The Catalan Ombudsman presents a report annually reviewing the childhood situation in this Autonomous Community, compared to the rights of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
According to the 2012 Report on the Rights of the Child of the aforementioned Agency, children from families with economic difficulties are more vulnerable, as a result of the cuts in recent months in health, education and social benefits. The current reality is far from the ideal indicated by current regulations, according to which public authorities are obliged to adopt measures that ensure that parents, guardians or adults in charge, can offer children a basic level of well-being.
It is noted that risk situations have increased in recent years due to the lack of income of families whose adults have lost their jobs. And in addition, public services have been limited
The document collects reduction or disappearance of benefits and social assistance, worsening the quality of public education, inequalities in access to health services and breaches of the role that should be given to children in the judicial processes that affect them.
In short, situations are occurring in which the socioeconomic needs of impoverished families have increased. Although this fact has not motivated an increase in spending for different items of public expenditures ranging from scholarships to resources in the youth and mental health network, passing through family support spaces to people with difficulties.
I fear that it is a generalized fact throughout the Spanish territory, and in fact we have already spoken here of the worsening of health care as a result of the socio-economic crisis.
