According to estimates by the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030, in five years Spain will need to incorporate 261,400 more workers to guarantee long-term care.
The Minister for Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy, at the presentation of the reportThe Minister for Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy, at the presentation of the report prepared by the Secretary of State for Social Rights.
The minister for Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy, has announced the creation of an inter-ministerial commission that will work to guarantee the incorporation of professionals into the System for Autonomy and Care for Dependency and to accelerate the change in the long-term care model. Bustinduy made this announcement during the presentation of the official report ‘Estimation of the needs of long-term care workers to 2030’, drawn up by the Secretary of State for Social Rights.
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Social Rights announces an inter-ministerial commission to reinforce Dependence
The document anticipates that to maintain the current coverage of the System for Autonomy and Care for Dependency, a total of 751,000 workers will be needed, which requires the incorporation of 261,400 more people between now and 2030. This means increasing the number of workers by 53% over the next five years compared to the 489,900 people employed at the end of 2024.
Speaking to the media, Pablo Bustinduy stated that ‘care work will not only require more people, but also an improvement in conditions and a revaluation of this work in society’. Then, during his speech at the presentation of the report, the minister stressed the importance of different ministries working together in a commission to guarantee the incorporation of more workers into the system, and defined this objective as ‘a national challenge’.
In addition, Bustinduy explained that the Ministry has set up a working group with the regional governments to analyse the difficulties in finding professionals and to study ways of finding ways to facilitate employability and make the sector more attractive. The first meeting of this working group will be held on Monday 24 March. The workspace will begin with a detailed presentation of the report and an explanation of its methodology so that the regional governments can replicate the study in their territories and find out about their specific employment needs in the Dependency Unit.
The demographic evolution of Spain
The estimate of the number of workers that the System for Autonomy and Care for Dependency will need in 2030 has been constructed by combining the demographic projections of the National Institute of Statistics with the current proportion of people requiring long-term care. In scenarios where the rate of growth of the population covered by the System for Autonomy and Care for Dependency is maintained as at present, the population cared for at the start of the next decade will reach 2,055,172 people, which is 27% more than the 1,644,073 people cared for in 2024.
For Rosa Martínez, Secretary of State for Social Rights, this demographic evolution represents a challenge for institutions, but, above all, a reason to celebrate the fact that people are living longer and longer. To achieve this challenge, Martínez explained, ‘we need to have the necessary workers to offer quality care and good working conditions’, and she added that public administrations must make an effort to ensure that the extension of life expectancy ‘goes hand in hand with the extension of rights and quality of life’. To this end, the Secretary of State emphasised the need for public policies on care to have a long-term perspective and to include all the actors involved.
Rosa Martínez framed the publication of the report and the creation of the inter-ministerial commission as part of what they have called the ‘Challenge to improve employment in long-term care’, which also includes the working group with the regional governments. The Challenge, he explained, is an initiative that aims to deploy a series of spaces for debate, coordination and decision-making to energise all governmental and institutional actors who can provide solutions to improve the incorporation of professionals into the system. The ministries involved will include, at least, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.
The presentation of this study and this Challenge also included two round table discussions on the labour challenges of the System for Autonomy and Care for Dependency. The first of these analysed the challenge from a labour perspective and was moderated by Mayte Sancho, Director General of the IMSERSO, with the participation of the CCOO and UGT trade unions and the CEOE and CEPYME business organisations. The second round table dealt with the issue from an institutional point of view, with the participation of the Secretaries of State Joaquín Pérez (Labour), Borja Suárez (Social Security) and Pilar Cancela (Migrations), as well as Esther Monterrubio, Secretary General for Vocational Training.