There are not enough foster families to prevent children from living in a residence. Almost 1,100 children under 6 years of age live in a shelter, among them, 557 babies, and Catalonia is the community with the most institutionalized children (263 of which 167 are babies), according to data from the Child Protection System Bulletin published by the Ministry of Social Rights.
To reduce these figures, the Minister of Social Rights, Carles Campuzano, has sent a letter to the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, to make it possible for host families to register for Social Security contributions. urgency, as is planned to be done with the exclusive dedicated specialized shelters.
These emergency families take in babies and children under 6 years of age temporarily, in principle until they are 6 months old, but in reality this stay lasts more than a year until a family is found. Campuzano requests its inclusion in accordance with the Law for the Protection of Children and Adolescents against Violence, which in one of its provisions mandates the Government to regulate the Social Security regime for exclusive-time specialized foster care people. For Campuzano, emergency families are.
In this sense, the Government is working on a regulatory project that would allow exclusive-time specialized care to be incorporated into a special Social Security regime. It provides for the signing of a special agreement through which these shelters will be included in the General Social Security Regime and in a situation assimilated to discharge.
Drets Socials recalls that in the Catalan regional regulation the figure of specialized foster care is included as a protection measure under the name of coexistence foster care for educational action (UCAE). This is carried out by people selected and qualified due to their qualifications, training and experience in the field of childhood and adolescence. “Hospitalization in a coexistence unit for educational action can be agreed primarily with respect to children with functional diversity, groups of siblings and others with special difficulties or with special educational needs,” the letter states. Emergency families are also considered specialized, taking in babies until a “solution” is found for the little ones (they receive 1,800 euros per month).
Campuzano's team "positively values the draft royal decree since it offers coverage both to specialized foster families who receive compensation through economic benefits through the signing of the special agreement, and to those foster families who, having formalized a contract for said activity, they would already be included in the Social Security regime that corresponds to the formalized contract.” But they believe that it should go further and apply it to non-exclusive specialized care.
This, according to Campuzano, will "without a doubt" contribute to promoting the deinstitutionalization and family integration of minors with special needs and characteristics for whom, due to the dedication and attention they require, it is currently difficult to find a family. “The possibility of the quote will provide coverage and guarantees for the work that these families do and we believe it will encourage many other people to offer themselves for this type of foster care.”
