the organisational challenges of integrating social and employment services. Key Practitioner Message: ● The coordinated provision of employment and social services is an important precondition for integrating long‐term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups into the labour market.

The open method of co-ordination (OMC) can contribute to the co-ordinated modernization of the national systems of employment and social protection in Europe, if it is institutionalized in a relatively stable way at the European level and if the European processes can influence effectively the national reform strategies. The first challenge was met successfully by the bureaucratization, codification and formalization of some co-ordination processes at the European level. These processes can be interpreted as the institutionalization of a social field. The second challenge refers to the need for an effective coupling between the European and the national arenas. Currently, the most important way of coupling these two social fields is based on mutual learning. Given the limitations of such a predominantly cognitive coupling, the Commission can either enforce the 'national ownership' of the co-ordination processes, improve the mutual learning processes or strengthen the strategic ('financial incentives') and normative ('legal obligations') forms of coupling between the European and national social fields. Copyright (c) 2008 The Author(s). Journal compilation (c) 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.