By the end of this year, the bodies of the Order of Social Assistants must be established, at national level, with a four-year mandate, with regional level bodies and specialty colleges expected to advance next year — said, yesterday, Ana Sofia Branco, secretary of the commission establishing that professional order, at a seminar that took place in Braga.
Dozens of professionals from this sector went to the São Tomás de Aquino auditorium, at the Catholic University, to participate in the seminar commemorating World Social Service Day.
It was in the last intervention of the seminar that Ana Cristina Branco gave, in a videoconference, an overview of the situation regarding the creation of the Order.
The national bodies include the general council, the president, the management, the jurisdictional council, the supervisory council, the supervisory council and the provider of service recipients, the secretary of the installation committee began.
The regional bodies will, in turn, be constituted by the regional assembly and management.
Professional specialty colleges, he explained later, are approved “by regulation of the general council, upon a proposal from the management and a binding opinion from the supervisory body and subsequent approval by the supervisory member of the government”.
The provider of service recipients, to be designated by the president upon proposal from the supervisory board, will be “an independent personality, not registered with the Order”, with paid work in accordance with the terms of the supervisory board. He will have the role of defending the interests of the recipients of the services, “without prejudice to the status of the Ombudsman”, he stressed. Analyzing complaints and making recommendations will be another role of the provider.
The president, who must have at least 10 years of practice in the profession, represents the Order and presides over its board, will be elected by universal suffrage.
Ana Sofia Branco recalled that among the acts of the social worker profession are contributing to the resolution of situations in the context of social and human relations, with inherent functional content.
The seminar included panels on human rights and sustainable development, new frontiers in gerontological intervention, the contribution of art to social transformation and also the defense of the rights of victims of domestic violence.
