4.6 Access to quality services
On this page
On this page
Housing
In relation to access to housing, in Spain there has been specific support for young people, such as the Basic Emancipation Income (Renta Básica de Emancipación) implemented by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, but it was suspended and replaced in 2012.
In its place, there is currently the Housing Assistance Programme (Programa de ayudas al alquiler de vivienda), aimed at facilitating access and permanence in rental housing to sectors of the population with limited economic means, among them young people in a situation of vulnerability. Access to said aid is granted to individuals who are over 18 years old, covering up to 40% of the annual rent for 12 months, extendable for successive periods of 12 months, until the end of the plan. In order to receive the aid, it is also required that the rent of the house equals to or is below 600 euros per month. For their part, the Autonomous Regions establish their own housing aid schemes.
Plan Estatal de vivienda (2022-2025)
Once the term of the 2018-21 State Housing Plan has ended, a new housing access plan (El Plan Estatal para el Acceso a la Vivienda 2022-25) 2022-2025 is established with state aid for housing. This new plan arises from the need to continue to the provisions implemented Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, such measures have a social character that seeks to address the COVID-19.
One of these aids is the young rent voucher (bono alquiler joven) which aims to give young people access to housing, either for rental or assignment.
This plan has different targets, one of them is short-term (facilitating citizens' access to housing) and other is long-term objectives (boosting the public housing stock, making rentals accessible to vulnerable groups, promoting temporary housing and increasing social rentals). It also has programs that aim to implement the objectives set out above.
Social services
Catalogue of reference of social services:
The Catalogue of reference of social services (Catálogo de Referencia de Servicios Sociales) is a reference guide developed by the Spanish State through the Ministry of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda (Ministerio de Derechos Sociales y Agenda 2030), which aims to guarantee access to social services for all the citizens of Spain. It is a guide for the general population, but in its catalogue of services we find a section of social services specialized in assisting young people at risk of social exclusion.
Information, orientation, counselling and diagnostic services are provided through direct or derivative contact. For these actions, the Ministry of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda has developed a programme of action that has different services, including the guardianship of minors, whose objective is to guarantee the minor a normalised context for his/her personal development. It also promotes compliance with judicial measures for children under 18 and over 14 years old, through the services of implementing measures imposed by juvenile judges on offenders, such as socio-educational tasks or reintegration programmes.
Telephone services against bullying and ill-treatment
It is a telephone number created by the former Ministry of Education and Vocational Training to combat harassment. It was launched on November 1, 2016 and was intended primarily for students, although assistance also was provided to parents, tutors, teachers, management teams and staff of the schools. Now it is implemented not only for the classroom, nor for the formal educational sphere, but also for outside the classroom. It seeks to combat the different forms of violence that arise both inside and outside the school.
The calls are answered by qualified university personnel in the field of psychology, but are also part of the larger care team formed also by social workers, lawyers and sociologists, who will provide the care that the child needs. Calls are anonymous, confidential and free. It operates every day of the year, 24 hours a day.
Campaign “Cut in time. Abuse does not arrive suddenly”
“Cut in time. Abuse does not arrive suddenly” (Corta a tiempo. El maltrato no llega de repente) is an awareness campaign against gender-based abuse, launched in 2017 by the Ministry of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda. Its target is young people by addressing the early detection and recognition of abusive action towards women, such as controlling behaviour, isolation, disrespect and physical abuse, in order to prevent them and avoiding normalization and justification.
The Government of Spain had already initiated similar campaings in recent years to tackle this problem, for example, the “Hay Salida Campaign” in 2015 and 2012, as well as other efforts in the same direction, such as the introduction in 1997 of the fully state-funded women’s helpline ( 016).
New campaigns
The government delegation against gender violence has launched several campaigns. New campaigns have been created to curb gender-based violence:
- Who Them? (¿Entonces Quién?). It was carried out on the occasion of 25N, the international day against gender violence against women. It seeks to break the complicity between aggressors. "If neither you nor I have been, then who?", "If you are not going to do anything to stop it, then who?"
- We want to be alive, we want to be free (Nos queremos vivas, nos queremos libres). This campaign arises with the idea of helping society to identify sexual violence, it seeks to generate resources to protect the victims.
- Only yes is yes (Solo sí es sí (#ElsexoEsunSí)). The main objective is to fight against sexual violence.
- Practice Good Treatment (Practica los Buenos Tratos): For a life free of macho violence'. The objective is to raise awareness about healthy relationships.
- Together Campaign (Campaña Juntas). This awareness campaign brought together different women survivors of gender-based violence and professionals, as well as various feminist groups to end gender-based violence.
- Campaign 016. This is the number a woman who suffers gender violence should call. The aim of this campaign was to disseminate this telephone number and allow victims to be attended.
- Campaign the violence you do not see (La violencia que no ves). The main objective of this campaign is to comply with the Istanbul Convention and the State Pact against Gender Violence, it serves to identify sexist behaviors and not to normalize them.
Health care
2013-2016 Action Plan on Drugs
The 2013-2016 Action Plan on Drugs (Plan de acción sobre drogas 2013-2016) is an action plan linked to proposals that are promoted in the same direction as the European level. Its goal is the prevention of drug use, and the assistance and social reintegration of addicted people. Despite being a plan that is not entirely aimed at young people, it has specific actions designed for them, such as the Prevention Plan for drug addiction and addiction in the hotel sector or the Prevention Plan for retail traffic in school and leisure areas.
2018-2020 Action Plan on Addictions
The Action Plan on Addictions 2018-2020 (Plan de acción sobre adicciones 2018-2020) defines the action which will take place from 2018 to 2020 to tackle the problem of addictions, which is a concept broader than “regular” drugs, as it also includes other problems such as ludopathy and addictive use of internet. Its end goal is the creation of a more healthy, informed and save society, and will take 36 actions to fulfil its three main goals: 1) To delay the consumption of drugs and the access to potentially addictive behaviour; 2) To reduce this consumption and behaviour; and 3) To diminish the damage associated to them. Although the plan is not focused entirely on youngsters, some of the measures are indeed directed to young people and legal minors, especially the actions taken concerning prevention, protection and information, as they as regarded as particularly vulnerable.
In terms of monitoring and evaluation, certain activities have been established to follow the success of the plan, as well as indicators related to those organized actions.
Furthermore, in 2017, after studying the results of the first Action Plan on Drugs (2013-2016), the same Commission in charge of the Plan and the Minister Council approved the National Strategy on Drugs 2017-2024 with the objective of reducing and preventing drug abuse in Spain by the year 2024.
2021-24 Action Plan on Additions
This new plan continues the objectives of the previous plans. However, this plan focuses more on prevention and seeks to inform civil society in order to generate greater security and reduce risky behavior. It also seeks to generate greater coordination and communication with judicial and police cooperation.
Its actions include:
- Environmental prevention and that programs are adapted to digital spaces.
- Create a healthy hate
- Promote research on addictions, giving greater weight to prevention.
- Improve road safety through early intervention.
Improve the quality of interventions, resources, professionals, control over medicalization.
Financial services
Royal Decree 164/2019, of 22 March, which establishes a free basic payment account system for the benefit of people in a situation of vulnerability or at risk of financial exclusion. Although this measure is not a financial service per se, it does seek to eliminate requirements and payments that pose an added difficulty for people in a situation of vulnerability. It consists of the free provision of the services indicated in article 4.2 of Order ECE/228/2019, of 28 February, on basic payment accounts, the procedure for transferring payment accounts and the requirements for comparison websites.
Quality assurance
Some of the measures for accessing services have defined systems for quality control. This is the case of the Social Services Reference Catalogue (Catálogo de referencia de servicios sociales) and the 2021-2024 Action Plan on Drugs (Plan de acción sobre drogas 2021-2024).
In the case of the Social Services Reference Catalogue (Catálogo de referencia de servicios sociales), quality control is practiced by the National Institute for Evaluation of Public Policies (Instituto para la Evaluación de Políticas Públicas), which is It is attached to the Ministry of Finance and the Civil Service (Ministerio de Hacienda y Función Pública) through the Secretariat of State for the Civil Service, at the level of Deputy Directorate General (Article 14.6).. In addition, adherence to the European Quality Framework has been carried out, which establishes guidelines such as the availability of services, accessibility, continuity, that are oriented to good results and are comprehensive, affordable and people-centred.
Regarding the action plans on drugs and the National Strategy, each programme is assigned a rating system for assessment in each Autonomous Community, in addition to a defined monitoring system for each of the actions. Expert questionnaires have been developed for the design of the plan as a measure for quality control. In the case of sections for young people, the Youth Institute (INJUVE) has been the entity in charge of answering the questionnaires. It seeks to detect priority actions for the prevention and reduction of risks and damages associated with drug use by young people.