Social Services falls under Justice after Albalat's departure without a replacement

The president of the Generalitat will not appoint a replacement for Elena Albalat and will assign her responsibilities to the Minister of Justice, Nuria Martínez. Employers and unions criticise the decision.

According to Las Provincias, the president of the Generalitat, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, has chosen not to appoint a new head of Social Services following the departure of Elena Albalat, who is leading the PP list for Castellón in Congress. The responsibilities will be transferred to the Minister of Justice, Nuria Martínez, in a move that has received almost unanimous rejection from employers and unions.

The Business Association of Residences and Services for Dependent Persons in the Valencian Community (Aerte) has expressed its concern and demands that the area have its own ministry. According to its spokespeople, these are essential services that must have political weight within the Consell.

“Social services have a dimension, complexity, and strategic importance that justify their own Ministry, with exclusivity and capacity.”

The union UGT Serveis Públics has announced its rejection of dissolving the department and turning it into a mere appendix of Justice. Jorge Soriano, from the Social Services team of UGT-SP, warns that the transition leaves a specific problem turned structural, just as the budget is being finalised.

Soriano estimates that reorganising the staffing, IT systems, and the organic regulations of both ministries would require, at a minimum, one and a half months. In his view, the move also sends a troubling message seven months before elections regarding the model of public policies of the Consell.

The weight of the department explains much of the criticism. Social Services manages a budget of 2,731.8 million euros, compared to 612 million for Justice, and ranks as the third ministry in budget size, only behind Health and Education. Its management addresses the needs of 21% of the population over 65 years old, a group that in the Comunitat exceeds 1.2 million people, of whom 375,000 are over 80 years old.

There are precedents, although different. In the legislature that began in mid-2011, Social Welfare and Justice, led by Jorge Cabré, managed around 673.45 million and lasted a year and a half. Sources from the Consell itself acknowledge that the situation is complicated, and a senior official linked to the area describes the image of the organisational chart without anyone in charge as “horrible.”

Within the ministry, an official describes an atmosphere of saturation and confusion, and temporary staff speak of a state of “shock.” Justice, for its part, must now take on social files in the final stretch of the budgetary exercise. The Consell has not responded to this newspaper's request for an assessment, and the planned transition aims to mitigate the effects of the change on the services received by the elderly and dependent persons.