Specialised Residential Care Centre for Minors“Valle de Cayón” (Cantabria)

The “Valle de Cayón” C.A.E.M. (Specialised Residential Care Centre for Minors) is a high-intensity specialised therapeutic residence falling within the type of residential centres provided for in Cantabria Law 8/2010 and functionally regulated by Order EPS/36/2022. It is a specialised residential resource of the Children, Adolescents and Family Care Service of the Instituto Cántabro de Servicios Sociales of the Government of Cantabria and is managed through a Temporary Union of Entities formed by Fundación Salud y Comunidad (FSC) and the Asociación de Asistencia Integral Lagunduz.

It is a space for protection and treatment specifically designed to care for adolescents over the age of 12 with serious emotional and/or behavioural problems who require intensive, compensatory and comprehensive intervention with a socio-educational and therapeutic approach, and who are under a legal measure of public guardianship or custody formalised by the competent Public Body, with judicial authorisation or ratification of therapeutic placement issued by the competent judicial authority. The Children and Adolescents (NNA) in its care concurrently present serious emotional disorders, severe attachment difficulties and serious behavioural disturbances that prevent their adequate progress in ordinary residential settings or in foster care.

The general objective of the “Valle de Cayón” C.A.E.M. is to achieve behavioural stabilisation, emotional repair of trauma-related harm and the comprehensive development of the personal skills of the NNA in its care, providing them with a relational framework and a residential environment of high psycho-educational security that enables their progressive autonomy, successful family reunification or, failing that, a planned and mature transition to independent living in the community. To meet this objective, the team includes the following professional profiles: Social Educators, Social Integrators, Psychologists, a Social Worker and a Psychiatrist, as well as general services staff, security staff and a management team.

The “Valle de Cayón” C.A.E.M. has a maximum capacity of 24 places, 16 of which are contracted and managed directly through the Instituto Cántabro de Servicios Sociales (ICASS) of Cantabria. A further 8 places are reserved for the care and accommodation of minors from other public child protection bodies in Spain, notably the Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa, the Diputación Foral de Álava and the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia.