A total of 72 professionals of Social Services of the Vegueria del Penedès are following since November 26th a new edition of the training course “From Person-Centred Care to Self-directed Support” of the Fundació iSocial. The participants are social workers and social educators from the professional teams of the Alt Penedès County Council, Baix Penedès County Council, Anoia County Council, Vendrell Town Council, Sitges Town Council and Sant Pere de Ribes Town Council.

The course consists of 8 workshops taught virtually, and is part of the training catalogue of the Catalan Association of Municipalities (ACM). In agreement with the ACM, the course will subsequently be offered in other Basic Areas, in a territorialised manner by Vegueries. The next editions will be for the Vegueria de Terres de l’Ebre, starting on 4 February; for the Vegueria de Alt Pirineu i Aran, starting on 11 February; and for the Vegueria de Ponent, starting on 1 April.

The course “From Person-Centred Care to Self-directed Support” aims to raise awareness of the European model of Self-directed Support, which seeks to guarantee and preserve an approach of supporting and accompanying people who turn to the basic Social Services in their decision making, so that they have at all times the possibility of making effective choice and control over how the action or support plan is organised to achieve the results agreed with the professionals, based on their wishes and their rights.

In recent years, the approach of person-centred professional interventions, known as PCA, has been consolidated in Social Services. But today we know that it is not so much a question of putting the person at the centre and having professionals make decisions taking into account their interests and wishes, but rather of offering them the support they need to be able to make their own decisions. And this is what the European model of Self-directed Support seeks to guarantee.