The social economy, a basic pillar in dependency care

Dependent adult care in Spain, promoted by the Law on Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for People in Dependent Situations (LAPAD in its Spanish initials) is facing up to significant challenges. If something has been made clear after almost two decades since the passing of this law, it is that the System of Autonomy and Dependent Adult Care (SAAD in its Spanish initials) needs reinforcements. 

This is where the social economy comes in: cooperatives, labour companies and other entities that give priority to social value over private profit. They area already reaching almost 10% of the Spanish GDP and 12.5% of employment with 2.5 million jobs.

The challenge, in figures

1. Chronic waiting lists: in 2023 there were 155,241 people with the recognised right who still were not being cared for; in 2024 the figure dropped to 142,466, but even so, 34,252 people died before receiving help.
2. Front line informal care: 29 % of the help continues to be the responsibility of the family, particularly for the women (75 %).
3. Public efficiency: every million euros invested in dependency services managed by the ES creates 39.3 direct jobs and returns 40% in taxes and social security contributions.
4. Penetration in services: the social entities represent 44% of the offer in adult dependent care and 59% in social services without accommodation.

The social economy model offers governance “one member means one vote,” it reinvests any excess in the activity itself and it maintains lower wage gaps. This is translated into stable staff, rural attachment and attention centred on the person who fits in with the deinstitutionalization predicted for the European Union.

However, there are challenges: public contracts given to the lowest price, fragmentation of many small entities and the threat of regulation changes that could affect the Special Employment Centres, putting 60,000 jobs for people with disabilities at risk.

SUARA: the cooperative that is setting the pace

In order to understand the potential of the social economy, you just have to look at SUARA Cooperative, the state leader in care services. With over 150 million euros in invoicing in 2024, it manages 283 services and it looks after 49,282 people per year.

Its recipe mixes technology and proximity. The internal Social Digital Lab experiments with predictive teleservice, household sensors, support robotics and immersive reality. Projects such as Casal TV, Connected Homes or Independent Life Centre have turned SUARA into a benchmark for administrations that are seeking to reduce their waiting lists without giving up the warmth of personal treatment.

Beyond the gadgets, the cooperative shows that innovation can be inclusive: each new service is designed with the participation of professionals, the people using it and the families. The result is a flexible portfolio – from home help to day centres, capable of adapting to country areas or large cities without losing its cooperative identity.

Future challenges

Backing the social economy is not just a trend, but rather a fast impact strategy: it reduces the overload on the family, it generates local employment and it optimises public spending. Injecting more resources to professional services, reinforcing social clauses in hiring and funding socio-sanitary R+D are the three steps that could turn the challenge of dependent adult care into an opportunity for wellbeing and sustainable development.