The Regional Director for Social Solidarity said on Friday that the Government of the Azores, through the Regional Secretariat for Social Solidarity, "has improved child care conditions" at the level of prevention and intervention.

Speaking at the 7th Symposium on Childhood taking place in Ribeira Grande, Natércia Gaspar highlighted the network of social infrastructures and the responses provided to families, the implementation of devices for the early identification of children with special needs and at risk in terms of their development, and the implementation of measure to reinforce parenting skills.
 
For the Regional Director, these measures are based on a "comprehensive and integrated strategy," which demonstrates "the importance attached to the promotion of protection of the right to childhood at the level of regional policies."

Speaking at the opening of the symposium, Natércia Gaspar stressed that role of social infrastructures to support children and young people, such as day nurseries, kindergartens and free time occupation centres, goes beyond the support to the reconciliation of family and professional life or the provision of care. In fact, these infrastructures can also carry out an early intervention in the "psychological, emotional and physical development of children."

For the Regional Director, social infrastructures should be "spaces of discovery that provide children with rich and stimulating experiences, allowing them to build their knowledge of the world and, thus, establish the foundations for their future learning and educational success."

The government official reminded that the successful development of children begins to be built very early in "their first learning experiences as well as in the early identification of the difficulties and disadvantages they might be experiencing, and in the ability of social infrastructures in involving parents and the community." In this regard, Natércia Gaspar recognised the role played by the institutions that manage child support services, which evidence "the existence of a community that promotes and recognises the right to childhood."

The Regional Director reiterated the commitment of the Regional Government to "continue assuring the conditions for the well-being of children" and praised the role played by Bernardo Manuel Silveira Estrela Shelter and Social Support Centre (CASA), the institution promoting the 7th Symposium on Childhood.