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1. Existence of a National Strategy on social inclusion

2. Scope and contents

3. Responsible authority

4. Revisions/ Updates

Existence of a National Strategy on social inclusion

The National Strategy for the inclusion of young people is embodied in the 2020 Youth Strategy (Estrategia Juventud 2020) and developed in the resulting Action Plans. In any case, it is not an inclusion strategy exclusively, but inclusion is one of its strategic axes, namely number 5.

The 2020 Youth Strategy (Estrategia Juventud 2020) was approved by the Council of Ministers on September 12, 2014 (Consejo de Ministros el 12 septiembre de 2014) and its implementation was originally contemplated through three successive Action Plans: the 2014-2016 Action Plan (Plan de Acción 2014-2016) currently in force pending approval of Action Plan 2017-2020, the 2016-2018 Action Plan and the 2018-2020 Action Plan. However, this changed after the conclusion of the 2014-2016 Action Plan, as explained in chapter 4.1.

The 2019-2023 National Strategy national strategy for the prevention and fight against poverty and social exclusion (Estrategia Nacional de Prevención y Lucha contra la Pobreza y Exclusión Social) , is the other reference in the configuration of a State Strategy for inclusion. These Inclusion Plans have been developing since 2001 with a biannual character.

Scope and contents

The 2019-2023 National Strategy national strategy for the prevention and fight against poverty and social exclusion (Estrategia Nacional de Prevención y Lucha contra la Pobreza y Exclusión Social) indicate three areas of action of particular relevance for the inclusion of young people:

1. Employment: persistently high rates of youth unemployment in Spain point towards the need to establish specific action programmes for young people, especially when the absence of employment is the main cause of exclusion in other areas (health, housing, etc.). In this sense, some of the actions outlined in the National Action Plan on Social Inclusion and the Action Plan are addressed.
2. Education: the main challenges in education are the fight against early school-leaving, the improvement of the general educational level, which is below the European average, the promotion of vocational training and the search for educational alternatives of interest to encourage the return of adults who left their studies prematurely.
3. Housing: In the years of economic prosperity, constant rises in the price of housing created accessibility problems for groups such as young people and families with limited resources.

However, in the same Plan there are no objectives and action measures exclusively aimed at young people regarding access to housing. It should be understood, therefore, that young people are subject to the same measures of action as the rest of society in this matter, as long as they meet the income criteria indicated. However, they do have the programme Eurodesk, an information and career guidance service on housing opportunities in Europe.

In the area of health, since the 2020 Youth Strategy (Estrategia Juventud 2020), the development of socio-health and employment programmes for people at risk of exclusion (Axis 5, action 21) is mentioned.

The National Action Plan sees young people as a particularly vulnerable group and therefore the target of specific inclusive interventions beyond those already mentioned in terms of employment and education.

The groups identified in the NAPincl as the ‘most vulnerable’ and therefore the target for specific actions are:

1. homeless people,
2. persons with disabilities,
3. older people,
4. dependent people,
5. immigrants and persons applying for and benefiting from international protection,
6. female victims of gender-based violence,
7. the Roma community,
8. victims of discrimination according to racial or ethnic background, sexual orientation or gender identity,
9. addicts (drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc.) and
10. prisoners or ex-prisoners.

For their part, the 2020 Youth Strategy and the 2014-2016 Action Plan do not substantially differ from the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2013-2016 in terms of inclusive objectives and measures. However, both point out with particular emphasis two groups of young people whom they consider to be particularly vulnerable: young people with disabilities and Roma youth, for whom it has concrete measures:

• labour, sports, health and communication activities related to the disabled (Axis 5, action 26)
• health education programmes and socio-labour and educational insertion for the Roma population (Axis 5, action 22)
• actions related to people with hearing impairment (Axis 5, action 24)
• programmes for students with disabilities in institutes and schools (Axis 5, action 28)

• social integration of young people with disabilities (Axis 5, action 34)

Responsible authority

2020 Youth Strategy and 2014-2016 Action Plan

The highest authority responsible for the approval and implementation of the strategy is the Inter-Ministerial Youth Commission. At a second level, the Youth Institute (INJUVE) is responsible for an annual follow-up that will be reflected in a report.

National Strategy for the prevention and fight against poverty and social exclusion  2019-2023

The highest authority responsible for the preparation, implementation and follow-up of the 2019-2023 National Strategy for the prevention and fight against poverty and social exclusion is the Ministry of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda.

Within the ministry, the Secretariat of State for Social Rights (Secretaría de Estado de Derechos Sociales), together with the General Directorate of Services for the Families and Children (Dirección General de Servicios para las Familias y la Infancia), are the main bodies responsible for the preparation, coordination and follow-up of the plan, as established in the Royal Decree 2/2020

The General Administration of the State (Administración General del Estado), Regional Administrations, Local Administration through the Federación Estatal de Municipios y Provincias (State Federation of Municipalities and Provinces,FEMP), NGOs and the Economic and Social Council (Consejo Económico y Social,CES) also participate in the elaboration and execution of the 2019-2023 National Strategy for the prevention and fight against poverty and social exclusion. 

Revisions/Updates

National Action Plans for Social Inclusion

Since 2001, these have been the National Action Plans for Social Inclusion approved in chronological order:  I PNAin: 2001-2003, II PNAin: 2003-2005, III PNAin: 2005-2006, IV PNAin: 2006-2008, V PNAin: 2008-2010 and VI PNAin: 2013-2016.

The most important change in the National Action Plan in terms of youth inclusion is that young people, since the V NAPincl, have ceased to be codified as a particularly vulnerable group. In addition, there are no major changes in the inclusivity strategy.

As regards the items dedicated to inclusion, as indicated in the document, The 10 years of the National Action Plans for Social Inclusion in the Kingdom of Spain (Los 10 años de los Planes Nacionales de Acción para la Inclusión Social en el Reino de  España): ‘Measures to combat social exclusion of young people and promote their inclusion, occupy the fourth place by level of resources, and more than 9 600 million Euros have been invested in them, or 3.41%of the total budgeted for in the plans. However, they have experienced the greatest increase of resources in the period of validity of the National Action Plan, and its endowment in this time has multiplied by more than 17’.

2020 Youth Strategy and its Action Plans

Since the 2014-2016 Action Plan is the first in the framework of the 2020 Youth Strategy, and the Action Plan 2017-2020 has not been approved and released yet, it is currently not possible to make comparisons with previous plans.