• Both business platforms seal a strategic agreement focused on the quality of services by companies and entities of Social Economy and the Third Sector that serve people in a situation of dependency.
• Call to update the Unit's System to cover all business models, both in the provision of services and in the advisory bodies of the Administration.
• Lament the mercantilization that has occurred in the last years in the services rendered to the people and the risk of attending to the needs of the same ones only with lucrative criteria.
(Madrid, April 20, 2017) .- The Spanish Business Confederation of Social Economy (CEPES) and the Federation LARES, Federation of Residences and Services of the Solidary Sector, demand a revision of the System of the Unit that accommodates all Business models that participate in care and services to dependents.
The presidents of LARES, Juan Vela , and CEPES, Juan Antonio Pedreño , have signed a collaboration agreement with the objective of promoting and guaranteeing the provision of care services to people in situations of dependence by social entities and companies. Social economy.
Both platforms recall that Third Sector Social and Social Economy companies provide services to people in situations of dependency, even long before the entry into force of the Law that regulates this sector in Spain.
The entities and companies represented by CEPES and Lares have a great incidence in the generation of services of help at home and teleasistencia, as well as in residential and day centers for the attention to the affected groups.
"From the representative entities of the Social Sector and the Social Economy we regret that the needs of a historically unattended group can now be covered by purely lucrative interests, with the risk of excessive commercialization of dependency services," Vela said. The president of LARES added that "reality is evidencing that large commercial companies and investment groups, national and foreign, grow at an accelerated pace in this new market, copying the same without the possibility of generating alternatives to this business model. It is the phenomenon that begins to be denominated like the geriatric-bulb- ".
Pedreño said that "the relevant and priority role that has been offered from the Social Economy and Third Social Sector companies in this sector of activity, is being relegated to the background for various reasons. On the one hand, an inadequate development of the System in which the centers of the Social Economy and Third Sector are not being taken into special account, as required by Law 39/2006; And on the other, by the absolute prioritization of purely economic criteria of the Administrations when establishing the centers and services of dependence with companies and private entities, without using the tools of clauses and social criteria offered by Spanish legislation.
"For this reason," added the two presidents, "special treatment should be provided to Third Sector entities and Social Economy companies in their integration process and participation in the dependency care network."
UPDATE THE DEPENDENCY LAW
Faced with this situation, LARES and CEPES have joined forces so that Social Economy companies andSocial Sector have a greater presence and institutional dialogue in this sector.
Both entities understand that, ten years after the entry into force of the Law on Dependency, it is necessary to update the legal framework that regulates it, which expressly contemplates the participation of the Social Economy and Social Sector in the provision of Services, reinforce the role acquired by these companies as a strategic pillar of our care model; And that all existing models of business that act with people in a situation of dependence are accommodated in the consultative bodies.
In addition, the Agreement signed between the two organizations is set out in various actions focused on: promoting the use of social clauses and other reserved systems in public procurement, collecting the interests of the Social Economy in collective bargaining in this sector, Success and good practices, measurement of economic magnitudes in the provision of services by the Social Economy in this sector, as well as prospecting and analysis of future trends in the demand for services in this area and, finally, cooperation among Agents of Social Economy who participate in the training offer for workers in this sector of activity.
LARES and CEPES trust in the results generated by this confluence of common interests in the promotion, diffusion and defense of the Social Economy and Social Sector in the area of the Unit, both by the full coincidence of interests in the sector of activity, For the defense of the corporate and social model they represent, which has in the person the center of their actions, both from the perspective of the clients or final beneficiaries of care, as well as the professionals and workers who provide their services in the entities .
About CEPES
The Spanish Business Confederation of the Social Economy The Spanish Business Confederation of the Social Economy (CEPES) is the maximum representative institution of the Social Economy in Spain, constituting itself as a platform of institutional dialogue with the public powers. Its 26 partners represent the interests of more than 43,000 companies, representing 12.5% of the employment and with a turnover around 10% of GDP. Its partners, with more than 200 autonomous structures, are National or regional organizations and business groups, representing the interests of Cooperatives, Labor Societies, Mutualities, Enterprises, Special Employment Centers, Associations of the disability sector and Fishermen's Guilds .
About LARES
The LARES Federation is currently composed of Associations representing all the Autonomous Communities, which in total group 1,051 centers and services, where more than 70,000 people live and are cared for who are cared for by more than 35,000 workers and in which they provide their services In an altruistic way 9,500 volunteers.
