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Social Security Managing Organisation
The senior bodies of the competent ministerial departments of the Central State Administration are responsible for both regulatory authority over the Social Security -promotion and direction of its legal organisations- and the oversight, supervision and control of its management.
The management and administration are entrusted to government bodies, Social Security Managing Bodies, assisted and supplemented by the so-called Common Services.
The Spanish Social Security´s managing organisation has the following noteworthy characteristics:
Public nature
It is made of public bodies with a legal personality and created to carry out, under the direction and supervision of the relevant ministerial department, the management and administration of the benefits granted by the Social Security.
Rationalisation through specialised Managing Bodies
Having simplified the Managing Bodies as much possible, its functions have been rationalised, and having returned some of the Social Security´s non-relevant responsibilities (employment, education and social services) to the State, it has been possible to set out three specific target areas: health, Social Security and social care services.
Territorial decentralisation and social efficiency
The Managing Bodies carry out their activity in a decentralised manner in the different regions. Constitutionally, the State is responsible for the Social Security´s basic legislation and financial framework and, in certain cases, the Autonomous Communities are responsible for said basic legislation, as well as the management and administration of the services.
Participation of the interested parties
Article 129.1 of the Constitution states that "the Law will set out the methods through which the interested parties participate in the Social Security and the activity of public organisations whose role directly affects quality of life or general well-being".
Participation in the monitoring and oversight of the management of the Managing Bodies is carried out, from state to local level, by bodies, which are made up, in equal proportion, of representatives from unions, business organisations and the Civil Service.
Not for profit
The Social Security Act states in Art. 4 that: "Under no circumstances may the organisation of the Social Security serve as a basis for commercial profit-making operations".
Administrative supervision
This is carried out by the Ministry´s Administrative Centres through various checks: organisational, personnel and financial and economic, through the direction and coordination of the management of the Social Security´s human and financial resources and expenses.
Applicable legal framework
The Social Security is subject to common administrative procedure, as it is a public service run by state organisations who make administrative decisions.