Syria and Sarasa work at the UPNA as teachers and researchers. In recent years, the reception resources for children and adolescents separated from their families have been analysed in the Foral Community and have recently had the opportunity to transfer their conclusions to the Commission on Social Rights, Social Economy and Employment of the Parliament of Navarra, at the request of EH Bildu.

In it, Syria has stated that “the commitment to rethink resources is strong, but not to implement it”. Despite the fact that the Foral Law 2022 is favorable to the protection and care of children and adolescents and to the promotion of their families, rights and equality, Syria has regretted that "the workload is excessive".

It lacks “tools and data to be able to carry out a good evaluation of the resources we have in Navarra”. “We cannot forget that, according to research carried out in Europe, 20% of children have been or will be victims of sexual violence,” said the expert.

Syria, which considers it "essential to harmonise models of care", has criticised the "institutionalization" of young people, while criticizing the policy. This is explained by his colleague Hodei Sarasa: “Although unconsciously, when we send educators to the school door in a camper with the giant logo of an entity looking for a child, we are constantly reminding them that they are engaged in a transitory institutional process, which is negative for them.”

Regarding the problems of excessive number of models and institutionalization, Javier Arza de EH Bildu and Miguel Garrido de Zurekin have come to the solution: “Advertising”. Along the same lines, Isabel Aranburu of Geroa Bai has added as a question to resolve “the excessive rotation” of social intervention.

Raquel Garbayo, from UPN, replies as follows: “I don’t know if the cause has to do with being public or private, but the ultimate responsibility is the Government of Navarra and many of you have been sending for years.”

Community partnerships and mentors

Sarasa has pointed out as a good reference a model frustrated during the years of UPN’s term of office, namely that of the Navarre capital: “Four years ago each district of Pamplona had its own informal association dedicated to childhood and adolescence. It consisted mainly of volunteers, along with some professionals, and in the area of prevention that we underlined so much, they worked a lot.” Former Mayor Enrique Maya privatized this service and now associations and their workers do not have to have roots in their neighborhoods.

Since the Foral Law on the Protection of Minors, Sarasa has put into value the idea of creating “community associations” or “to recover, as in the case of Pamplona”. For these pending entities, he asks that the figure of the “community tutor” proposed in his thesis be incorporated into the law. The new professional figure would ensure that children and adolescents who are in foster care maintain their relationship with their original neighborhood.

“This community tutor, for example, would take the young people to activities they used to do outside school. Today, unfortunately, there is no room for this during the day and if any educator wants to do it, he has to do it outside his working hours”, says Sarasa. “We have to bear in mind that maintaining the social network of the home neighborhood should be one of the main objectives of the reception services so that the young person can return.”