SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 4 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The City Council of La Laguna will receive a total of 2,590,801.11 euros this year from the Ministry of Social Rights of the Government of the Canary Islands for municipal programs of a social nature, which represents an increase of almost 84% more than in 2020, year in which the greatest impact of the pandemic was recorded.
The Social Welfare Area will contribute another 6,094,760.09 euros with its own funds for this Concerted Plan, so that the municipality will have more than 8.6 million euros this year to expand support actions for the most vulnerable families, Strengthen municipal social care services and provide essential services such as the Municipal Temporary Accommodation Network, the Home Care Service, Home Telecare, PCI management, day care for the elderly or expand the local cooperation program and promotion of solidarity, which includes grants to support third sector projects in the municipality.
With a sustained increase in the regional contribution through the Concerted Plan, which in 2023 will rise again by almost 30,000 euros compared to the previous year and which amounts to 1.18 million more than in 2020, La Laguna is preparing to face a year of high economic uncertainties.
This was explained by the councilor for Social Welfare of La Laguna, Rubens Ascanio, who pointed out that this increase “adds to the important budgetary and work effort that the City Council is going to develop in social matters for 2023”, some municipal accounts that will rise soon to plenary for approval.
Rubens Ascanio thanked the Department of Social Rights of the Government of the Canary Islands “for this important reinforcement of support for city councils, which are the first line in social care policies, and which will allow us to reinforce support for basic benefits and continue increasing and improving the municipal social services, thus being able to allocate more municipal funds to the objective of modernization and reduction of waiting times for citizen service that we are applying in La Laguna during this mandate”.
“Actions like this allow us to be more effective in social intervention and increase the amount and frequency of certain social coverage,” said the councilor, who wanted to recall that the Area has also implemented “a wide catalog of measures to streamline procedures and consultations, reduce waiting times and facilitate the access of lagoons to the Social Work Units (UTS) of La Laguna”.
In this sense, the first deputy mayor indicated that the Area is developing “a comprehensive improvement program, which has accelerated after having to allocate many resources to face the consequences of the pandemic, and which includes reinforcing the team of professionals , the modernization of management systems, the budget increase for resources and aid, the creation of new devices, greater decentralization to bring resources closer to neighbors, as well as an increase in cooperation with other administrations and groups”.
Likewise, a restructuring of the organization chart of the Area has been carried out, which has meant “a great improvement in the effectiveness and operability of the services, and we are working on the modernization and expansion of resources, with new, more efficient operating systems, innovative proposals and a firm commitment to reinforcing public policies to respond to the socioeconomic effects of the current situation, focusing attention on the most vulnerable people”.
DIGITAL DIVIDE
These actions include the online appointment request service, available on the City Council website; computer and human support resources for people with difficulties in accessing the digital environment or the municipal Office of Information and Social Care (OAS), designed to expedite the first access to Social Services.
“In addition to improving all those sections that allow us to reduce waiting times, we are working daily and hand in hand with the third sector, since the citizen associative movement allows us to give a quick response to the most serious and urgent issues”, Rubens valued Ascanio, who recalled that they have progressively increased the budget investment for benefits and services to exceed 120 euros of social spending per inhabitant, the largest of the large municipalities of the Canary Islands.
