Setting an example: from the international to the local Plans for social inclusion in Catalonia
Newsletter 2010-4
Publication date : 2010-12-15
A coordinated commitment to fighting social exclusion and promoting social cohesion within the European Union was laid out in the Lisbon Strategy of 2000. A year later, the Spanish government started to develop its own National Action Plan for Social Inclusion, a document that has been updated at various times since as part of the Open Method of Co-ordination whereby EU Member States work together under a cooperative framework in order to achieve common objectives. In February 2006, efforts to promote social cohesion at the regional and local level in Spain began to take shape when the Generalitat of Catalonia (Catalan Regional Government) proposed its Social Inclusion Plan and encouraged municipalities to draw up their own local plans. At present 41 Catalan municipalities are involved but the ambition is to get all 103 municipalities to participate. Each municipality’s Plan for Social Inclusion (PLIS) is based on a 6-year cycle. It is steered by local committees and involves ‘third sector’/civil society participants. The idea is to provide support that cuts across administrative boundaries so that services offered by public authorities (housing, social protection, family support and so on) are coordinated and combat social exclusion from all angles. The regional strategy is overseen by the Catalan Institute of Social Assistance and Services (ICASS), which has supplied the municipal authorities with a local technical office and two staff to survey the initial situation, build up a network of partners and set up pilot projects. ICASS has also provided general technical support and created an e-Catalonia Platform to enable online communication between participating municipalities so they can share best practice and build up a body of reference material that can be a learning resource. A Peer Review held on 7-8 October 2010 presented ‘The Programme for developing local plans for social inclusion in Catalonia’, and invited seven peer countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania and Serbia), to share their experiences along with the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN). The event, which was hosted by the Spanish Ministry of Health and Social Policy and the Catalan Institute of Assistance and Social Services (ICASS), discussed a number of key issues, including the contribution of local plans to the Spanish National Plan for Social Inclusion and the role of regional bodies, the significance of historical, political and financial factors, as well as national and local context, in determining the success or failure of local plans, the effect of the existing municipal and political set-up on the plans and the degree of autonomy of municipalities in developing plans, the appropriateness of the timing, the need for clear objectives and indicators, and the role of the third sector. In the case of Catalonia, the regional plan came after a national plan had been developed, so national plans can act as a benchmark for regional authorities to then implement different aspects as necessary and/or according to their financial abilities. A regional body that is able to oversee the whole process (like ICASS) is crucial to the success of the approach, as is a degree of autonomy to address local differences. For success at the local level, the institutions need to have sufficient financial and technical resources and local administrations need to buy-in to the plans. Internet platforms like the e-Catalonia Platform have a great deal of potential to support local authorities through sharing information, techniques and best practice. The need for a joined-up approach (both in the sense of combining policy for different groups and in the sense of integrating local agents, beneficiaries themselves and civil society organisations), is emphasized in the Europe 2020 strategy and has proved to be crucial to success in Catalonia. Transparency at all levels, as well as a clear timetable, allows for monitoring and building trust, which is very important. In order to aid this process, statistics on beneficiaries, those who are still excluded and an independent body who can monitor progress need to be included in the overall plan. The local context will affect the way a policy is implemented and how successful it is. For example, in the case of Catalonia, including and consulting those who actually receive benefits was a well established approach to service provision in the region and was carried through to form an important part of the new plan. The bottom-up approach gives participants a feeling of ownership and helps them invest in the success of the strategy. But a warning was issued: civil society organisations can only help achieve strategy if they are adequately briefed and trained so it is necessary to guard against unrealistic expectations about their role. ‘Public-private partnerships’ were also actively encouraged as they can offer useful ways of implementing local plans.
The aim of the Pact for Inclusion developed in Sant Boi de Llobregat, a city in Barcelona’s metropolitan area, has been to gain the commitment of local agents to coordinate policies dealing with housing, education, health, employment and social welfare needs so that the root causes of social exclusion are tackled jointly. The pact was signed by over 101 stakeholders from a variety of sectors and the local community itself. It lays out 99 actions to promote social inclusion; these include job creation, access to housing and social services, and policies building on the city’s expertise in mental health care to improve its medical and educational facilities.
The largest and most populated city in the Segrià region of Catalonia is its capital, Lleida where the local municipality initiated a local plan for action in 2008 with a view to making Lleida an inclusive, cohesive city and to developing ways of dealing with new social challenges.
The Lleida local plan was the result of collaboration between more than 100 people representing 70 local bodies from business stakeholders to service users. The plan has benefitted from as many as 240 proposals for action that include: supporting children and families; helping older people; positive targeting of the homeless; job creation; improving social service delivery through coordination and networks; better information provision to the general public; training for communities and professions and research into the current situation.
At present, 3% of plans have been successfully completed, 65% are underway while 32% have not yet started.Lessons learned
