Piedmont: a testbed for sustainable welfare
Rising costs and growing need, increasingly essential services that risk becoming unsustainable. This is the theme that has dominated Piedmont (and not only) in recent months. Turin and the region in general are being looked at carefully today: a testing ground for activating new strategies in welfare management . It is no coincidence that Legacoopsociali has chosen Biella for the May stage, the first, of #Controvento, the States General of social cooperation (we wrote about it here ) that will cross Italy until December . At the center, social work, between peculiarities and criticalities, relaunch and experimentation.
"We decided to pay particular attention to social work and its valorization," explains Barbara Daniele , head of Legacoopsociali Piemonte and vice president of Legacoopsociali nazionale, "also taking into account the turning point we are experiencing in this territory. The renewal of the national collective contract of social cooperative workers (with the increase in personnel costs of about 15% to be reached by 2026, ed.) is the symbol of a situation that affects the cost of personnel but not only. During the days in Biella we reflected with several experts on a remuneration that is not up to the load of responsibility, a phenomenon that does not only concern Italy but all of Europe."
Why is care work not recognized? "I believe that the main cause is to be attributed to a lack of awareness on the part of society of the type of professionalism required in occupations that have to do with assistance, accompaniment, taking charge of the person", he explains: " it takes study and experience, relationship skills and stress management . We are talking about jobs that can lead to burnout both because of the hours and sustained rhythms and because of the proximity to fragility, a proximity that subjects one to a rather significant emotional pressure".
According to Daniele, highlighting the wealth of skills that are in the DNA of social work is not enough. "The risk is to lose sight of the value identity associated with care professions, especially when they are carried out within a cooperative. In this case, the pursuit of a general interest that is specific to social cooperation must be emphasized . It is important to affirm professionalism to avoid falling into the misunderstanding that it is a question of good will, but also to recognize the peculiarity of a profession that has a strong connotation of meaning: it is a subtle balance to be preserved. The ability we have today to retain and enhance talent in a season of demographic winter and high turnover rate depends on it."
How do you deal with such complexity? "The path we took at the Stati Generali in Biella was to identify good practices, experiences of co-design and social and cultural innovation that have an impact on the territories . It is a message of positivity that can be contagious: it gives back to the communities, to the users of the services, to the cooperatives that provide them and to the workers themselves", continues Daniele. "In the face of critical issues, seeking virtuous paths and creating alliances with the public and private sectors brings added value to the community".
About ten days ago, there was news of a turning point in the funds for Piedmont welfare: the President of the Region Alberto Cirio identified 18 million euros from the European Social Fund for the facilities that host patients contracted with the regional health service. "This is a first step towards greater sustainability of the system", explain Legacoopsociali Piemonte, " now we must work for a structural solution and in the meantime activate proactive and constructive paths . Social cooperation must aim for greater solidity, which must be sought in all the good experiences that already exist".
In Piedmont, a permanent Observatory will be set up, led directly by Cirio, which will have the task of finding additional financial resources. "Legacoopsociali's approach in this working group is certainly collaborative because we believe that dialogue, after the silence of recent months, is the first tool to activate solutions. Our goal is to also open technical tables for regulatory review on the elderly, disabilities and then on all fragilities, not least on health profiles and training. From the 1990s to today, beyond the rates, many things have changed: people's needs, business management models and operational models for providing services have changed . For this reason, we are available and willing to enter the discussion to look for models that are more consistent with the current context, which can contribute to rationalizing and making services more efficient."
The photographs are by Legacoopsociali Piemonte
- Tags:
- social work
- Piedmont
- Welfare
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