Making public policy in the field of care is a pioneering initiative because it proposes to intervene in one of the most invisible fields of social life: the current organisation of domestic, maternity care and care work.
The way in which the series of tasks linked to caring for people and social reproduction are handled in our society is still very hidden, and it is one of the spheres of social and economic life that generates higher rates of inequality and discrimination based on sex, origin and social class.
The Government Measure for a Democratisation of Care (2017-2020) was born with a transforming and feminist purpose. It is an initiative spearheaded by the councillors for feminism and LGTBI, Social Rights and Public Health of Barcelona City Council. It is also promoted by the Commissioner for Cooperative, Social and Solidarity Economy and Consumer Affairs.
The aim of this measure is not only to initiate a social awareness campaign that recognises the contributions made mainly by women from homes and families to support the life and well-being of society as a whole, but also to deploy actions aimed at a more equitable distribution of the responsibility to take care of Barcelona in order to make it a genuinely caring city.
The measure consists of 68 actions and aims to achieve the following objectives in the medium and long term:
- To promote a transforming way of socially organising care.
- To make care more visible and enhance it as a central part of the socio-economic life of the city.
- To promote the co-responsibility of the various social stakeholders involved in order to guarantee the right to receive and provide dignified and quality care.
- To reduce the social and gender inequalities that characterise the current model of care provision and service delivery.
A feminist care policy agenda
The promotion of the care economy in the city from a distinctly feminist perspective is undoubtedly an important milestone. It means specifying a model for reorganising care that is fairer, i.e. more equitable and able to guarantee the rights of those who care and are cared for.
Through this government measure we want to contribute to moving towards a new way of organising the care of people that is fairer and more equitable. At the same time, we want to define concrete actions and the essential tools to carry out a public policy on the care of people with a transforming purpose.
The Barcelona Cares space
Barcelona Cuida is a pioneering centre that aims to give visibility to all the existing resources in the city within the field of care, and make them available to everyone. Its aim is to be a space of reference to provide citizens with information on all the services and resources of the territory, and to promote the exchange and the network of mechanisms.
The centre aims to become:
- An information and guidance point on the existing resources in the territory.
- A meeting point and a place for all the people involved in care in the city.
- A space for coordination and networking between people, professionals and organisations.
- A centre for dissemination and awareness-raising in the field of citizen care.
Why this equipment?
Caring for people is a very broad concept that encompasses all the activities carried out to respond to the physical, psychological and emotional needs of one or more people, both in the private sphere and in the public sphere; but, above all, providing care is an activity carried out by some people for others.
For this reason, care work is incorporated into numerous programmes, actions and facilities in the city, and the variety of people and groups involved in its provision and reception is very wide.
The complete Measure can be downloaded from this link: http://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/tempsicures/sites/default/files/mg
- Familiarising and reflecting
- Planning
- Regulating
- Kick-starting
- Local institution