The local governance of social services

INTRODUCTION [Up]

This article analyses the governance of the local social services in different municipalities in Catalonia. Local authorities in Catalonia and Spain play a crucial role in the provision of social services, as the law gave them different responsibilities and because they are the closest tier of government to the population (‍Aguilar Hendrickson, 2016). Their accessibility to citizens is of great importance, even though they often have to deal with increasing demands and funding cuts (‍Reilly, 2007). However, other actors are also important in order to provide wellbeing. These include other tiers of government, the private sector, NGOs and informal support, especially in overcoming the limitations of the public sector to guarantee social rights (‍Daly 2006; ‍Walker 2005). In this sense, the literature on the welfare mix has highlighted that, in a context of social policy and social services reforms, non-statutory bodies have been important in providing welfare and filling some of the gaps in public provision (‍Herrera, 2001). In addition, Johansson et al. (‍2015:1601) claim that “the complex set of problems that many central governments face are seen as best handled at local level, by local politicians and including the enrolment of various types of local stakeholders”.

In Spain, social services include both social care services (long term care, child protection, etc.) and social assistance (access to benefits to cope with basic needs). As in many other domains, the ideas that are implemented are a political matter, and can be analysed from different perspectives. Depending on the policies carried out, and the way they are framed, funded and implemented, they will flourish or have a lower level of development. In this case, we specifically focus on the role developed by local social services politicians during the policy process, especially to better understand this role, their relationships with the different actors that are involved and that influence them during the various stages of policy process.

The Spanish Constitution, unlike what happens with other social rights, does not explicitly recognise the right to social services, but simply states in article 148.1.20 that the regional governments may assume competences in matters of “social assistance”. Social Services in Spain are an example of decentralisation and multilevel governance, and different institutional levels participate to a greater or lesser extent in their government. Based on the legislation, regional governments have passed laws on social services since the 80’s, but always with collaboration with local authorities, as the Law 7/1985, Regulating the Bases of Local Regime, recognises in articles 25e and 26c the “assessment and information of situations of social need and immediate attention to people in a situation or at risk of social exclusion” as a service to be provided by municipalities with a population of over 20,000 inhabitants. This means that municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants are not obliged to provide them and that in many cases they turn to other administrations to manage them, such as “Diputaciones provinciales” or “County Councils” [Consejos comarcales], as it happens in Catalonia.

In the Catalan case, local authorities have the responsibility of delivering what is called ‘basic social services’, as well as promoting welcoming policies for immigrants. Some of the services included under this label are: Basic Social Attention Service, which is the main entrance to the system; In-Home Help Service; Telecare Service; Community Kitchen, and Short-term Housing Facilities. Indeed, two of the principles recognized in the Catalan Law of Social Services are proximity and devolution. Their role is not secondary because, even though other tiers of government (the central and regional governments) are responsible for legislating and funding these policies, local authorities also have their own responsibilities, especially regarding the provision of services and benefits.

Stoker (‍2011) claims that local authorities have, among their functions, welfare provision and redistribution, as well as the expression of identity. That means that local governments matter to citizens because they feel attached to their town or city, and they can also easily identify politicians in order to hold them responsible. For instance, previous studies have emphasised that, ‘the local government is an important arena in the Swedish welfare state because it administers the lion’s share of social welfare services and is also an important donor to local civil society organisations’ (‍Lundåsen, 2019: 3).

However, if we broaden the scope, it is worth paying attention to the growing role that cities and towns currently have—and will have in the future—as many researchers have pointed out. The crisis of the nation-state due to globalization, as well as the emergence of supranational institutions such as the European Union, has diminished the role and the political influence of nation-states (‍Kooiman, 2003; ‍Cerny,1999). This does not mean states have lost their power, as witnessed during the Covid-19 crisis, but rather that it has been transformed and reduced.

In the age of globalization, building transnational institutions could seem to be the best way to provide solutions to global problems, instead of from an isolated perspective. Nevertheless, and this may seem paradoxical, cities are insistently calling for more power and legal competences, to better respond to their citizens’ needs. The main argument for this demand is that they are the closest tier of government to citizens and, at the same time, citizens are increasingly demanding more services from them. According to this view, local social policies are widely considered more effective under the premise that the closer the service being delivered to the population, the better (‍Subirats, 2016). Cities and towns have a detailed knowledge of their inhabitants’ reality and they can better identify their needs and give a personalized response to them (‍Ranci et al., 2014; ‍Andreotti et al., 2012). However, in Spain local authorities have traditionally faced underfunding (‍Bonet, 2020), a situation that worsened during the Great Recession and the outbreak of Covid-19 (‍Navarro and Pano, 2019; ‍Salmon, 2017). Moreover, in 2013 the approval of Law 27/2013, of 27 December, Rationalization and Sustainability of the Local Administration, was also an attempt to recentralize and limit local autonomy as well as the local competences on social services (‍Vilà, 2014).

Barber (‍2013) claims that cities can overcome some of the main limitations of states, and that they are more prepared to combat inequalities. Others, such as Blanco and Gomà (‍2016) and Subirats (‍2016) highlight the importance of new municipalism and proximity, to promote social innovation and the participation of new actors, moving from a vertical to a horizontal form of local governance. There are many examples that illustrate this tendency. In Catalonia, for instance, the mayor of Barcelona, along with the mayors of Paris, Lesbos and Lampedusa, promoted a manifesto in 2015 to put pressure on European institutions to relocate refugees in cities that expressed their desire to receive them. Similarly, she sent a letter to the president of the Spanish government in which she urged him to offer political solutions, and to engage in the funding of basic services, instead of promoting security measures^[1].Verhoeven, Strange and Siles-Brügge (‍2022) refer to «municipal contestation» to deal with threats to their political positions.

However, multilevel governance, as well as scale problems (‍Kazepov, 2010) and wicked problems (‍Buchanan 1992), pose several challenges to local government aspirations. As Sabatinelli and Semprebon (‍2017:129) claim, ‘In contexts where the vertical division of responsibility lacks a clear attribution of responsibilities, local bodies cannot really pursue innovative and localized interventions as they need to try and compensate for inadequate policies developed by other institutional levels.’ In the field of social services and phenomena such as social exclusion and vulnerability, there are many examples that illuminate the dysfunction that accompanies the complex problems municipalities face with a lack of legal, political and economic resources: migration and refugees; housing exclusion; gentrification; and precariousness are good examples of global phenomena with a significant impact on local governments.

Neither the political dimension nor the local governance of social services has frequently been studied in Catalonia, Spain, or even in the international context. The contribution of this article is to shed some light on the role of local politicians during the policy process, as well as the way they govern local social services policies with other actors. Our aim is to explore how local politicians from municipalities and county councils in Catalonia govern social services, and more specifically, to what extent they develop (and what kind of) relationships with different actors, and to analyse their role in the policy-making process. Basically, the aims of the article can be couched in three questions: How are local social services governed? What types of priorities do local politicians have? Who are the main actors involved and how do they lobby local politicians?

The article is divided into various sections: First, we describe the political dimensions of social service. Then, we analyse the role of the local authorities regarding the provision of social care and social services. Third, we explain the methods. Then, we examine the governance of local social services, with emphasis on the relationships with local politicians and different actors involved in the policy-making process and, finally, we share some conclusions and discuss our findings.

LOCAL GOVERNANCE AND THE POLITICAL DIMENSION OF SOCIAL SERVICES[Up]

Many authors from different academic perspectives have examined the notion of governance. Even though some authors have used it as a synonym of government, the literature has emphasized its broader sense, and its definition as a paradigm (‍Kjaer, 2004; ‍Bevir, 2011). The concept of governance emerges as a catchword (‍Jessop 1995) and has various meanings (‍Rhodes, 1996). Different theories are developed on different spatial perspectives—international, European, the nation-state—but also from the local one. Others have focused on multilevel governance, referring to different relations between different tiers of government (‍Bache et al., 2016; ‍Cerny, 1999). Governance can be understood as a process of government during different stages of the policy process—from the definition of the problem to the evaluation—within the public sector, but also with other actors, and private and voluntary sectors including NGOs (‍Torfing et al. 2012). In this sense, no single actor has a monopoly on tackling complex problems, and each of them can influence the others (‍Kooiman and Van Vliet, 1993) and play a role during the policy process (‍Stoker, 2000). Moreover, the governance perspective ensures a more democratic process and contributes to overcoming some of the limitations of liberal democracies, although this is currently threatened by populism (‍Stoker, 2019). According to von Sydow (‍2004: 20), ‘Governance is the process of governing, in conditions where a single actor does not have the capacity to effectively tackle problems unilaterally or in situations where actors can mutually benefit from co-operation.’ Governance involves working across levels and sectors within the public sector as well as between the public, private and voluntary sectors. Other scholars have explored the relationship between governance, welfare mix and social policy. The reasons for doing this analysis are ‘the relationships among local, regional and national levels, the role of the state and its relationship to civil society, the (re)positioning of different interest groups and the framing, orientation and implementation of policies’ (‍Daly, 2003:115).

Brugué and Vallès (‍2005) analysed local government during the 1980s and 90s through its representatives. Their research is based on local politicians from different policy areas, and one of the main conclusions is the transition from local administration to local governance (‍Andrew and Goldsmith, 1998). In other words, a shift from a less technocratic government to a more relational one (‍Stoker, 1999; ‍Goss, 2001), which is mainly explained by social transformations including globalization, the changing nature of the nation state, the consolidation of New Public Management, more demanding citizens, etc. (‍Peters and Pierre 2016; ‍Newman, 2001).

In Spain, different scholars have analysed the governance of the social services. Arrieta and Sobremonte (‍2016) point out that the Basque model is characterised by its complex governance, with a fragmented system based on the foral regime that has not developed in the same way as the other pillars of the Welfare State. The main deficits include a lack of coordination and shared leadership, as well as a lack of social debate and institutional perspective, beyond the ideological perspective. Martínez Virto et al. (‍2017) identify some of the challenges for municipal social services based on a comparison of Navarra, Galicia, Catalonia, Castilla-la Mancha and Castilla y León. Among them, some related to governance stand out. Specifically, they highlight the lack of definition of the institutional mandate, budget cuts, the lack of regulatory development and strengthening of management tools, specifically planning and evaluation. Finally, Pastor (‍2012:153) analyses and evaluates the institutional mechanisms for citizen participation in social services in the region of Murcia. From his analysis, he concludes that most municipalities have promoted participation strategies that promote access to information, although consultation and decision-making are rarely carried out.

As mentioned before, few researchers have focused specifically on the political dimension of social services. Daniel and Wheeler (‍1989) wrote a seminal work on social work and local politics. In this text, the authors point to the importance of building close relationships between social workers and local politicians, and overcoming some of the barriers that have historically hampered their relationships. ‘Frontline social service workers have an enormous amount of experience and information about services and areas of need which ought to be communicated to councillors and fed into the planning and policy process.’ (‍Daniel and Wheeler, 1989: 6).

In the Catalan case, there is an important work written by Pelegrí (‍2010). He describes the profile of social service politicians; examines the role of different stakeholders and their relationships; describes the extent to which social services is an appealing area for politicians; considers its importance in the parliamentary arena and, finally, looks at the policy-making process. According to him, social services have not traditionally been a particularly important policy area in Catalan town councils, especially if we compare it with other areas, such as urban planning, economic development or finance. Others policy areas seem to be more attractive to those local politicians seeking political power, and social and media attention.

It is not the aim of this article to discover the reasons for this secondary position, nor the consequences of the lack of political attraction of social services policies. However, in Catalonia and Spain, social services are often perceived by the population as being for the poor, or those excluded from society. This perception is partially due to citizens not having a clear notion of the purpose of social services (‍Martinelli, 2017). While people clearly identify what education, health or pensions offer, they do not know what social services can offer them. This misconception of the social services—based on prejudices and stereotypes—affects them adversely (‍Fantova, 2008). Others, such as García Manrique (‍2013), suggest that this lack of importance is because social rights are the only ones that can be satisfied through the private sector, as opposed to civil and political rights. In line with this, those who are wealthy enough to pay for them are able to overcome the lack of provision from the public sector, and thus do not consider it an important policy area.

Other authors study the role of local managers in social services. Reilly (‍2007) claims that the changing nature [of relationships] that local governments are facing is challenging, and the role and skills of managing must be transformed. This change is illustrated by the adoption of a skill-set, ‘including managing in turbulent environments characterized by chronic funding issues, shifting priorities, special interests, and charged political environments, coupled with skills in engagement, negotiation, persuasion, and community practice, ideally position them to assume lead positions in local governments’ (‍Reilly, 2007:65). Other scholars have studied the relationship between politicians and civil servants. For instance, Ramió (‍2015) claims that one of the major problems of the Spanish administration is the role reversal between politicians and civil servants which is particularly relevant in local government. This confusion is produced by the blurring of two legitimacies: one, democratic and the other, of knowledge. This can lead to politicians who are comfortable exercising the functions of civil servants, and civil servants who act as if they were politicians. Iglesias (‍2015) stresses the importance of strategic planning processes in local governments as instruments of innovative public management, and points out the importance of political leadership in order to move away from the traditional bureaucratic model. In the specific field of social services, political-technical relations are conflictive and situations such as meddling, professional questioning, ignorance of the field or clientelism are highlighted (‍Pelegrí, 2010; ‍Roldán and Chacon, 1999). On the other hand, Carrera et al. (‍2019) point out some of the limitations of small municipalities for being favourable to innovation: one of the limitations is their amateurism, as they are keen to take action but sometimes they are not professional. This is also important as some of them are politicians but still working on their jobs, and that means they don’t have the skills and the experience to deal with a wide range of problems.

Henriksen and Rosenqvist (‍2003) compare how municipal and county councils’ politicians and managers understand elderly care policies. They identify different contradictions among them that can have an impact on the services users receive, as well as lacking clear goals, strategy and leadership. Brodie (‍2001), providing examples from a municipality, highlights five challenges for social care politicians, as their role is evolving. Some of these challenges are the need to find a balance between the national and the local perspective, the importance of the knowledge that local politicians have about their communities, and the need for partnership. As she claims, ‘There is a complex network of connections and relationships to be co-ordinated and made to work in a coherent whole system. The changes are leading to exciting new councillor responsibilities and ways of working, and a different engagement with communities and stakeholders. The fundamental political challenge is to make these structural changes deliver for the benefit of local people, so that they see real improvement in services.’ (‍Brodie, 2001:7).

In relation to this, research on political participation has shown the correlation between class, social and human capital and electoral behaviour, and the negative consequences in terms of unequal political participation and influence (‍Krauss, 2015; ‍Lijphart, 1997). In this sense, policies on social exclusion could be perceived by some politicians as being harmful to their electoral interests, especially in a context of individualism and weak community tiers. All of this is especially important to local politicians, as it is easier to receive political pressure from one’s own constituents rather than from those at the state or regional level.

Finally, other researchers have studied the relationship between gender and responsibilities at the top levels of different policy areas. Traditionally, women have been underrepresented in political institutions and parties. In Spain and Catalonia, this gender bias has changed since the legislation on parity with men in politics was introduced. However, in his analysis Pelegrí (‍2010) shows that before 2010 women were traditionally in charge of policy areas related to care, and less represented in other policy areas that traditionally have had greater political power and recognition, for instance, as mayors.

METHODS [Up]

This article is based on fieldwork carried out in the Girona region, in Catalonia. As the aim of this paper is to analyse the role of local politicians in the governance of social services, the research is qualitative and based primarily on in-depth interviews with local politicians and focus groups with front-line social workers and those in charge of social services departments.

We conducted 17 in-depth interviews with three profiles of local politicians of social services from different municipalities: 7 social services politicians from towns with more than 20,000 inhabitants; 4 social services politicians from towns with fewer than 20,000, but that are county towns; and 6 social services politicians from county councils (Consejos comarcales), which are administrative and governmental units of counties. This selection is based on the local competences of social services in Catalonia. According to the law, municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants have the legal competence to deliver social services. On the other hand, municipalities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants delegate this competence to the county councils. We also included 4 interviews with politicians from municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants, but which are county towns and have more than 10,000 inhabitants. Even though they do not have the legal responsibility, the characteristics of these town councils are interesting to study, as they are not as small as the others, and their politicians usually have part-time or full-time jobs. The 17 interviewees are elected councillors of the municipal governments.

In total, 17 out of 19 of the politicians of the region agreed to participate and were interviewed (10 male and 7 female). The fieldwork was carried out in 2019, and this was an excellent opportunity to talk with them as they were at the end of their mandate, and most of them had already self-evaluated this period. The electoral term was from 2015 to 2019, and all of them were politicians for at least one mandate of 4 years. The interviews were face-to-face and structured, even though we had two samples, one for politicians from town councils, and the other for county council politicians. Both samples shared almost the same questions, with only a few questions being specifically addressed to each profile. These samples were previously discussed with two experts to improve the questionnaire and to obtain specific information on legal issues regarding social services from experts.

Apart from the interviews, we also conducted two focus groups with front-line social workers (FG1) and social services department managers (FG2). In total, 11 participants with different profiles were involved: 6 top non elective officers or front-line managers of local social services, with more than 10 years of experience in the field, and 5 social workers from county councils. Of the 11, 10 were female, which also reflects the proportion found in the whole Catalan System of Social Services, a highly feminized sector.

All the interviews and focus groups were registered and transcribed. The information from these sources was introduced in a matrix of analysis, codifying the information and interpreting the transcriptions. Different categories and subcategories were used, based on different parts of the interviews and focus groups. On ethical issues, participation was voluntary (2 individuals declined the invitation); participants were informed about the content of the research, and signed an informed consent document. They were also told that the information collected during the fieldwork would be anonymized, and that if a literal citation was included in the text, in no case would the informant be identified.

THE GOVERNANCE OF LOCAL SOCIAL SERVICES [Up]

This analysis is based on some of the components of local governance, as well as the policy-making process. In concrete, we analyse 3 principal aspects: the main priorities of local politicians; policy and decision making on social services; and the agenda setting and role of different actors during the policy process.

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION[Up]

This paper has dealt with the role of local politicians, as well as the governance of social services. As several researchers have shown, the role of local governments today is increasingly complex, as new demands and requests arise from citizens, but without the inversely proportional growth of political, legal, and economic resources required to respond to them, with all that that entails for local governance. Thus, ‘The ability to provide services has also become much more reliant on a complex mesh of private, public, and non-profit organizations.’ (‍Reilly, 2007: 64).

Similarly to what other research indicates (‍Henriksen and Rosenqvist, 2003), it has been found that local social services politicians have difficulty prioritizing medium —and long-term policy strategies, as well as developing strategic leadership within their area of responsibility. In most cases, local politicians feel more comfortable dealing with aspects related to management than to politics (‍Ramió, 2015). This perspective contradicts what other research suggests, in which the importance of local politicians in encouraging innovation is emphasized, especially through promoting a clear strategy and overcoming certain limitations, such as, ‘politicians’ limited time horizons; an over-cautious approach to risks; the challenge of getting agreement in a complex political organization; and working in silos’ (‍Munro, 2015: 224). Although more research is needed to delve deeper into this issue, some initial hypotheses lead us to point to several factors, such as a certain ‘amateurism’ of local politicians (‍Carrera et al., 2019), who are unaware of political logics and who, in some cases, have not received training on local government or social services policies, as well as the lack of political clout, within local governments, of social services.

Likewise, local social services politicians have not exercised strong leadership among the set of actors with interests tied to social services. Their position has been largely discreet, open to participation and dialogue, but without a clear initiative capable of bringing together the various actors. Leadership skills are essential for the modernization of local government. Managerial and communication skills, strategic thinking, planning and prioritization, as well as the promotion of relationships and links with other councillors, political parties and other actors (‍Bochel and Bochel, 2010), are abilities that have been rather absent in the case studied. This discreet leadership of politicians does not exclude that, in the governance of social services, there are multiple relationships with different actors. In our study, we analyzed the relationships with non-profit care service organizations and social movements; opposition political parties; practitioners and policymakers; service users and other public institutions.

In the case of non-profit care service organizations and social movements, according to Lundåsen (‍2019), two types of relationships are identified with insider and outsider entities. It is clear that, with those entities with which it regularly collaborates, because they manage services delegated by the local administration, relations are more fluid, although limited to monitoring and coordination. On the other hand, with outsider entities, with whom they have no formal ties, relations are more conflictive, with pressure on politicians. It is doubly significant, in this area, that the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages is the organization that has put the most pressure on local social services politicians, who have felt pressured by receiving demands on one aspect, housing, which for the most part it is not within their competence, and in which local administrations have little room for intervention. Despite this, housing policy has occupied social services policy agenda during this term, as in Catalonia evictions have been an important issue that has garnered great attention in the media and social networks.

Despite this serious social problem and the dramatic episodes that have plagued many families, local social services have not received much attention nor have they been the object of political confrontation between politicians with government responsibilities and those of the opposition. Social services is a depoliticized issue at the local level, as they tend to be left out of debates in municipal plenary sessions; nor are they the subject of major debates in the media, nor do politicians receive excessive demands from the public. If they do receive demands, these are usually in the form of individual demands, not collective ones, which dilutes the capacity for influence and political pressure. Probably, practitioners are the only actors who actually influence local politicians. As mentioned above, the relationship between local politicians and technicians is somewhat particular. On the one hand, politicians trust technicians and especially value their knowledge of an area that, as they acknowledge, is complex and in which they need their support in order to grasp all the details of a very broad policy area. In some cases, especially with politicians in small municipalities, as well as in the case of county councils, it is common for politicians to perform functions specific to technicians, and they often want to carry out functions that would not correspond to them. Likewise, in other cases, technicians also overstep their functions, and often adopt discourses and actions that go beyond the scope of their duties. In this regard, the cases analysed show that managers often have a more strategic perspective of what social services policies should be, and that they try to influence politicians in order to convince them to prioritize certain actions over others.

Finally, relations with other administrative bodies, especially regional and state administrations, are usually not very substantive. This is so because they are limited to administrative and procedural issues, as well as the fact that most politicians work individually. There are no spaces for coordination and joint planning between local governments to collectively pressure higher levels [of government] on needs that are common to the majority of local governments. It seems clear that local politicians must work more closely with each other in order to increase their power and influence in the realm of regional and state-level politics.