01.01.2015
The Basque Government has approved the decree on the Portfolio of Services and Benefits of the Basque Social Services System.
Decree on the Portfolio of Benefits and Services of the Basque Social Services System.
Summary
The Governing Council has approved today the decree regulating the Portfolio of Benefits and Services of the Basque Social Services system, which is the practical implementation of the right to social services and benefits provided for in Law 12/2008 of December 5, 2008 on Social Services. This decree is necessary for the effective development of the Social Services Law and it defines the nature, objective, beneficiaries, access requirements for each benefit or service and whether or not it is subject to co-payment.
The Inter-institutional Body for Social Services, made up of the Basque Government, the Provincial Councils and the Association of Basque Municipalities, EUDEL, already approved the Portfolio of Benefits and Services of the Basque Social Services System a few months ago. Now, for the regulatory development of the Law, the Governing Council has approved this decree.
The Government stresses that with the approval of the decree on the Portfolio of Benefits and Services and the universalization of the Basque Social Services System, as of December 26, 2016, as indicated in the Social Services Law, the Basque Country will take a great step forward in the consolidation of the Welfare State, which must be based on four pillars: the Education System, the Health System, the Pension System and the Social Services System.
Article 22 of this Law contains a catalog listing the benefits and services to which the citizens of the Basque Country are entitled; services such as: in the field of primary care: information, assessment, diagnosis, guidance, home help, socio-educational and psychosocial intervention, tele-assistance and housing; in the field of secondary care: assessment and diagnosis of dependency, social and psychological intervention, tele-assistance and housing; in the field of social services: information, assessment, diagnosis, guidance, home help, socio-educational and psychosocial intervention, tele-assistance and housing: assessment and diagnosis of dependency, disability, exclusion and lack of protection, residential centers, day and night centers, occupational centers, respite services, adapted transportation, family intervention and mediation, family meeting points, and adoption and foster care; and, finally, the different economic benefits (care in the family environment, service-linked benefit, personal assistant benefit, benefits for women victims of violence, etc. ).
In relation to the Portfolio of Benefits and Services, most of those described are already provided by the Basque Government, Provincial Councils and City Councils of the Basque Country; the novelty lies in the fact that these services, aid or benefits become a subjective right, i.e., legally enforceable by citizens and not subject to budgetary circumstances.
Portfolio of services
The Portfolio tries to define how these Social Services will be financed. To this end, an inventory was first made of all the Social Services that were already in operation in the Basque Country, assessing who managed them and who financed them.
Afterwards, it was established, with all the institutions involved, that each institution will have to assume the financing of the Benefits and Services to be provided to the citizens and that, therefore, financial readjustments will have to be made according to the competences of each one of them. To this end, it has been foreseen that next year, the Basque Finance Council will establish a Fund of 10 million Euros for the Town Councils in order to prepare infrastructures for the newly created Services and Provisions. Likewise, an allocation of 20 million Euros per year has been foreseen as from 2017 and without a deadline to help in the financing of the Portfolio.
Both in the Law and in the Portfolio, the model of care is the community model. It is not a matter of attending to those who need it, but rather of attending to them preferably in the Community, in the place where they live and in accordance with their needs and wishes.
The Portfolio tries to respect the current institutional architecture, but, at the same time, it intends that also in the planning of Social Services, the territories, associations of municipalities and municipalities, go along with its steps, so that the same answers can be given to the same needs, always respecting the autonomy of management of each Institution. The objective is to establish a single framework in which to work and to be able to deploy a universal care model that puts an end to the existing ones, one per historical territory.
Source: Irekia