Government wants to put 15 thousand more workers in homes by the end of the year

The program to strengthen human resources in homes will hire another 15 thousand workers by the end of the year, the Government announced today, also launching the PARES program, an investment of 110 million euros in social facilities.

In a ceremony at the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security (MTSSS), in Lisbon, minister Ana Mendes Godinho, alongside Prime Minister António Costa, agreed today with representatives of the social sector to reinforce the emergency support program for social equipment, coordinated by the Institute of Employment and Professional Training (IEFP), and which has already placed 6200 unemployed workers in lay off and other people eligible to carry out social work in more than a thousand institutions.

According to Ana Mendes Godinho, the Government's objective is to "go further", whereby the number of people covered by the program will be increased, "to strengthen institutions, so that they can preventively have more people already working", having the objective is “to place 15 thousand people in social sector institutions by the end of the year in order to respond to the situations of the pandemic and also including the aspect of training”.

The announced measure is the result, according to the responsible for the MTSSS, of joint work and partnership with social sector institutions, in progress since March, when the pandemic began in Portugal, but she argued that "this emergency response does not exhaust" the «action horizon» of the Government.

«For this reason, in the Economic and Social Stabilization Program (PEES) we assume the priority of investment in social equipment and today we are taking a fundamental step here by launching the PARES 3.0 program, with 110 million euros for the expansion of the equipment network, requalification and improvement of our collective capacity for social response, giving priority to social responses to support the elderly, day care centers and support for the disabled», he said, referring that the program was published today in Diário da República.