Secretaria Nacional de Assistência Social (SNAS) do Ministério do Desenvolvimento e Assistência Social, Família e Combate à Fome (MDS) (que durante o período 2019-2022 foi designado Ministério da Cidadania (MC), mediante estrutura gestora interfederativa do SUAS. O financiamento é coparticipativo entre os três níveis de governo: municipal, estadual e federal.

SCFV can be offered through CRAS, Coexistence Centers and other governmental and non-governmental reference centers (e.g., child, adolescent, youth and elderly centers referenced to CRAS). Multidisciplinary teams often involve social workers, psychologists, and other professionals of varying backgrounds and educational levels.

As per the CNAS Resolution No. 09/2014, the SCFV reference team must be composed of at least one professional with a higher education degree and who is part of the CRAS team. This professional serves as the overall technical reference person for the SCFV. A professional with at least a high school level degree also needs to form part of the SCFV team, to mediate the groups in the role of the educator/social advisor.

The Service was instituted and regulated in 2009, as per the Brazilian Typification of Social Assistance Services, published on November 11, 2009 and reissued in 2014^1,2.

Currently in operation.

Social assistance support through a Service to Strengthen Community and Family Bonds.

N/A

According to CIT Resolution No. 01/2013 and CNAS Resolution No. 01/2013, children and/or adolescents and/or elderly people are considered a priority public for the SCFV service in the following situations: 

• In isolation; 

• Child labor; 

• Experience of violence and/or negligence; 

• Out of school or with a school gap of more than 2 (two) years; 

• In shelter; 

• In compliance with a socio-educational measure in an open environment;

• Graduates of socio-educational measures; 

• In situation of sexual abuse and/or exploitation; 

• In protection measures, as stipulated in the Statute for the Child and Adolescent (ECA, acronym in Portuguese); 

• Homeless children and adolescents; and

• Vulnerability that concerns people with disabilities.

In line with these guidelines, it is up to the social assistance teams to prioritize the participants according to case-by-case assessments and analyses.

Access to the service can occur by spontaneous demand (in which people declare themselves in a situation of eligibility and seek support from CRAS), or through active search/sample screening carried out by the social assistance teams. It can also occur from referral by other public policies or social assistance programs (including in the case of families that do not comply with conditionalities of PBF). Commonly, PAIF has a relevant role in referring people to SCFV.

The validation of eligibility for the service is based on the analysis of the social assistance teams, which is carried out in line with general guiding principles of the service. 

There is a systemic effort to register potential and existing beneficiaries of PAIF in the Single Registry (although Single Registry entry is not an obligatory requirement to access the service). As the Single Registry is only intended for the population with a Total Family Income of up to three minimum wages (which in 2024 was equivalent to R$ 4,236.00, with the minimum wage currently being R$ 1,412.00), this ends up being, in practice, an income cut that also affects the targeting of PAIF. 

As a rule, the population referred to SCFV by the PAIF must  be registered in the Single Registry. 

The Single Registry helps social assistance teams to identify a priority coverage group, whose characteristics give them eligibility to PBF and BPC. However, eligibility for the PAIF and SCFV is not restricted to people eligible for PBF and BPC, and social assistance teams are free to include other beneficiaries as appropriate. 

Rather than a measure to access PAIF SCFV, the registration of potential beneficiaries in the Single Registry is done to enable referral to other policies to which they are eligible. 

The information declared to the Single Registry is self-declaratory. The Single Registry makes annual cross-checks with other administrative records to validate the information provided. Cases of inconsistency pointed out by these checks, however, do not lead to interruptions in access to nationally typified SUAS services (although they may lead to such impediments for other programs that use the Single Registry and whose eligibility is defined by more parametric criteria of income and family composition, such as PBF and BPC). In this context, the link with PAIF and SCFV generates an opportunity to carry out registration updates of beneficiaries whose declared information may be questioned by cross-checks with other databases. 

• According to data from 2023 (September), the public served by SCFV amounts to approximately 2 million people.

• As a reference, it is worth noting that the Bolsa Família Program has a coverage of approximately 20 million families (or 53 million people benefited).

There is no exhaustive list of all the activities that can be performed as part of SCFV, and there is enough freedom for each CRAS to act according to their specific capacities and the peculiarity of the situations of vulnerability found in each territory. There are guidelines, however, for activities more appropriate to each age group, such as:

• Development of playful activities to promote cognitive development in children up to 6 years old, along with training for their families to incorporate these activities into their routines.

• Development of playful and cultural activities for children and adolescents aged 6 to 15 to develop their citizenship and opportunities for learning, leisure and sports. These activities should ensure the inclusion of children and adolescents with disabilities, and those removed from child labor or subjected to other violations. 

• Development of activities that enable young people aged 15 to 17 to exercise their citizenship, to acquire new knowledge and skills that can support their educational training and guide them in their professional trajectories. It should also have a thematic focus on topics relevant to this age group.

• Development of activities that train young people from 18 to 29 years old, encompassing the elements of the other age groups, but with a strong element of professional insertion and encouragement to participate in public life.

• Development of activities that train adults from 30 to 59 years old, encompassing the elements of the other age groups, but with a strong element of improvement of skills that contribute to professional progress and stimulate participation in public life.

Development of activities that support the elderly to identify and avoid situations of violation that afflict this age group, in addition to providing them with spaces for the expression of leisure, culture and autonomy³.

SCFV can be offered at CRAS, if it has compatible space for the activities and as long as SCFV activities do not interfere with those of PAIF. It can also be carried out in Social Centers – which are public units or units operated by associated partner Civil Society Organizations, duly registered with the Social Assistance Council of the municipality or the Federal District.

SUAS funding is shared by the three levels of government (Federal Government, states and municipalities). Resources are allocated in blocks and minimums, which have some flexibility to finance the various SUAS initiatives (see Policy Brief on SUAS financing). Although we did not find information on the total budget coming from each level of government, the table below illustrates the budget executions of the Federal Government for discretionary actions of the Secretariat of Social Assistance/Social Assistance Fund (SNAS/FNAS, acronyms in Portuguese) between 2002 and 2022 (in actual amounts corrected to December 31, 2022). These values encompass the entire universe of services, programs, costing of management activities and investment of SUAS, thus they do not refer only to the costs of SCFV.

Federal budget execution with discretionary actions of SNAS/FNAS between 2002 and 2022 (in real values adjusted for December 31, 2022) 

No robust and nationwide studies on the specific impacts of SCFV  were not identified. Opinion research conducted with beneficiaries of comprehensive women's health care, offered as part of SCFV in Santa Cruz - RN, however, indicates desirable habit changes

There are specific guidelines for activities aimed at children and adolescents disaggregated into three specific age groups, each with appropriate content, and capable of fostering interaction between children and adolescents of the same age group. It is worth noting that there is a specific prioritization for the inclusion of children and adolescents in situations of child labor.

Below is the prevalence of activities for each of these age groups for the month of August 2023 (according to the SUAS CRAS Census):

• 43% of CRAS carried out activities aimed at children up to 6 years of age;

• 72% of the CRAS carried out activities aimed at children and adolescents aged between 6 and 14 years old;

• 64% of the CRAS carried out activities aimed at adolescents and young people aged between 15 and 17 years old.
   

In addition to SUAS´ general orientation to empower girls and women through its different services (including SCFV), there is no specific focus of SCFV on this audience. However, data indicate that the most attended public of the service throughout the country are elderly women (SISC/MDS).

Guidelines and referrals to other networks such as education, health and Specialized Social Protection. In addition, SCFV is an initiative that prioritizes the care of children and adolescents attended to by the Child Labor Eradication Program (PETI, acronym in Portuguese) and the Protection and Specialized Care Service for Families and Individuals (PAEFI, acronym in Portuguese) in situations of slave labor and other violations.

The specific adaptations of SCFV varied greatly in each context, given the flexibility of state and municipal teams to adapt according to the specific needs of each context. However, there was a set of structured actions with an effect on SUAS in general, such as the following:

• Although SUAS was not directly involved in the Emergency Aid benefit, several municipal teams developed voluntary joint efforts to support families to apply for the benefit. 

• The Federal Government maintained the IGD-Aid payments even with the temporary suspension of SUAS responsibilities in support of the program (and the PBF program itself) in 2020 and much of 2021.

• The Federal Government generated instructional material with service protocols considering the challenge of avoiding agglomeration.

• Through Ordinance MC No. 369, of April 29, 2020, the Federal Government distributed R$ 2.4 billion to SUAS as extraordinary credit distributed as follows among the municipalities with the highest prevalence of elderly, PwD, migrants and homeless people:

  • R$ 9.1 million was transferred to the interiorization of Venezuelan migrants and refugees;

  • R$ 158.1 million were allocated to the purchase of PPE for SUAS professionals working on the front line, serving, for example, sheltered elderly, homeless people and victims of rights violations;

  • R$ 185.6 million were transferred to the purchase of food for the elderly and people with disabilities served in the SUAS network;

  • R$ 577.7 million for the co-financing of social assistance actions, according to the needs of each location considering the pandemic.

• Through Ordinances MC No. 378, of May 7, 2020, and MC No. 468, of August 13, 2020, R$ 1.5 billion were transferred to: (a) the reorganization of activities in SUAS units; (b) the purchase of other items necessary to deal with the emergency; or (c) the expansion of social assistance offers during the pandemic. Of these:

  • R$1 billion was specifically intended to reinforce basic social protection activities;

  • R$ 437.2 million were specifically intended to reinforce Specialized Social Protection activities^7,8,9.

Além do repasse de recursos, foram lançadas, pelo MDS, diversas notas técnicas orientadoras sobre o trabalho no contexto da pandemia.

1. GoB, Min. Desenvolvimento Social. 2009. Tipificação Nacional de Serviços Socioassistenciais - Texto da RESOLUÇÃO No. 109, DE 11 DE NOVEMBRO DE  2009”. https://www.prattein.com.br/home/images/stories/PDFs/Tipificacao_AS.pdf.

2. GoB, Min. Desenvolvimento Social. 2014. Tipificação Nacional de Serviços Socioassistenciais. https://central.to.gov.br/download/231761.

3. GoB, Min. Desenvolvimento Social. 2014. “Tipificação Nacional de Serviços Socioassistenciais”. https://central.to.gov.br/download/231761

4. GoB, Min. Desenvolvimento Social. 2023. “Relatório de Informações. R.I v4. Valores repassados pelo Fundo Municipal/ Estadual de Assistência Social. Valores consolidados para dezembro de 2022.” https://aplicacoes.mds.gov.br/sagi/ri/relatorios/cidadania/#metasepagamentossnas.

5. Bonorino, Rodogério Cattelan. 2015. “Estudo sobre a satisfação dos usuários do Serviço de Convivência e Fortalecimento de Vínculos (SCFV) do Centro de Referência de Assistência Social (CRAS) de Sobradinho – RS”. https://repositorio.ufsm.br/bitstream/handle/1/14808/TCCE_GPM_EaD_2015_BONORINO_RODOGERIO.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.

6. Araujo, Deysi Vieira de. 2016. “Avaliação do impacto do projeto de extensão atenção integral à saúde da mulher”. https://periodicos.ufrn.br/extensaoesociedade/article/view/11597/8173.

7. GoB, Min. Cidadania. 2022. Atuação da Proteção Social Especial do SUAS durante a pandemia da COVID-19”. https://aplicacoes.mds.gov.br/sagi/pesquisas/documentos/relatorio/relatorio_226.pdf

8. GoB, IPEA. 2022. “Boletim de Políticas Sociais -  acompanhamento e análise N. 29, 2022.” https://portalantigo.ipea.gov.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=39098&Itemid=9.

9. IPEA. 2021. Boletim de Políticas Sociais: Acompanhamento e análise. Assistência Social, Políticas Sociais: acompanhamento e análise, 27. http://dx.doi.org/10.38116/bps28/assistenciasocial.