The Government has authorized on Tuesday in the Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, the distribution of 14,815,257 euros to Cantabria to deepen the change in the care model of the Dependency System.
In total, the Government authorizes the distribution of 783 million euros among all the autonomous communities and cities, through the financing mechanism known as “agreed level”, which allows the General Administration of the State to distribute credits among the autonomous communities for the financing of the System for Autonomy and Care of Dependency (SAAD) according to objective criteria such as the potentially dependent population, the people cared for, the improvement of the quality of employment, the reduction of waiting lists and the level of expenditure of the autonomous community in question.
The economic amount intended for each community and autonomous city will be formalized through agreements signed by the General Administration of the State and each autonomous government. They will set objectives and priorities linked, among other issues, to the deployment of the State Strategy of Deinstitutionalization, recently approved by the Council of Ministers.
This Strategy seeks to ensure a more person-centred model based on a community and proximity approach in order to encourage people in situations of dependency to have life projects that are dignified, chosen and shared with the rest of the population and where priority is given to home care, tele-care and day centres.
The figure of 783 million euros equals the record figure that was distributed in 2023 after the extension of the General State Budgets. In this regard, it should be noted that this funding route, known as the “agreed level”, was suspended in 2012, as a result of the cuts in the System for Autonomy and Care of the Unit. However, this path was recovered in 2021 by the coalition government reaching in 2023 the record figure of 783 million, which is now repeated in 2024.
This allocation is in addition to the effort that the General Administration of the State and the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030 have been making to improve the financing of the Unit’s system and that has meant that the money received by each autonomous community to finance its dependency care systems has increased significantly in recent years.
All this is part of the firm commitment on the part of the General Administration of the State to strengthen the financing of the System and achieve the objective signed by the parties that make up the coalition Government of financing from the General Administration of the State 50% of the total investment in Dependence, while ensuring that the increase in financing by the central Government does not imply a disinvestment on the part of the regional government.
The distribution of these credits reaches the Council of Ministers after having already been discussed with the autonomous communities, with which various bilateral meetings have been held, and was also discussed in the Delegated Commission of the System for Autonomy and Care of the Unit, in the SAAD Advisory Committee, and the Territorial Council of Social Services for Autonomy and Care of the Unit itself has also been informed. In addition, it will also be submitted to the report of the State Council of Older Persons, the National Council of Disability, and the State Council of Non-Governmental Organizations for Social Action.
Once authorized by the Council of Ministers, the proposal for distribution of the credit will be presented to the Territorial Council of Social Services and the System for Autonomy and Care of the Unit, with a view to its final approval. It will be from that moment when the aforementioned agreements with the different autonomous communities will be signed.
Finally, it should be remembered that both the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and the Autonomous Community of Navarre do not participate in this mechanism, but the provisions of its special regimes are applied, as provided for in the Economic Agreement between the State and the Community of the Basque Country and the Economic Agreement between the State and the Autonomous Community of Navarre.