Transformations in Local Social Action in Portugal
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Chronological and Conceptual Clarifications of the Local Social Services Reform in Portugal
3. Materials and Methods
3.1. Object
3.2. Methodological Framework
4. Results: Perceptions and Approaches
It is a more visible job, especially for social workers, and at the same time it is more valued by the political sphere.I4
I think the difference [referring to the work in the municipality] is a more structured and intentional collective work. Axes of intervention are defined based on the problems of the territory, new actors are involved, with different resources... the idea is to reach consensus on solutions.(I3)
Social workers are better prepared for this intersectionality, and we coordinate a lot of activities and resources.GF3
(...) Today there is a lot of emphasis on territoIlization (...) a very well-structured ethical, technical, and political action. Territorialization requires rigorously defining strategies and coordinating resources. It calls for inter-institutional and community dialogue. And, of course, commitment from universal policy structures.(I1)
(...) First of all, because we all agree that a good coordination of resources [referring to the resources of all network partners] makes it possible to boost the response.GF3
Through their technicians, the municipalities are able to coordinate and expedite toward a complementary action, reinforcing the global vision that allows them to control the overlapping of support.(I8)
We have a cohesive network (…), a collaborative action involving the IPSS (public institution of social solidarity) in the municipality. We will use this resource to make the process efficient.(I9)
It was important that the entire intervention was thought in an integrated way (...) we needed to be able to manage resources and guarantee the strategic direction. Template formatting is complex. It was important to have a more academic basis to the problems that would help us to explain the collective’s options. We need to develop both critical thinking [universalism] and flexible thinking [adapting to the local context].(I3)
We are in a privileged position to know the problems, draw up social charters, map responses, signal asymmetries, ensure forms of care and follow-up, and speed up the mobilization of local resources.(I7)
[It is] an important process for the territories that should be based on working in partnership and establishing the basis of the problem by taking advantage of the proximity, which is not always easy to achieve.(I8)
We are easily accepted by the community; we manage to raise awareness and to empower; but it is important that we manage to commit the structures [social security] to financing the responses that can improve both people’s and local communities’ living conditions.(I10)
The municipalities, together with the platforms [CIM], which have representation from the Social Security, decide on these matters (referring to external financing for the construction of social responses), we technicians are a little withdrawn (...) the representation of the municipality on this platform is in charge of the executive.(I2)
The funding [referring to financial subsidies to the municipalities] was not calculated based on the real dimension of the problem or the geographical dispersion of the municipality (...) Who ensures the transportation of the teams and the adaptation of infrastructures? (...) They decentralize the service and leave the granting component to social security (...) There is a danger of unsustainability here.(I10)
Social Security needs to commit itself to funding and standardization. The support of the national team to the municipal organization of the processes—schedules, service locations, information system—has been important. The social action system has to be national; there has to be a matrix and the possibility of transferring processes.(I9)
The articulation between individual and collective responses is complex. The planning and governance systems are not yet fully functional in all municipalities. They are assumed by technicians who also have full time main functions in other local institutions.(I7)
It seems to me that there will be a great diversity of practices... some social workers remain confined to the case... [However] there are certainly good practices in community intervention... In fact, the case work absorbs us (...) I think the Integrated intervention should be more internalized in institutions and social workers.(I1)
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Municipal Bodies | Intermunicipal Bodies |
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Social assistance and follow-up services; Municipal social charters, including the mapping of existing responses in terms of social equipment; Link between municipal social charters and the priorities defined at national and regional levels; Recreational activities and family support for children attending pre-school education that correspond to the family support component; Technical diagnosis and monitoring reports and the granting of temporary cash benefits of a temporary nature in situations of economic deprivation and social risk; Conclusion and monitoring of integration contracts of the beneficiaries of the social integration income; Programs for the elderly in areas of housing comfort; Coordination and execution of the local contracts for social development programs, in collaboration with the local social action councils; and Issuing of a binding opinion on the creation of social services and facilities. | Participation in organizing resources and planning responses and social equipment at the supra-council level, exercising the competencies of the supra-council platforms, and ensuring the representation of the entities that integrate them; Articulation of municipal social charters as part of a strategy for territorial mediation of access. |
Paradigm | Phenomenological and Interpretative. |
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Methods | Multiple case study, qualitative method. |
Sample units | Legal framework for the decentralization of social action competencies; Social work views of the new practices contexts brought about by municipal decentralization of social action in Portugal’s northern region. |
Collection techniques | Interviews with six coordinators holding divisional leadership positions in the municipal authority, of which five were social workers and a kindergarten teacher; E1; E2; E3,E5, and E6—social workers. E4—kindergarten teacher. Interviews with four social workers. E7; E8, E9 and E10-social workers. Focus group with social workers from social network partnerships GF1—seven social workers. GF2—seven social workers. GF3—two social workers, two psychologists, and one sociologist. GF4—thirteen social workers. GF5—six social workers. GF6—eight social workers. Observation and documentary analysis. |
Analysis techniques | Categorical analysis (Nvivo); Narrative (discourse) analysis. |
Associated with municipal decentralization | It is a process that brings advantages for the territory, if we have the capacity to implement identical ways of working [the interviewee is alluding to the need to avoid competitive logic between municipalities with differentiated social capital]. I1 Over the years, the municipalities depended on a clear regulation of the process. A lot of our action was limited to housing and projects. I2 (...) For 15–20 years now, municipal councils have been challenged to be more active, with more projects in the social area (...). I6 |
Associated with the social network partnership | Since the 25th of April, the reinforcement of the competencies of the municipalities has depended on the specific regulations that are currently in place. [a reference to the social network partnership.] Everything has been changing; we have been gaining space due to the way we work, the need for articulation imposed on us, and the room for maneuver left by the executives. I3 The change in the legal framework, the orientation towards new partnership formats, such as the social network, the projects, and the internet due to its ease of communication and sharing of experiences (...)! I3 It is more visible work, especially that of social workers, and at the same time it is more valued by the political sphere. I4 [referring to the importance of social networks] The proximity that the municipality has with the territory and, on the other hand, this new structure [social network] have brought comprehensiveness to social action besides avoiding duplication of support. I5 |
Associated with other important mutations | In the 1990s, several policies other than the social network were important. The RSI [social insertion income] addresses the situations in terms of supporting the individuals while the social network obliges us to leverage projects and services in the municipality that complement the individual action. I2 Social policies in general have changed a lot (...) They are committed to working in this way. I3 [referring to operational rationality and intervention in the context]. (...) The change in social policies and the new intervention formats [such as the social network]. (....) We were taking on new functions and ways of working that imply the activation of places and CIMs [intercity community, partnerships]. I4 In 20 years, a lot has changed: minors are in the sphere of CPCJ [Committees for Protection of Children and Youth], cohesion and municipal responses belong to the social network (....). The sector is now very comprehensive and challenging, the territorial character is ongoing, we define responseI. We have more space for locally decided actions. I6 |
Relevant Speeches | |
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Representation of Social Work in partnerships | There are many more social workers than other technicians, which is good for the way social workers articulate case management with community intervention (...) Proximity prompts community intervention, although there are still technicians on site who act as if they were far away. FG2 [view that cuts across all FGs] [referring to a professional body’s tendency toward casework which sometimes results in a constraint on community intervention] |
Role of Social Work | Today we have more intervention possibilIes, (...) and we can deviate from our main functions [the individual approach] and do strategic reflection work that allows us to think locally. FG6 [view that cuts across all FGs] Social workers are better prepared for this intersectionality, and we coordinate a lot of ac-tivities and resources. FG3 [view that cuts across all FGs] Today the role of social workers in municipalities is vital. These technicians are in fact changing their form of intervention (...) more attentive to networking, diagnoses and work plans. E4 [territorial action] is underway to a multi-level articulation is underway, starting with the establishment of priorities for the municipalities integrating the intermunicipal communities [However, social workers are not always represented in this structure] FG5 [view that cuts across all FGs] |
Relevant Dimensions | Relevant Speeches |
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Methodological renewal | In fact, the paradigm of social intervention has changed: diagnoses are now a regular practice, there is more strategic planning and more community intervention (...), a commitment to articulation (...). FG1 [view that cuts across all FGs] [To do] proximity work [is] to read and interpret the territory, create answers to social problems (...), coordinate local social action. FG2 [view that cuts across all FGs] There are more projects, and the projects are different [reconfiguration]. The social network resulted in regular community action and sensibility toward regular access, as well as the sustainability of the territories’ development processes. FG3 [view that cuts across all FGs] (...) An inter-collaborative work (...), an inter-institutional coordination of the structures [view transversal to all the FGs, although with differences in applicability in the contexts of practice] |
Acting in complementarity with universal policies | (…) There is always that feeling that in the projects, the universal dimension can be compromised… But it is necessary to see that the territories are different; besides, the state has universal resources (…) and these territorialized policies are complementary. [Here, there is the notion of complementarity with social integration income policies.] FG 1 [view that cuts across all FGs] |
Acting in line with ethical and deontological principles | We have no ethical dilemmas when proposing the creation of territorial responses; today’s projects are completely different from what they represented in the 1980s [referring to how regular and structured the action was depending on the project]. In addition, there is the complementarity with the active policies. FG3 [view that cuts across all FGs] When resources are clearly insufficient, we must coordinate, mobilize and act ethically with greater intensity. FG2 Sometimes it is necessary to apply measures that go against (professional) ethical principles, either because the publics do not partake in the decision, or because they are emergencies or not adequate… but we have no other resources. FG4 I think that our dilemmas now [after the interview] are sharper… at the level of mediation and strategic analysis. After this conversation, I think we should give more value to the definition of strategic axes. FG6 |
Acting by project | (…) We deal with scarce resources and we have some emergency action, but it will not be the most representative of the municipality (…). We need to be aware so that the emergency action is not dominant. FG4 [an idea that runs across all FGs] We have projects in various areas: support for the aging, financial support, support for refugees […]. We respond to the concrete problems of the territory. All these publics are beneficiaries of other universal policies, from retirement pensions to social benefits… it is just that the benefit amounts are insufficient. FG5 [an idea that runs across all FGs] |
Interaction with the Universalist Standard of Social Rights | A universal policy must guarantee its spheres of action [standard rights]. Technicians must understand the limitations of the measures, and the political context, the possible ways of mediation [for this interviewee, local action must be able to establish complementary projects]. I1 The resources that may be allocated fall within the competencies of the central administration (...). This orientation toward governance... can go well and imply integrality, but it can also go wrong and translate to nonchalance and/or responsibility dilution. FG1 [an idea that runs across all FGs] The medicine cheque [refers to the selective practice of a project just for that municipality, which pays a subsidy to elderly people with low pensions for the purchase of medicines] for the elderly is a support granted by the municipality to compensate for the low retirement pensions. FG2 [This refers to the lack of external funding] Sometimes we have to find projects or practices that follow a sense of urgency (...). I2 (...) One mustn’t forget that social policies cover a whole set of interventions that should remain under the central administration’s purview if they are to be equal and fair. (...) There are gaps in the public protection system [the amount of social benefits] that must be compensated! I6 |
Complex Instrumentalities | Tighter access criteria were introduced into the policies, as were new modus operandi and much productivity ratio accounting; and we have too many cases assigned to each of us (...). The whole gear should be able to work; above all, we should actually guarantee people’s access to social rights. I5 There should be a more academic interpretation of the problems, one that helps to inform the collective’s choices. We need to listen to people more and at the same time develop reasoned and flexible critical thinking [referring to the functioning of the partnership and the ability to gauge expectations]. FG3 [an idea that runs across all FGs] Social diagnoses, networking, participation, articulation of individual problems with decisions on local priorities, work plans... We are more familiar with instruments of rationality, but of course there are social networks whose territorialized work application is still peripheral. I3 The reinforcement of municipalities’ competencies was very important. I think that an integrated intervention at the municipal level, complementary to the universal social policy instruments, will make sense... Now this is complex and we are assigned many functions! [There are perceived hesitations and feelings of local pressure for answers.] FG5 [an idea that runs across all FGs] |
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Gonçalves, H.; Ferreira, J. Transformations in Local Social Action in Portugal. Societies 2023, 13, 209. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13090209
Gonçalves H, Ferreira J. Transformations in Local Social Action in Portugal. Societies. 2023; 13(9):209. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13090209
Chicago/Turabian StyleGonçalves, Hermínia, and Jorge Ferreira. 2023. "Transformations in Local Social Action in Portugal" Societies 13, no. 9: 209. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13090209