Public policy areas - PAM 2020-2023

This Department must give new impetus to local education policies, placing special emphasis on those aspects that can most actively contribute to social inclusion and prioritising young people and disadvantaged groups.

The Department will continue to focus on education at the municipal level, which currently involves providing municipalities with resources for the operation, management and sustainability of municipal schools, as well as to implement the model of the International Association of Educating Cities, in which the environment is a meeting space, a resource and an agent of change at the same time. We propose a socio-ecological transition for every town and city in the province to become an educating agent. In this regard, everything from city education projects, through local plans and other initiatives, to the full-time education project, will be underpinned by the principles of equity and equal opportunities for students.

In addition, the network of municipally owned sports facilities will need to be consolidated. During this mandate, we want to promote sport in particular as a tool for social and community inclusion.

In terms of young people, local youth policies must be planned and developed, youth facilities must be transformed to become the driving forces behind these policies and collaborative strategies that integrate youth associations must be promoted in order to foster the empowerment of young people so they can live their lives with autonomy and security.

In addition to these measures, the corporation will consolidate its workforce, promoting the new Gender Equality Plan and adapting people management to the requirements of a fully digitalised administration, which enables employees to telework effectively and under the best conditions.

In this regard, the Internal Protocol to guarantee the provision of its own services and activities during the COVID-19 lockdown rollback process is the basis of the roadmap that must guarantee internal management efficiency and maximise the public value that the Provincial Council contributes to the municipal councils and regional councils, in short, to the public.

Likewise, the province’s municipalities will continue to have access to consolidated lines of financial aid such as the Local Credit Programme and the Caixa de Crèdit, without ruling out other measures that may be adopted in this area.

This department plays a key role in modernising the management structures of municipalities, regional councils and the Provincial Council itself in terms of training, technology and of information systems and electronic processing and organisation.

In accordance with the plan, it should open up new spaces for participation and networking to establish effective lines of cooperation that improve management, as well as implement economic and technical measures that provide local governments with the methodological and procedural aspects needed to allow them to operate completely digitally.

The plan is also committed to transparency. The quality of the information that appears on the local transparency portals and, in particular, on the Provincial Council's Transparency Portal needs to be accurate and available for the public to use.

Finally, one of the main principles of digital transformation is establishing the technological basis that supports a system of teleworking and collaborative work.

Support will be given to municipal policies that protect the quality of consolidated urban spaces and undevelopable land, and in particular those that mitigate the emergence of segregated urban habitats and prevent gentrification, speculation, deterioration of residential areas and the proliferation of substandard housing.

There is also a need to further strengthen the capacity of local governments to ensure the right to decent and adequate housing for all and to improve the quality and quantity of affordable housing, through technical, legal and economic support to local authorities, the coordination of inter-administrative cooperation networks and the improvement of governance with other agents and institutions.

The aim is also to increase the number of energy-sustainable and socially inclusive amenities, as well as to work on public spaces to improve the health of the population.

Urban infrastructure must be environmentally sustainable and spatial data infrastructure must be inclusive and accessible. Local architectural heritage must also be showcased, to take advantage of endogenous and non-relocatable resources at the service of local development.

Of note during this mandate is the approval of the Zonal Plan of the road network owned by the corporation, the first of its kind and of this scope promoted by the Provincial Council in more than eighty years. In addition, the Department wants to take advantage of the road system to promote non-motorised sustainable mobility and to ensure the fibre optic network reaches all municipalities.

Finally, the Department will also support towns and cities in preserving biodiversity and mitigating the environmental impact of urban activities on natural and rural areas.

The main objective of the Department for Climate Action in this mandate is to take transformative government action from an environmental perspective, promoting a strategy for mitigating and adapting to climate change and promoting sustainable energy in the Provincial Council and in the province’s local authorities, making it a leader in Europe in this regard.

This initiative must be accompanied by intensive local measures to achieve the objectives of the first Summit on Air Quality in the Barcelona conurbation, within the framework of climate change mitigation and adaptation plans promoted by the province’s local governments and which, in this mandate, must be extended to the Provincial Council itself.

In the field of clean energy, the corporation intends to invest heavily to encourage an energy transition in infrastructure, businesses and the social fabric, aimed at promoting the local production of renewable energy and, in particular, to encourage the use of thermal applications in municipal buildings and facilities.

Traditional economic sectors must be modernised, exploring new more sustainable models, taking advantage of the province's urban potential and assessing the opportunities opened up by digital transformation and energy transition.

In terms of employment, the Provincial Council will focus especially on creating quality jobs, reducing the digital divide and integrating the most vulnerable groups into the workplace.

In terms of business, the productive base must be transformed to make it more competitive, with support provided by local authorities to companies and entrepreneurs.

In terms of strategies, the plan provides for the support of local governments in promoting sustainable economic development, fostering economic innovation and new economies, as well as in decision-making linked to economic development.

In terms of tourism, the corporation will continue to promote sustainable and responsible tourism, supporting local and regional tourism management, promoting the Barcelona as a destination and boosting the tourism sector in the province to improve the offer.

Finally, the Department will need to continue to promote local trade and markets. The aim is to consolidate a line of action based on the principles of sustainability, proximity, environmental and social commitment, which is committed to a model of trade, services and municipal markets capable of meeting new consumption needs and responding to the productive growth needs of our municipalities.

The Department of Culture wants to promote the access of all citizens to the cultural offer of the province’s municipalities, with initiatives that attract new audiences and expand the activities offered in local cultural networks (in particular, theatres and museums), to further develop the idea of culture as a tool of social transformation.

In addition, work will continue on reforming the library model. The traditional role of libraries as spaces that promote reading must be adapted to account for an increasingly digital society, to turn them into lifelong learning spaces and promote their role in guaranteeing equal access to culture, creativity and experimentation.

In the current context, the Municipal Library Network must make the most of its capillarity in the region to become a physical and virtual meeting point that is easily accessible to citizens. For this reason, the plan also proposes that libraries be active agents in fostering a critical spirit, strengthening the community and promoting new forms of knowledge production based on the creation of collaborative environments open to the public and, at the same time, introducing the technological advances that take place in the cultural field.

This Department must give new impetus to local education policies, placing special emphasis on those aspects that can most actively contribute to social inclusion and prioritising young people and disadvantaged groups.

The Department will continue to focus on education at the municipal level, which currently involves providing municipalities with resources for the operation, management and sustainability of municipal schools, as well as to implement the model of the International Association of Educating Cities, in which the environment is a meeting space, a resource and an agent of change at the same time. We propose a socio-ecological transition for every town and city in the province to become an educating agent. In this regard, everything from city education projects, through local plans and other initiatives, to the full-time education project, will be underpinned by the principles of equity and equal opportunities for students.

In addition, the network of municipally owned sports facilities will need to be consolidated. During this mandate, we want to promote sport in particular as a tool for social and community inclusion.

In terms of young people, local youth policies must be planned and developed, youth facilities must be transformed to become the driving forces behind these policies and collaborative strategies that integrate youth associations must be promoted in order to foster the empowerment of young people so they can live their lives with autonomy and security.

The action of this department focuses on guaranteeing public health, well-being, personal autonomy, care in situations of need, as well as social inclusion and promotion, and on ensuring that municipalities are spaces of equality, guaranteeing rights and opportunities, respectful of differences and free from discrimination.

The plan is designed to focus especially on the groups most affected both by the economic crisis of recent years and by the effects of COVID-19. the elderly, adolescents and children and their families, among others. The care model for the elderly will be reviewed to try to ensure they can live in their own homes for as long as possible. equal opportunities for children and adolescents will be promoted; basic rights such as food, housing or essential supplies will be guaranteed; anti-poverty and social inclusion programmes will be implemented, and support and accompaniment will continue to be provided to municipal reception facilities for migrants.

A priority will be to create municipalities that are welcoming, intercultural, accessible, respectful of diversity, cohesive and co-responsible and that promote coexistence and community action from the local perspective.

The Provincial Council reaffirms its commitment to equality and non-discrimination policies and will directly address the feminisation of poverty, which has intensified as a structural phenomenon due to the COVID-19 crisis. At the same time, it will promote policies of non-discrimination for reasons of sexual orientation, through the LGTBI programme.