Social Services in Portugal

Background

For five centuries now there has been one institution named Misericórdia, catholic church-related, that provided, during the last centuries, social informal care mainly on the grounds of health care, the combat of poverty and feeding hungry people. This institution is highly recognised and it is since then widely spread around the country.

The responsibility to provide social care is shared between the state and families and solidarity shared among the population (formal and informal care). The equipment and social service institutions owned by the state and local municipalities cover about 10% of the total of the services provided to society.

The remaining 90% are provided by private non-profit institutions (mainly misercórdias and foundations).

From the Portuguese political revolution of April 1974 on, there has been a rapid growth of the number of non-profit institutions mainly under the statute of foundations providing social care services such as Caritas and the so called Centros Sociais Paroquiais (Parish Social Centres), also catholic church-related, the latter being the bigger organisation in number of institutions. Many other institutions were established providing specialised care for people with disabilities and drugs addiction. More recently some private commercial institutions offering health care services have appeared in the market.

Legal framework and forms of organisations of the social services institutions

The Portuguese Constitution guarantees several sodal rights, namely the right to social security and pensions and a certain standard of living, child and elderly care.

The legal framework organising the formal provision of social care services was defined in the Decree-Law 519 of 1979, which was complemented by various other government resolutions with the aim to improve legislation, to acknowledge new forms of care services of the required profile specific to the new institutions in order to become social services providers and to improve the terms and conditions of the financial support as stipulated in Resolution no. 75 of 1992.

There are three umbrella organisations: Confederaçăo Nacional das Instituções de Solidariedade (CNIS) (Solidarity Institutions National Confederation), Uniăo das Misericórdias (UMP) (Union of Portuguese Misericordias) and Uniăo das Mutualidades (Union of Mutual Benefit Associations/Societies), all being members of the Conselho Económico e Social (CES) (Social Economic Council) and having signed a Pact of Cooperation with the State and representing all the individual different institutions.

The contacts with the government are made through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. The three umbrella organisations are normally called to discuss and sign cooperation agreements with the government. These three organisations are also involved with the unions bargaining and signing the labour collective agreements which are then applied to the individual institutions.

Different mechanisms of cooperation exist at regional and local level to facilitate the contact of the individual institutions with the government.

Type of services

The goal has been to offer a variety of services to choose from in order to better match the needs of the users.

The services regulated by the existing legal framework include: day care for children below school age, youth welfare services for children up to 12 years of age during primary school period, home and respite care for disabled children, day care for the disabled, homes for psychiatric patients, home help, meal provision, family support service, day care for the homeless, clubs for the elderly, home and respite care for the elderly, residential homes, shelters and night shelters for the homeless, day and night care for drug addicts and health care including hospitals, long term care and medical home care.

Financing of the social services

The institutions created by the state and local municipalities are obviously fully financed by the state but they are a minority in the universe of the institutions providing social care. The third sector institutions are financed for approximatively 60% of the operating costs by the state, the remaining costs have to be supported by the families of the users, by the users themselves or by resources of the institution itself.

To receive public financial support the private and social institutions - so called Instituições Particulares de Solidariedade Social (IPSS) - are obliged to sign specific co-operation agreements setting out the type of services provided and the corresponding financial amount to be paid by the state taking into consideration the age of the user and her/his individual needs.

The facilities and equipments owned and managed by private non-profit institutions are subsidised by the state and other contributions from enterprises and also private donations. Part of these funds are obtained from taxes applied to the official lottery and loto which is controlled by the state related institution Santa Casa da Misericórdia that is responsible for organising the lottery and other 'social games'. A significant part of the funds is also obtained through taxation of the profits from the gambling Casinos.

Cooperation from volunteers

One particular characteristic of the non-profit social services institutions that generates civic added value is the involvement of volunteers. The forms of their involvement are extremely diverse, ranging from people with responsibilities in the management of non-profit institutions to neighbourhood help. The appropriate legal framework conditions of volunteers participation in the institutions are being defined.

Present problems and future challenges

Three major problems are affecting the social care services system in Portugal:

1. The lack of facilities and equipments is felt not only in the big urban metropolitan areas but mainly in the communities located in the interior part of the country.

2. The insufficient amount of state subsidies is squeezing the financial sustainability of the majority of the non-profit institutions and restricting the desirable development of the quality and quantity of services provided which end up with big waiting lists, mainly affecting the elderly.

3. A more effective networking and cooperation of all actors at local and regional level (municipality and regional authorities, government through social security system and the third sector institutions) is essential in order to achieve high levels of social cohesion and inclusion on the whole territory.

Future challenges and trends

The immediate challenges confronting the government and the civil society are the following:

1. New legislation in order to guarantee the access of all citizens to the social benefits granted by the Portuguese Constitution, in line with the European Social Model.

2. Full recognition of the non-profit institutions as effective and active partners in the definition of the social policies.

3. The adequate and timely response in equipment, services and qualified staff to meet the increasing needs of the elderly due to the ageing of the population in the next decades.

A persistent trend being experienced by Portugal - a low economic growth since 2001 and a forecasted economic prosperity well below expectations until the end of this decade – will bring severe negative consequences to the unemployment rate with the correspondent increasing difficulties faced by the government to assure an acceptable level of response by the instruments of the social policy.

4. The government needs to create a new National Development Programme for Social Welfare. The aim of the programme should be to safeguard the availability of the core services, the development of new and complemented services structures, to refine the application of the automatic stabilisers and to guarantee access of all to the welfare system.

Leirião, Dr. José Custódio/Crespo, Francisco/Lopes, Dr. Vitor José Melícias, Social Services in Portugal, in: Newsletter Observatory for the Development of Social Services in Europe 1/2005, p.5f.