HUP representatives told the minister that the members of the association’s Social Care Coordination were private welfare institutions, providing different services for over 5,000 users (including the elderly and the disabled, adults with mental illnesses, and children with behavioral problems or physical disabilities) and employing over 2,000 people. They highlighted the private institutions’ considerable strength seeing as in these times of economic crisis they could make an excellent contribution to the welfare of the entire system.
Furthermore, HUP representatives spoke about the issues that were crucial for what the employers were doing in the field of social care, and suggested introducing vouchers in the system to enable the users to choose institutions. They also suggested using quality control systems and standardizing the institutions as well as cooperation between the private and public sectors to rationalize the costs, and increasing the level of services for welfare users.
Finally, HUP representatives and minister Juretić said they wanted to have a better-quality cooperation, that is, to strengthen the dialogue between the social partners and support each other’s initiatives.