Oviedo (EFE).- The Minister of Social Rights and Welfare, Melania Álvarez, stated on Tuesday that it is “essential and urgent” to implement a new organizational and management model for social policies in Asturias, which must undergo a “total transformation”.
This has been pronounced this Tuesday in the last Social Rights Commission of the parliament of this legislature, where he has made a “positive balance”, with “rights and wrongs”, of the measures implemented by his department.
The counselor explained that during the last four years a “window of opportunities” has been opened to find out about the difficulties that her department is going through and, in this way, “take steps” in the new design of social services.
“It is urgent to make decisions”, he pointed out before arguing that his team “will leave done” the “change of course” that these policies need in the Principality.
In his appearance, he has assured that his objectives have not deviated “not one iota” from those set at the beginning of the legislature, beyond the resignations for “personal reasons” of several members of the council, such as that of the manager of the autonomous body Residential Establishments for the Elderly (ERA), Ana Suárez.
Likewise, he has assured that if various groups have taken their protests to the streets, it is because decisions have been made that are not without difficulties, he stressed.
Álvarez has also underlined the support that the Government of Asturias provides to the municipalities through the concerted social services plan, endowed with 45 million, 38 percent more than the contribution of 2019.
Positive balance in dependency
The head of Social Rights has also described the results of the crash plan for dependency care as “very positive”, which has made it possible to reduce waiting lists in this area.
In his opinion, not only has the management of the system improved, but it has also made it possible to increase the number of benefits offered by more than two thousand.
“The Government of Asturias has allocated more than one billion to an initiative that has a direct impact on the quality of life of people, both users of the care system and their families,” he specified.
At the end of February, there were 4,350 people awaiting dependency assessment, of which 2,612 have submitted an application in the last three months, so, according to Álvarez, the “real list” amounts to 1,738.
The counselor has also commented that if the assessment indicators used by the Dependency Observatory for its analyzes are not modified, Asturias “will always suspend”, since they “penalize” the communities with higher rates of aging
disability assessments
In the commission, the counselor has also highlighted the measures implemented to alleviate the delays in the assessments of the degree of disability which, in the case of Avilés, has been reduced by 23 months.
On this matter, Álvarez has advanced that the Asturian Government will begin to publish every two weeks the number of certification issues for each assessment center in the community, for the sake of “transparency” and with the purpose that “everyone can verify ” the effectiveness of the measures implemented.
Opposition criticism
In the turn of establishing positions, the deputy of the PP Reyes Fernández Hurlé has assured that “changes are urgent” in the model of social services in Asturias and has warned that the “accumulation” of resignations from the council show that the head of the department “He has not known how to conduct the orchestra.”
From Podemos, its spokesman, Rafael Palacios, has stressed that the Asturian government has been incapable of solving the problem of dependency and disability waiting lists and has not provided a solution to the “failure” of housing policies.
The deputy of Vox Sara Álvarez has suspended the management of the counselor after the conflicts generated in the last four years, while the deputy of the Mixed Group, Armando Fernández Bartolomé, has assured that social services have a “very important challenge” to face in the next term. EFE