Foltra runs the Early Intervention services in Ames and Teo

The councils of Ames and Teo have shared an Early Intervention Service (Servizo de Atención Temperá, SAT) since 2021, based in As Galanas.

The programme will continue until October 2026 under a new contract worth €367,530 awarded to Fundación Foltra, whose healthcare centre, based in Teo, is a national and international reference in the recovery of patients with brain damage. The foundation, which already ran the service, will strengthen it, since both councils now have a larger budget — €440,000, granted by the Galician Department of Social Policy and Equality.

Three organisations took part in the public tender, and Fundación Foltra scored highest on technical criteria. The successful bidder also offers improvements on the original service, including setting up a working group with the families who use the SAT and an occasional childcare service for those families.

The Teo and Ames SAT currently has capacity to provide comprehensive care to around 80 children under six, fewer than the waiting list this service usually has. It is designed for children under 6 with developmental difficulties, referred by their paediatricians. As the tender documents put it, the SAT offers «psychosocial intervention to support the acquisition or recovery of personal and social functions and skills, in order to improve independence, family life and social inclusion». To that end, the SAT will diagnose child development disorders and run psychomotor and cognitive stimulation activities, aimed at improving language and communication and at increasing children's independence and their social and emotional development. All of this must be coordinated with the social services departments of Teo and Ames.

The new contract, which comes into force on 5 March, provides for more staff: two psychologists, two speech therapists and an occupational therapist.

Alongside the award, Teo council has opened a public consultation, running from last Tuesday until 25 March, on the terms under which the service is provided. This follows directly from the agreement between Ames and Teo to share the SAT, one clause of which requires this catalogue of services to be approved on the proposal of a joint committee overseeing the inter-council agreement.