The Impact of the Crisis on Social Needs and the Provision of Services

1. Workshop. 18th European Conference on Social Services The Impact of the Crisis on Social Needs and the Provision of Services Martí Moliné, deputy director of the Government Area, Badalona Montserrat Montrabeta, head of the Health and Social Action Department, Igualada Àngels Nogué, coordinator of the Social Welfare Area, Barcelona Provincial Council

2. Act on Social Services of Catalonia OPPORTUNITIES Act on Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Assistance to Dependency Social and economic context The impact of the crisis on social needs and the provision of services New legislative framework and social context • Social services: a social right of citizens • Increased responsibilities of the municipal social services • Increased resources, professionals, and planning, management, information, assessment and quality systems • Growth of social vulnerability and exclusion situations CHALLENGES • Increased demands and new profiles of social services users

3. Actions of Barcelona Provincial Council in support of the municipal social services Barcelona Provincial Council offers technical, economic and legal support and provides services to the town councils of Barcelona Province

4. Actions of Barcelona Provincial Council in support of the municipal social services Social emergency aid 78,016 beneficiary individuals in 2009 31,286 beneficiary families Average cost per family unit: 221 euros

5. Actions of Barcelona Provincial Council in support of the municipal social services Support and cooperation with social entities Social inclusion board Supra-municipal legal counselling services (SOJ) • lease of dwellings (evictions) • claiming of alimony • non-payments • mortgage law 23 SOJs, serving 173 municipalities

6. The impact of the crisis on social needs and the provision of services: Igualada Town Council Assistance for basic social services 39,634 inhabitants New user profile?

7. The impact of the crisis on social needs and the provision of services: Igualada Town Council Food Bank • Project between the Health and Social Action Department of Igualada Town Council, the Anoia Region Red Cross, Caritas, and the Piarist School (2009) • It allows coordination of work with entities to optimise and take full advantage of the volunteer resources • It increases awareness among other entities to make them a provisioning source, promoting solidarity • Assistance actions are accompanied by an educational endeavour. For example: cookery training workshop Pharmacy project • Collaboration with pharmacies to obtain basic products (milk, nappies) in order to prevent malnutrition among children from age 0 to 3 years • Monitoring of children’s growth by the pharmacy • Economic support to users with chronic or serious illnesses • Personalised weekly or fortnightly dosing service PIRMI Chats • Regular chats for the people who receive PIRMI (minimum insertion income) and who do not have individualised monitoring • Information on resources and strengthening of autonomy

8. The impact of the crisis on social needs and the provision of services: Igualada Town Council Legal Counselling Service • Counselling on matters of non-payment of dwellings or of supplies, evictions, family, indebtedness • Persons referred from the basic social services Citizen Mediation Service • Establishment of communication bridges between persons in conflict to favour conflict resolution • Types of conflicts: neighbours, co-existence, use of public space, school sphere, families, breach of public ordinances • Regional organ to stimulate, coordinate and promote childhood and adolescence policies • Preventive actions and networking: education, health and social services • Catalogue of services and good practices • Territorial planning of resources Territorial Children's Board

9. The impact of the crisis on social needs and the provision of services: Badalona Town Council Assistance for basic social services 220,888 inhabitants New user profile?

10. The impact of the crisis on social needs and the provision of services: Badalona Town Council Social entities board • Monitoring of the social/economic situation and of the measures promoted by the Town Council, with the participation of labour unions, community platforms and municipal councillors’ offices. • A package of anti-crisis measures is resolved. Solidary entities board • Coordination and monitoring of the food distribution programme. • The logistics and distribution are organised and basic coordination criteria are resolved.

11. The impact of the crisis on social needs and the provision of services: Badalona Town Council Local social action plan • Action plan for the legislative period (2008-2011). The concretisation in 2008 includes the whole series of strategic lines on transversality, networking, etc. conceived for the crisis. • The strategic lines are established to face the challenges of providing social services in a context of crisis. They are implemented to achieve concrete actions in the medium and long terms. • Presented in 2010 were the diagnosis and strategic lines developed in the course of 2009 with the participation of 274 people (professionals and citizens) and 25 entities. The starting point is an inclusive conception of the city with three main aspects: economic, community and relational inclusion. • The link is established between the various programmes with inclusive potential and concrete measures are promoted in actions against poverty. Local social inclusion plan

12. The impact of the crisis on social needs and the provision of services Opportunities Threats • Visualisation of social services • Promotion of transverse work: dialogue, communication • Strengthening of networking with social entities • Strengthening of the social fabric and volunteering • Normalisation of social services : access of the middle classes • Strengthening of group and community work • More resources and professionals • Generation of employment • Return to an assistance-based approach • Weakness of transverse work • Overloaded social services • Tendency towards the processing of benefits in the case of relational, promotional and community work • Shortage of resources for work with children at risk • Users with little knowledge of the social services • Shortage of resources despite growth • Greater demands on social services

13. The impact of the crisis on social needs and the provision of services Challenges • Better advantage should be taken of the work of the reference experts (social workers and social educators), optimising resources, making processes more flexible and easing the access to specialised resources • Empowermentof the social diagnosis as a process prior to the award of resources • Saturation of management should be avoided since it impedes visualisation and emergence of risk situations which have always arisen and which are also increasing at present • Transverse work on education, employment, health and housing, mainly to offer a quality service to citizens • Agile response: citizens should not have to go from one department to another to obtain reports and documents • Networking with the social entities.

14. The impact of the crisis on social needs and the provision of services Workshop Discussion groups

15. The impact of the crisis on social needs and the provision of services Opportunities Threats • Visualisation of social services • Promotion of transverse work: dialogue, communication • Strengthening of networking with social entities • Strengthening of the social fabric and volunteering • Normalisation of social services: access of the middle classes • Strengthening of group and community work • More resources and professionals • Generation of employment • Return to an assistance-based approach • Weakness of transverse work • Overloaded social services • Tendency towards the processing of benefits in the case of relational, promotional and community work • Shortage of resources for work with children at risk • Users with little knowledge of the social services • Shortage of resources despite growth • Greater demands on social services Workshop: discussion Proposals/Recommendations