WELFARE/ An attempt at focusing on people and families

The welfare systems are more or less in crisis all over the Western world and those that have fallen from high up, in particular, are demonstrating their limits, especially with regard to the younger generations. Therefore, there are many attempts to overcome the current crisis, particularly in the direction of a passage from a Welfare State to a Welfare Society.

One of these attempts has been in place for some time in Lombardy, one of the most evolved regions of Italy and Europe.

The life force of a society is measured on the basis of opportunities, hope, and the possibilities offered to young people. Its future depends on these things, in terms of economic development, the birth of new families and the exchange of ideas and projects. Together with the problem of employment, there is another unknown that makes the future of our children uncertain: the sustainability of the social state, the possibility to have access to social security systems and to that body of guarantees and securities that, up until today, were financed by the state. 

To respond to these expectations of the youth, I am convinced that it is urgent that we launch a series of reforms to our welfare system. Up to now, answering the question "Who pays for care?" was easy: state, regions, municipalities, local health authorities, hospitals and a whole host of other public entities. We are all quickly realizing that this answer is no longer valid.

To guarantee the new generations an appreciable level of the care we received from after the War to today, we need a large generational and social pact, which permits us to achieve the same results as the past by following new paths with new resources, from different places, new people involved in the programming and supplying of services, and a new governance to make the system efficient. The Region of Lombardy has embarked on this road and the introduction of the dowry system, first in training, then in active policies for labor and, today, for welfare, is a prime example of this new way of understanding policies for the person.

We set off with the conviction that any reform had to first of all rediscover and enhance the capacities of the individuals, and of their associates as well, to be protagonists of social life, to contribute to the common good, and to build works that respond to real needs in the worlds of school, work, family, as well as health care, solidarity and welfare. Because of this, we decided to first move the funding “from the supply to the demand”, or, in other words, to give the person the right to choose, making him aware of and responsible for the real value of the services he uses.