Candelaria Delgado: Fuerteventura Eliminates Disability and Dependency Waiting Lists Through Service Modernization

The Canary Islands Government’s Minister of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Childhood and Families, Candelaria Delgado, took part on Monday in a forum in Fuerteventura on Social Services in the Canary Islands – Current Situation and Future Perspectives. About half a hundred people involved in the island’s social services attended.

Delgado highlighted that Fuerteventura, like the other non‑capital islands, “no longer has waiting lists for disability or dependency, thanks to the various actions carried out to modernise and adapt the services to citizens’ needs in the 21st century.”

She also recalled that the first Multisectoral Diagnosis and Analysis of the Situation and State of Social Services in the Canary Islands—the prerequisite for the Canary Islands Strategic Plan for Social Services—was presented this morning and recently approved by the Government Council. The study was carried out through a collaboration agreement with the University of La Laguna and incorporated the assessments and perceptions of nearly 1,000 individuals, including service users, professionals and experts.

“This is the first time the Canary Islands have a tool like this, a milestone that will bring us closer to the reality of the Public Social Services System across the entire autonomous territory. It provides us with information on the perception and evaluation of the system—ratings above six and a half—users’ demands and satisfaction levels, technical coordination of services, and the technical work climate,” explained Minister Delgado.

Island Social Action Counselor Víctor Alonso thanked Delgado for bringing the debate to Fuerteventura and recognised the work of all the people, professionals, entities and collectives that operate throughout the year in the social field.

“Detached” Services from Reality

Delgado arrived in Fuerteventura accompanied by the Vice‑Minister of Equality and Diversity, Juan Martínez Doreste, who opened the floor to discuss “the challenges we face in a context where health and other areas have been modernised, while social services remain detached from reality.”

Doreste stressed that “the goal must be to improve care for citizens, and to do that we need to enhance the system and make it more integrated and holistic.” He explained that the ministry has mobilised all available resources—both its own funds and European funds—to implement artificial intelligence, robotics and other innovative tools, which, together with new procedures, have reduced bureaucracy and response times.

Among the proposals emerging from this first Diagnosis for improving the Canary Islands’ Social Services System are:

• Strengthening coordination with other social protection systems to lower access barriers.
• Modernising internal organisation and management processes.

“Our work is precisely focused on making the Canary social services system a reality—a more integrated system that allows us to view any citizen from a 360‑degree perspective, with their past and recent history, thereby enabling the administration to make more personalised and effective decisions.”