The Minister of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Childhood and Families of the Government of the Canary Islands, Candelaria Delegado, and the president of the Island Council of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, have signed this Friday the new agreement for the provision of services to people in a situation of dependency and children under six years of age, elderly or with disabilities. With this initiative, actions will also be carried out to recognize the situation of dependency.
The agreement involves an investment of 14.6 million euros for this 2024. Specifically, the regional Executive will allocate, through the Ministry of Social Welfare for the year 2024, an item amounting to 10,271,196.98 euros (once the amount of 3,399,466.50 euros that was paid by Social Welfare in advance in the year 2023 has been deducted).
For its part, the Cabildo will allocate 4,378,156.11 euros to the financing of this Agreement for the year 2024, so the global investment for the year 2024 amounts to 14,649,353.09 euros.
After the signing, the President of the Government, Fernando Clavijo, stressed the need to collaborate jointly with the island corporations to ensure that the citizens of the Canary Islands can access the same rights wherever they reside. "We have a lot of work to do in terms of dependency in the Canary Islands, but we are on the right track. To continue taking steps we need to collaborate jointly with the island councils," he said.
As explained by the Minister of Social Welfare, "the signing of the new agreement, the fifth to be signed with the Island Council of Lanzarote, involves the incorporation of new places and services for both the elderly and people with disabilities, as well as the increase in the amount of the cost in certain types of places, an effort that we have carried out in order to adjust it to the real cost of the services and respond to the demands of the island councils".
For his part, the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Brito, stressed that, through the signing of the new agreement, the "commitment to the island and La Graciosa to make available to the most vulnerable population the coverage of centers and services that are financed, from economic responsibility and social responsibility" is reaffirmed.
The island councilor of the area, Marci Acuña, added that this fifth addendum is the result of a "realistic analysis of the capacity of this administration to make available to the island of Lanzarote and La Graciosa the services and centers for people in a situation of dependency, leaving aside ambitious and unattainable structures that condemned the previous legislature, to the detriment of the general interests".
More than 800 places
With the signed agreement, coverage and economic maintenance will be given to a total of 833 places for residential care and day care center and telecare. To these places are added a total of 38,400 hours of promotion of personal autonomy and 232,200 hours of home help.
Of the total number of places, 313 will be in residential resources and 320 in day care centers plus 200 telecare places. By groups, 280 are for the elderly and 553 for people with disabilities.
The agreement, which constitutes the fifth addendum to the cooperation agreement signed on August 8, 2018 between the Canarian Executive, through the Ministry of Social Welfare, and the Island Council of Lanzarote, is valid until December 31, 2024, although with retroactive economic effects from January 1, 2023.
