The Autonomy Statutes, the Constitution itself and the various processes of the transfer of powers brought to bear during the 1980s have moved the centre of gravity of the social services to the autonomous governments, and thus producing in administrative practice that which the principles of social policy have always recommeded: in short, a greater rapprochement of these decisions to those affected.

From 1985 onwards, with the development of the Law for the Basis of Local Government passed April 2, 1985, and the Social Services Law approved by several Autonomous Communities, the legal framework of social intervention has been orientated towards a curtailing of charity in favour of the application of constitutional rights for those segments of the population living on society's fringes.

The establishment in 1990, of the Sectorial Conference of Social Affairs in which the Ministry of Foreing Affairs and 17 Social Affairs Councils from the Autonomous Communities participated, created the framework for the shared planning of networks of welfare services.

From the middle of the 1980s, the local cooperation and the city councils began to develop a network of social services for relief in urgent situations and the preparation of an integrated system of information.