Support in Spain: The Essential Help and Advice Website for British Expats

Support in Spain ideal for Expats

One of the most difficult things for foreigners moving to Spain is actually knowing who to contact when you need advice, help or even someone to talk to.

In 2017, when the British Embassy in Madrid had money to spend on Brits who were living in or moving to Spain, it partnered with the University of Birmingham after that organisation had undertaken research on British nationals over 50 living in Spain.

One area that was clearly a problem according to the research was the need for better information within the community on support available to help foreign nationals living in Spain.

This was considered to be even more important as individuals get older and discover that they need assistance but don´t know how to go about obtaining it.

If people are able to discover where to go to obtain such advice and assistance, so they become less vulnerable or don´t become lonely or feel excluded and without this access to support it could, in the long run, mean that they have to look to the Spanish authorities for assistance, especially if they have no family to turn to.

Thus, it was agreed that a special website, Support in Spain should be created and this major undertaking was started under the guidance of the University of Birmingham and the British Embassy following the creation of the Support in Spain charitable association. Initially, it was intended to concentrate on the Costa del Sol and therefor the then British Consul in Malaga, Charmaine Arbouin took a particular interest in the development of the website and indeed she remains as President of the association to this day.

In the end, it was believed that the entire population of British expats resident in Spain would benefit from this opportunity and the horizons were extended (with the ensuing increase in cost and work in creation) to cover the whole of Spain, although the roll-out was staggered so that Costa del Sol went live in 2017 and the rest of Spain had to wait until 2021, partly due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

The best support network often begins with knowing where to look.

The concept is simple, whilst the preparation of the information was complicated and the site is updated on a regular basis to ensure that the information is as accurate as possible. Designed from scratch with a view to making it as easy as possible to use, the concept is to list contact details of important or simply useful organisations in individual towns or cities and in today´s world it had to be versatile to be ideal for mobile phone use.

If for example you ask for information about Marbella, the site will present you with three pages of contacts including the Council, the Police, Social Security, Churches, Health Centres numerous charities such as Age Concern, British Benevolent Fund, Samaritans and many more.

There are also links to organisations such as University of the Third Age (U3A), Diabetes Group and Rotary. What is perhaps unexpected and indeed may be very useful are a number of UK based organisations including UK Department of Health, the Foreign Office and even some UK Airports.

Thankfully, much of the cost of set up was assisted by funds from the British Embassy and University of Birmingham but thanks to cut backs and the need to concentrate on the ever-growing problems of dealing with individual Brits in trouble in Spain, the British Embassy has withdrawn its financial support.

This means that as a charity, Support in Spain has had to look elsewhere for finance so that it is able to continue to pay for the platform to host the entire site as well as pay for the ongoing updating of the site on a regular basis. Since becoming a Spain wide operation, the University of Valencia is now a collaborator on student placement assistance which eases the burden slightly.

One possibility is to look to businesses for some form of paid advertising or sponsorship but for an organisation with no full-time staff, canvassing potential supporters will be a complicated and time-consuming operation. Following the 2021 expansion of the site British Consul General for the Balearics Lloyd Milen said: “There is some incredible work carried out by so many volunteers across the islands to support foreign residents who are in need. This website will be a valuable tool to support voluntary groups in their work and for residents as well.

“It is always useful to plan ahead for the future. Many of us see our or our friends’ personal circumstances change and this website is a really good way to check up on the help that’s available.” In order to maximise the potential of the site, it needs wide spread ongoing publicity to be able to demonstrate how important it can be for users and there is an added bonus that there are options to view the contents in either English or Spanish. The website address is https://www.supportinspain.info/

and thanks must be given to Neil Hesketh, President of the Costa Press Club for all of the time that he has devoted to the project, not only to get it off the ground but also to ensure that it is still running efficiently.