Currently, Santa Cruz monitors more than 500 vulnerable minors, of which almost 400 are declared at risk. Boys and girls who, due to different circumstances, do not have the necessary conditions to have a childhood full of rights. The Children and Family teams of the Municipal Institute of Social Care (IMAS) are in charge of them, and they are the ones that monitor the situation of these minors.
Yesterday, the PSOE, in the Control Commission, requested the appearance of the Minister of Social Action, Rosario González, so that she could detail the operation of these teams, made up, according to González, of seven social workers, six social educators, and four psychologists, divided into five teams to serve the areas of Ofra-Anaga, La Salud, Añaza, El Sobradillo and Los Gladiolos-Centro. Figures that for former socialist mayor Patricia Hernández, are “insufficient”, pointing out that “they are saturated” by the workload involved in caring for more than 500 minors at risk, which is leading many of the workers to be forced to take casualties in the face of the insurmountable workload.
Hernández pointed out that there are currently situations like the one being faced by the psychologist at the La Salud unit, which also cares for Añaza’s minors, who add up to 196 children between the two. “It is absolutely impossible for these media to give adequate attention to an urgent and peremptory issue. We are talking about a dramatic situation, in units with a high casualty rate”. The socialist councilor insisted that it is not possible to work with that level. Ratios three times less in some cases to care for minors”.
The Councilor for Social Action assured that at the moment there is only one person on sick leave, and defended that, although the ratio must be improved, in relation to what is established in the Comprehensive Plan for Minors in the Canary Islands, which speaks of 50 minors per technician, in Santa Cruz the figures are not bad, since “at the moment we have 490 open files based on 17 technicians, which gives a ratio of 28 files per technician.” González advanced that they are already working with Human Resources to increase the Children and Family staff next year. “We need to expand to have seven zone teams, working on it so that, by 2023, Ofra and Anaga have one unit each and they don’t have to share as it happens now.”
González also advanced that work is already being done on the new Santa Cruz Children’s Plan, and that, at the moment, the current Children’s Plan is being analyzed and evaluated to verify which objectives have been achieved and which ones must be maintained or added. in the new document. He also defended that in 2020 and 2021, 22 professionals were incorporated into the area of social services.
The Ofra-Anaga team is made up of two social workers, two educators and a psychologist, personnel who are in charge of caring for 112 minors. The La Salud unit is made up of a social worker, a social educator and a psychologist, for 127 children. Añaza’s team, with a social worker, a social educator and a psychologist, cares for 69 minors, who share a psychologist with La Salud. The El Sobradillo unit has two social workers, a social educator and a psychologist to care for 89 children. And lastly, the Los Gladiolos-Centro team cares for 112 children with a social worker, a social educator and a psychologist.
