The Consell de Mallorca's plan to convert nurseries into daycare centers fails: only one center receives a subsidy

PalmOnly six childcare centers (ages 0-3) in Mallorca applied for grants from the Consell (Island Council) to convert into educational nurseries, according to the requirements incorporated into the 2023 regulations. Of these, only one has met all the criteria and carried out the necessary structural and organizational reforms to qualify for the aid. The Mallorcan Institute of Social Affairs (IMAS) had allocated almost one million euros for the program, but only 40,000 euros (4%) were awarded to the beneficiary center. The Consell says it does not yet have a record of how many nurseries operate on the island, as they only require a municipal license. In May 2023, in accordance with the regulations, a three-month period was opened for centers to notify their existence, the first step to qualify for the grant, but most did not do so.

According to the Organic Law for the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents against Violence (LOPIBI), childcare centers are a model that must be phased out. The aid program was created to support these centers and prevent their closure at a time of high demand for places. Even so, the problem is that some, for example those located on the first floor, will never be able to meet requirements such as pedestrian access, unless they move to a different building. To qualify for the subsidy, the centers had to meet multiple conditions, such as having a recreation area of at least 65 square meters, with at least two square meters per child. The lighting must be indirect or diffused, since the children spend much of their time lying on the floor. Adequate climate control must also be guaranteed: between 20 and 21 degrees Celsius in winter, and between 25 and 26 degrees Celsius in summer. Toilets cannot be more than 25 centimeters high to facilitate their use.

The excluded, on a war footing

The five schools that were excluded belong to PIMEM. The Association of Early Childhood Education Centers – a federation of the small and medium-sized business association – has expressed its "deep concern" about the "unusual" outcome of the call for proposals: "no centers were awarded funding," despite several projects meeting the requirements and having made "significant investments" as indicated by the Administration. The Council argues that these five centers did not meet the initial requirement: having started the process as childcare centers and continuing to operate as such at the time the subsidies were awarded. According to institutional sources, these centers joined the 0-3 year-old program of the Ministry of Education and ceased to be childcare centers, since all government-run childcare centers must have an educational function and a pedagogical project: they should not be centers where children are simply left.

The five PIMEM centers have filed an administrative appeal – which has been accepted for processing – and the IMAS (Mallorca Institute of Social Affairs) has been ordered to hand over the file. The centers argue that this confirms "well-founded doubts about the processing and resolution" of the grant application and point out that they began the costly adaptation works, planned months in advance, "because the IMAS had guaranteed support" to adapt the spaces to the requirements of the future 0-3 year-old education system. According to the association, it is serious that a grant program designed to facilitate integration into the education system has ended "without any real beneficiaries" and has generated "legal uncertainty, economic losses, and a loss of confidence" in the Administration. PIMEM demands an "immediate solution" for the centers that undertook investments "induced by the administration itself" and denounces that the IMAS is trying to justify the failure solely on procedural grounds, without acknowledging the "deficiencies in management and processing."