Federación de cajas de Ahorros Vasco-Navarras

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this report is to examine the social services sector in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (ACBC) by analysing its current situation, recent development, and future challenges. The report shall attempt to gather relevant information available in the European Union and in Spain, and shall consider those variables which enable comparisons to be made with the social services sector in the ACBC.

Like the previous sector reports produced by the FCAVN, this study is organised into five chapters. By way of introduction, the first chapter defines and delimits the social services sector, classifies social service activity, and specifies the main sources of information used. The second and third chapters examine the situation of the social services sector in the European Union and in Spain, respectively, while the fourth chapter looks in greater detail at the situation of the sector in the ACBC. By way of conclusion, the fifth chapter offers a qualitative overview of the social services sector, outlining the main competitive features of the sector within Europe and more specifically in the ACBC, and describes its strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis).

Definition of the Sector

The following activities should be included in the ACBC social services sector as defined in the ACBC Social Services Statistical Study :

• "those activities carried out by organizations, companies and institutions which provide a series of services, assistance and programmes to the population as a whole, focusing on those people and social groups which because of their age, disability, socio-economic conditions or marginalization require specific help which guarantees their right to a full and free development".

THE SECTOR IN THE EU

The 2002 Barcelona European Council accepted that the European social model is based on economic growth, employment, social policy and training, and so it is impossible for a social services system, which is responsible for counteracting the risks of exclusion of certain groups, to remain unaffected by economic results and employment.

Employment (and its contributions) represents a core element of the community care system which is therefore affected by demographic variables such as population ageing, the fall in the fertility rate, or immigration trends.

Between 1960 and 2001, there was a 1.8 increase in the number of people aged 65 and over, which rose from 34 to 62 million. This represents 16% of the total population, and by the year 2010, this is expected to represent 27%, with an important proportion of people over the age of 80, a number which will have increased by almost 50%.

These facts affect the dependency rate and the ability of European society not only to cover the financial benefits (pensions) of an increasingly longer-living society but also to address the new long-term health and personal care needs of this group which, given the changes which have taken place in families, tend to be directed towards social services.

Social cohesion is another of the pillars of the European social protection model. Economic growth attempts to improve living conditions of the population as a whole and income is therefore an important factor in relation to poverty and to the risks of social exclusion.

The poverty risk threshold in the EU has been set at 60% of the average national income available. In 1999, the poverty risk rate in terms of the percentage of people with an available income below this threshold (7,334 euros in 1999) stood at 15%. This affects more women (16%) than men (13%) and rises to 35% in single-parent homes. In terms of the EU child population, in 2001, 10% of children lived in jobless homes and 19% were considered to be at risk of poverty.

In accordance with the European System for Integrated Social Protection Statistical Studies (SEEPROS), in the period 1990-2001, social protection expenditure rose from 25.4% of the GDP to 27.5% en 2001, which means an 8.3% increase in this period. The average expenditure per capita stands at 6,405 euros.

In 2001, the two countries with the highest percentages for social protection expenditure were Sweden (31.3% of its GDP) and France (30%), followed by Germany (29.8%) and Denmark (29.5%). Spain, with a percentage of 20%, is in the lower part of the ranking, together with Iceland (20.1%) and Hungary (19.9%).

Of the total social protection expenditure, the most important part goes towards the elderly and survival, and this represented 46% in 2001. The second largest part covers the needs deriving from illness and health care (28%). In third and fourth place in terms of expenditure are family and children-directed benefits and disability benefits (each with 8%). Finally, in 2001, unemployment benefits represented 6% of expenditure, and housing and exclusion benefits not covered in other sections, only 4%.

It is possible to estimate the amount allocated to social services from social protection expenditure. In 2000, social protection for the entire EU-15 represented 27.3% of the GDP, but the figure for benefits only amounted to 26.2%. If we were to subtract health and pharmaceutical expenditure (7.2% of the GDP), pensions (12.5%), and unemployment benefit (1.7%), we would be left with a figure equivalent to 4.9% of the GDP as an approximation for social service expenditure, with the family and children being the most important group (2.1%). By way of comparison, this expenditure represented 4.5% in 1993, and 5% in 1997.

Social protection expenditure is financed by civil service contributions (taxes), which are responsible for 36% of this income, and from social contributions (61%) which include both employer and employee contributions. The remaining financing comes from "other income".

THE SECTOR IN SPAIN

Spain shares the same socio-demographic circumstances which characterise the European climate where social services are developed, and also some more incisive variables such as the fertility rate, life expectancy, lower female employment rate and higher female unemployment rate, etc. In the sphere of social services, a large variety and number of entities and companies (9,135 in total) coexist with the public sector and these are clearly increasing in number (+85% in the last five years); 83% of these are non-profit organisations. Of this total number, 62% are associations, 15% are companies, and 9% are foundations.

Small companies with few employees prevail: 16% of the entities have no employment and one in three has between 1 and 5 positions; only 5% have more than 50 wage-earners.

In absolute terms, the total wage-earning employment of social service entities and companies is estimated at around 184,000 people, which represents around 1.3% of the total wage earners counted by the Active Population Survey (APS).

In Spain in 2003, social protection expenditure represented 20% of GDP and supposed a per capita spending of 3,511.8 euros; this is one of the European countries with the lowest level of expenditure. The most important expenditure is on the elderly which includes pensions (41%), followed by illness and health care (30%). In terms of social service expenditure, however, a figure of as low as 1.5% of the GDP (year 2000) is more realistic.

The Spanish public social services system has a dual purpose: to encourage and foster the social welfare and quality of life of every person and group, and to prevent and eliminate the causes of exclusion and social marginalisation. In order to achieve this goal, local governments play an important role through the administrative agreement established between the State and the Autonomous Communities (with the exception of the Basque Country and Navarre) which is called the "Concerted Plan for the Development of Basic Social Service Benefits by Local Councils" (Plan Concertado para el Desarrollo de Prestaciones Básicas de Servicios Sociales en Corporaciones Locales).

Local administrations contribute on average 54.5%, whereas autonomous communities provide 28.2% and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment 17%. In 2001, total expenditure was 525.7 million euros.

The public social service system is organised into two levels of care: primary care social services, with local responsibility and scope, and specific and sector-based and/or specialised social services, with supralocal mainly autonomous scope and responsibility. The social service centres are the main feature of the so-called basic network of primary care social services.

In 2002, this network comprised 1,194 centres. This means an 86% coverage of towns in the concerted autonomous communities and 97% in terms of population.

In terms of employment, workers in the concerted plan amounted to 23,515 people in 2001, of which almost 23,000 correspond to social centres; of these, 58% were contracted on a temporary basis, and 42% were permanent members of staff.

The benefit consuming the greatest proportion of financial resources is home help. In 2001, this entailed almost 139 million euros equivalent to 60% of the disaggregate expenditure on benefits.

According to data from the Institute for Social Services 1 (IMSERSO) which is dependent on the Ministry of Employment, 2% of those aged 65 and over used the home help service in 2001. This meant a total of 139,384 users and 25.2 million man-hours, at a monthly average of 16 hours of care per user and an hourly cost of 9.28 euros.

In terms of the residential supply directed towards the elderly, according to the Elderly People Observatory (Observatorio de Personas Mayores) in 2001 there were a total of 918 day-care centres in Spain for dependent people with a total of 16,500 places, of which 54% are public and state-subsidised. This means an average coverage of 0.24% for the whole of Spain. Standing out above the national average are Cataluña (0.66%), the Basque Country (0.39%), Extremadura and Aragón (0.35%), and Navarra (0.32%).

In terms of residential centres, there were 4,158 in Spain with a total of 215,156 places (58% private). This means a coverage index of 3.19% for the population aged 65 and over. Those providing the greatest aid are Castilla León (5.22% of coverage), La Rioja (5.29%) and Navarra (4.85%) while in the Basque Country, the coverage index of residential centres stands at 3.45% and 3.92% for Cataluña.

In the three-year period 1999-2001, 438 new residential centres were opened (+12%) offering 16,498 new places (+8%) with a greater dynamism of public initiative (76% of new places) than private.

Finally, two recently included figures highlight the need to diversify the type of care provided by social services in order to take account of some different and at times temporary needs, these being the services for temporary stays and state-subsidised housing.

In both cases, this concerns an exclusively public supply and which in 2001 entailed a supply of 3,558 places for people aged 65 and over in state-subsidised housing, and 1,385 places in temporary stay services.

THE SECTOR IN THE ACBC

The ACBC has not remained unaffected by these social changes which have taken place in Europe and Spain. The ageing of the population, the incipient arrival of foreigners, changes in the family structure and new forms of poverty have significantly changed the scenario in which the social service sector intervenes.

Among these social changes, we can highlight on one side the process of Basque societal ageing as a result of low fertility rates and an increase in life expectancy which means that 17% of the Basque population are aged 65 or over, with this group requiring or possibly requiring welfare resources such as residential centres, day-care centres, home-help services, etc. For its part, immigration to Basque society has helped correct this population ageing with a large supply of the younger age groups. However, the novelty of the phenomenon and the precarious conditions surrounding the group means a strong pressure on demand for social intervention.

In this context, the ACBC social services sector takes the form of a wide, complex structure which encompasses all those entities, organisations or companies which offer resources and actions directed at meeting social needs in the social sphere and which are not satisfied by any other sector of activity. In spite of the difficulty which the very conception of the sector entails, Eustat's Social Services Statistical Study highlights the fact that in 2002 there were 1,224 agents constantly and permanently involved in the sector and working in the sphere of social action, of which 314 are public entities and 910 private entities (722 are non-profit making and 188 are profit-making).

According to data from the Economic Accounts and Input-Output Tables produced by Eustat, in 2002, the social services sector had a production value of 487,830 thousand euros and the gross value added reached 259,470 thousand euros, which means 0.6% of the GDP. However, as we have already mentioned in this report, these data undervalue the contribution of the sector to the Basque economy since part of the contribution from the civil service is not included.

In terms of expenditure, it is worth mentioning that firstly, expenditure on social protection represented 20.1% of the GDP in 1999, a similar proportion to that made on a national level, but still below that of European countries as a whole (27.4% in 1999). Secondly, the specific expenditure of the social services sector reached 915,747 thousand euros in 2002, 2% of the GDP. Thirdly, it is worth mentioning that the sector is largely financed by the civil service, which represents 70% of income.

In 2002, however, the social services sector had 16,797 of its own employees, which represents 1.9% of the total ACBC working population. In spheres of action, the private sector is responsible for 66% of contracts, and it is particularly in this private sphere where the greatest number of jobs is being created; more specifically, sector employment amounted to 5,053 people.

In terms of the corporate structure, it can be said that two models of entities coexist in the ACBC social services sector: on one side, there are the "microentities", of which there are many but which only take up a small part of financial and human resources, and on the other, there are the "macroentities", of which there are few, but with an important number of resources.

When talking about human resources of the social services sector, it is necessary to mention the contribution of voluntary staff and of the people associated with this especially in the private sphere of social intervention. More specifically, 13,824 volunteers collaborated with social action activities in 2002, while 431,928 people were associated with some social service provider entity.

Finally, the information relating to the level of aid confirms the existence of a wide network of social service centres: 2,305 centres geographically distributed throughout the Basque Country. In terms of coverage, there is one social service centre for every thousand inhabitants, a ratio exceeded by Alava (1.6 centres per thousand inhabitants).

Of importance among the services of care to the social needs of the Basque population are the residential centres, with a total of 633 centres offering 17,188 places, which in coverage terms supposes 7.5 places per 1,000 inhabitants, of which an important part (78%) are directed towards looking after the elderly with a high degree of occupation. In addition, there are 524 day-care centres in the ACBC, which means a ratio of 0.3 day centres per thousand inhabitants.

And finally, the importance of the financial assistance managed from the social services public system should be mentioned. In budgetary terms, the sums allocated to basic income and to social emergency benefits have increased in order to cope with the growth in demand which can partly be explained by the important arrival of immigrants without papers who must rely on social benefits since they are unable to enter the labour market.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF THE SECTOR

A brief analysis of the social services sector in the ACBC is presented below with, on one side, the existing strengths and weaknesses (internal conditioners), and, on the other, the opportunities and threats (external conditioners).

The following strengths currently characterise the social services sector:

• Own public sphere of social services with its corresponding legislative and organisational development
• Important presence of private initiative in the social services sector
• Continual increase in social expenditure in the public and private sector
• Professional management of public intervention
• Existence of a broad network of a wide range of care centres and services
• Response capacity to an ever increasingly diverse demand

  The main sector weaknesses are:

• Complex competition distribution of public social services and insufficient legislative development
• High financial dependence on the public sector by the non-profit private sector
• Limited incorporation of criteria in the management of social services
• Less attention to the preventive and planning aspects in the intervention
• Limitation to cater for incipient social needs

  The future evolution of the social services sector in the ACBC will also be marked by the opportunities surrounding social action activity:

• Multidimensionality of new problems
• Establishment of the dependence law
• Extension of the culture of quality and corporate excellence in social action
• Growing corporate interest for personal and welfare services
• Development of new information and communication technologies
• Increase in public awareness about social problems

  And finally, the following threats which can modify intervention in the social sphere should be mentioned:

• Restriction of public expenditure and decrease in coverage levels
• Increase in competition dysfunctions between institutions
• Excessive polarisation of social services in elderly dependence problems
• Derivation of wider or more transversal problems to social services.

1 MTAS, IMSERSO, Las personas mayores en España (The elderly in Spain). 2002 Report.