Barcelona City Council

Dear Sònia,

Barcelona is a solidarity society, and social assistance is one of its marks of identity. But now is the time to adapt social and assistance services to people, while also adapting care to new realities. Social policies must be improved in terms of prevention and proximity, and they must include a greater capacity for innovation and participation by the stakeholders involved. In Barcelona, no one should be left behind.

With all of this in mind, as the Commissioner for Social Action, you should focus on the following priorities:

• Being involved in changing the way social services are run. You should promote the reduction of red tape, the procedures for receiving benefits and increasing the number of Online Citizen Assistance Points (OVAC). Social interventions should have a community perspective and social action boards should be extended throughout the city. The participation of the people receiving assistance should be encouraged, generating participation councils.
• Studying the creation of a “Barcelona income”, which would involve a complementary policy to the minimum living wage and the Catalan guaranteed income, via a system that is as automated as possible, in order to focus social work on the most vulnerable. 
• Working to improve social assistance and benefits. Promoting a foundation to develop public-and social collaboration projects.
• Offering a metropolitan perspective to inequalities and valuing the role of the Metropolitan Social Forum as a place to work with the third sector and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, as well as the possibility of reproducing the Labour project at a Metropolitan level.

We are experiencing a time of profound changes marked by the ecological, digital and social transition. We must not leave anyone behind and I am sure that you will dedicate all of your efforts to that end.

Kind regards,