In 2024, we enthusiastically announced the signing of a Technical Cooperation Agreement between IMDS and the Municipality of Vitória/ES, with the objective of investigating the structure and functioning of the basic social protection network in the municipality. The motivation for this work derived from a set of evidence produced by IMDS regarding the social mobility of beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família Program. We found that, although there have been relevant advances, many municipalities still face structural difficulties to promote the economic and social emancipation of their most vulnerable populations.
Our interest then turned to the social assistance network: what role can it play, beyond the provision of income transfers, in the construction of trajectories of autonomy and productive inclusion? To answer this question, we sought to better understand how the services of the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS) are organized - what resources are mobilized, who the users served are and what the potential demand is.
We identified in the municipality of Vitória/ES a unique institutional and technical context for this endeavor: the Social Assistance Information, Management, Monitoring and Service System (SIGMA SUAS), which has detailed administrative records, and a highly qualified technical team committed to evidence-based management.
Today, we are pleased to share the first concrete results of the joint work carried out over the last few months. The stage referring to the cost structure of basic social protection services (PSB) has been completed and offers important contributions to the understanding of the functioning of the social assistance policy in the municipality and, by extension, to the design of methodologies applicable to other municipal realities.
More than 220 thousand services were analyzed in 2023, both in the CRAS - Social Assistance Reference Centers, through the PAIF - Family Protection and Integral Care Service, and in the Coexistence Centers, responsible for the execution of the SCFV - Service of Coexistence and Strengthening of Bonds. The analysis revealed significant variations in monthly costs between care units. In the case of CRAS, the difference between the units with the lowest and highest monthly costs was around 25%. Among the Community Centers, this variation exceeded 180%.
These variations reflect, to a large extent, differences in the volume of care provided. It was observed that units with a higher number of attendances tend to operate with greater efficiency, and with lower average costs per attendance. Units with lower user participation, on the other hand, have higher average costs. This dynamic is also related to the type of activity developed: while services such as the PAIF are predominantly individualized, the SCFV services have a collective nature that influence the relationship between scale and average cost.
