Madrid, Apr 29 (EFE).- 82.3% of the financing of the child protection system is allocated to residences, compared to 9.2% to foster care and 4.4% to prevention, despite the fact that the Government and autonomous communities set the goal that in 2030 70% of children and adolescents under care will live in families.
These are data from the report ‘How does financing influence the child and adolescent protection system in Spain? The challenge of deinstitutionalization’, presented this Wednesday by the Childhood Platform that analyzes the public investment of communities in the protection system, which serves more than 55,000 children and adolescents in Spain.
The study analyzes contracts and subsidies awarded between 2024 and 2025. It accounts for at least 516.4 million euros committed in those two years to finance the system, with differences between regions or autonomous communities; Of these, 425.2 million euros are allocated to centers and 47.6 million euros to foster care.
According to the latest data from the child and adolescent protection system at the end of 2024, Spain served 55,010 minors in the system, 5.8% more than the previous year. Of them, 36,090 are in some form of care: 19,977 in residential care and 16,486 in family care (9.77% less than the previous year).
For the platform, the data show a strong dependence of the centers on family alternatives, in addition to a low investment in prevention, which limits the ability to act early to avoid, in many cases, the separation of children from their families.
Furthermore, according to Sara Toledano, responsible for deinstitutionalization of the entity, “the important differences between territories and forms of resource management generate inequalities in access and quality of care.”
“This distribution shows an inertia towards entrusting the care of minors to residential centers, which makes progress towards more family and community models difficult,” said Leire Olmeda, a data expert from this network of more than 70 children’s organizations.
Specifically, he explained that almost half of the subsidies (49.3%) are allocated to foster care and 30% to residential care. Regarding contracts, only 6% of contracts are allocated to foster care and 86% to residential care.
Although there are less than four years left to meet the goal of seven out of ten children in care living in families, “currently it is 51% and funding continues to be directed in the opposite direction.”
The report also studies the situation of unaccompanied migrant children, where 99.1% of the identified investment is allocated to residential care.
“The data show that, in practice, unaccompanied migrant children are cared for almost exclusively in residential resources. This means that, depending on their origin, girls, boys and adolescents do not have equal access to other alternatives in the protection system, which points to a form of institutional discrimination that must be corrected,” said Toledano.
Although the action plan against the sexual exploitation of minors of the protection system establishes the objective of 2030 for centers to not exceed an average of 15 places, in some they reach 200, especially in centers where there are migrant children.
The report detects important differences between administrations in the amounts, transparency and way of contracting, among other factors, as well as a high use of urgency and emergency procedures in public procurement, which reaches 155.9 million euros.
Added to this is that 57.3% of the contracts analyzed have a single offer, a figure that far exceeds the state average (33%) and the European average (29%) and which poses risks to free competition and the quality of tenders for child and adolescent protection services, the entity warns.
The technology director of Political Watch, Pablo Martín, explained that in order to develop this analysis he has resorted to automated data collection techniques from multiple public platforms, since, he regretted, public information is not sufficiently accessible or centralized.
Information has been obtained on contracts awarded or extended during 2024 or 2025, as well as on subsidies awarded in that same period through the Public Procurement Portal, the regional portals and the National Subsidies and Public Aid Advertising System.
“Improving transparency is key to guaranteeing effective accountability,” said Martín.
Among the recommendations to improve the system, the Childhood Platform proposes improving the planning of public resources allocated to the protection system and reinforcing stability in the contracting of essential services.
The analysis indicates that the lack of structural planning conditions the way in which resources are organized and makes a coherent long-term response difficult.
It proposes to progressively reorient the financing model towards strengthening family foster care and prevention policies. EFE
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