The Government disbands the DGAIA: it will have no capacity to hire or provide aid.

BarcelonaIn the middle of a reputational crisis, the Government reformulates the General Directorate of Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA)) and creates a new agency, focused more on prevention to minimize the withdrawal of guardianships from minors. The new Directorate General for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA) will introduce tools for greater control in management, but will also lose powers, as it will no longer have the financial powers it had until now: that of contracting foster care places in residential centers where minors separated from their families are housed, nor will it be responsible for processing them. Financial aid, which until now was managed through a contract with third-sector entities, will pass into the hands of the administration.

Two weeks after the outbreak The scandal over the months-long sexual exploitation of a minor under administrative protection, and still in full swing investigation of alleged financial irregularities, the head of Social Rights and Inclusion, Mònica Martínez Bravo, presented this Monday the new organizational chart and powers of the new entity. Although she did not indicate the budget it will be implemented with, she has detailed, for example, the hiring that will be made to strengthen teams in both central and regional services.

The announced changes are in line with the issues currently being investigated by the Anti-Fraud Office and the Audit Office regarding alleged financial irregularities at the DGAIA, as well as the recommendations of the Ombudsman, who has long been calling for a new care model that focuses on working with families. Despite referring to the "refoundation" of the system, Martínez Bravo insisted, however, that his proposal is not a "challenge to the work done" by previous teams or by the third sector entities contracted by the DGAIA, but justified the desire to "order" in which areas these entities and private foundations will be able to operate.

In this sense, the management of the benefits to which, by law, minors who have been under the guardianship of the Generalitat (regardless of their origin and nationality) are entitled will no longer be delegated to the third sector and will be a new general directorate that will report to the DGPPIA that will process all financial aid through a single window.

Until December 31, the UTE formed by Resilis and the Mercedes Fontanilles Foundation will be responsible for providing the service, which is under investigation, and it will be from 2026 when the administration will assume it through an automated system that will require less personnel and will be able to speed up payments in 48. According to Martínez Bravo, until now there has been "an excess of outsourcing" in some areas and the time has come for "the administration to recover its powers" in financial matters.

Waiting for the accounts

At this point, the councilor has denied having "suspicions" of malpractice from any entity, but the sector linked to the DGAIA has been "reminded" that they must submit their accounts for the year 2024. Martínez Bravo has announced that the department is conducting an internal audit.

The regional minister asserted that the reforms are the result of "a reflection" to try to address shortcomings and errors in the system, which has been "excessively" focused on the protection of children at risk rather than prevention. In other words, efforts were focused on the centers, with the "perception that the minors were in optimal conditions there," she indicated. Now the goal is to work on how to prevent children from ending up separated from their families and, if they cannot, to shorten their stays in the centers.

In the last decade, the system has had to cope with an increase in demand: caseloads have grown by 60% to 70%, there are more minors in foster care in centers, and the cases are more complex. Furthermore, in light of the risks posed by social media, the regional ministry is considering using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to search for profiles of sexual predators, in conjunction with the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police).

Two new directorates general

Without any budget allocation, the regional minister has announced the hiring of 300 new professionals. The largest portion will be to strengthen the EAIA (Educational and Family Development Teams), the municipal and regional teams that work with families when a risk to the proper development of children is detected. Between 2026 and 2027, 243 professionals will be added, which will increase the workforce by 60%.

The remaining new hires will be integrated into the two new sub-directorates that remain under the DGPPIA: one focused on prevention, with the Treatment of minors under 14 years of age who have committed a crime but are not accountable and Barnahus comprehensive care service for sexual violence, and the other dedicated to dealing with emergencies due to mistreatment, unaccompanied foreign minors and young people who have left care who have the right to protection until the age of 23.

Another new feature of the new architecture of the system is that the Catalan Institute for Fostering and Adoption (ICAA) is now dependent on the new DGPPIA with the aim of increasing the foster families of children temporarily separated from their families and not in centers.