\ It is the first time that leisure has been separated from the Youth Act to give it the importance it has as an educational tool.

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\ The text also delimits what leisure facilities are to differentiate them from tourist facilities.

The Parliament of the Balearic Islands has approved the first Law on educational leisure for children and young people in the Balearic Islands, a legislative text that for the first time detaches itself from the Youth Law of the Balearic Islands to give it the importance it has as an educational tool in non-formal education. Moreover, keeping them together was incompatible with considering youth as a unique and full stage, with differentiated needs and demands.

“Educational leisure deserves its own law”, said the Regional Minister of Social Affairs and Sports, Fina Santiago, during her speech in Parliament. “In our territory, leisure organisations have created learning spaces based on education in values and principles such as solidarity, respect, diversity and equality, among others. They have also turned free time into educational time and have promoted pedagogies of exploring the environment, helping others, teamwork and play as an educational tool. This is educational leisure and this is what this proposal for a law is intended to reflect. Educational leisure is fundamental in the non-formal educational world.

“The figures show the importance of this activity and the great use made of it by the public,” said Santiago, after explaining that in the Balearic Islands there are more than 16,000 people who have the title of leisure monitor and more than 2,000 who have the title of director. There are also some 60 training schools. Every year more than 47,000 children and adolescents pass through the leisure facilities (whether they are hostels, camps, holiday camps, holiday camps, refuges, children’s centres, farm schools or other spaces). Some 5,000 children a week in the Balearic Islands are users of educational leisure activities.

Councillor Santiago also stressed that educational leisure “is a deeply-rooted activity in our autonomous community, families are familiar with it and year after year they entrust their children’s leisure activities to it. It is also important for our economic and productive model, which increasingly requires spaces for quality conciliation, and educational leisure responds to this”.

The Parliament session was attended by representatives of educational leisure, whom Santiago thanked for their valuable contributions to the law, “based on experience and the desire to contribute to this law becoming a boost for educational leisure, and above all for their constant belief in leisure as an instrument of social transformation”.

The main objective of this new law is to guarantee the right to leisure for children and adolescents and also to ensure equal access, regardless of their personal or family circumstances.

In terms of equity, the Government, island councils and town councils, within the scope of their competencies, will have to establish programmes, aid and subsidised public prices to facilitate the participation of children and young people in educational leisure activities and services.

With regard to accessibility, from now on all entities will have to facilitate access for people with functional and cognitive diversity. In addition, the minimum requirements that both services and activities must have in order to guarantee their quality and safety are indicated.

Leisure facilities

The new Law delimits what are and what are not educational leisure facilities for children and young people in order to differentiate them from tourist and other types of facilities.

The new Law specifies that children’s and youth facilities are only those facilities intended for the overnight stay or for educational or leisure activities of children and young people, with the aim of facilitating coexistence, accommodation, training or the appropriate use of leisure time. It is specified that those that are not exclusively dedicated to children and young people are excluded.

Also as a novelty, prohibitions are established regarding the consumption of tobacco or alcoholic beverages in these facilities due to their harmful effects on children and young people.