Association of Social Work Centres of Slovenia
was founded at the end of 1996 based on art. 52 of the Law on Institutions (Official gazette no. 12/91 and 8/96) by a decision of the Assembly of the Associations of Social Work Centres (SWC) of Slovenia. Members of the Association of SWC are all Social Work Centres, operating in the Republic of Slovenia.

THE ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORK CENTRES OF SLOVENIA

• takes care of simultaneous definition and verification of findings, standpoints and requests received by the SWC from local, regional or state level;
• organises various forms of meetings and trainings, exchange of experience and learning in regard to the professional implementation of various activities by the Centres;
• coordinates the work of joint projects and organises expert lectures;
• participates in enforcing common interests of its members in the field of upcoming legislation, implementation of regulations and other stipulations concerning the implementation of programmes, standards and prices of services linked to staffing and standardisation activity, etc.
• proposes various programmes of social care and takes part in the preparation of concepts for preparing social care programmes;
• represents its members at national government and relevant ministries when dealing with providing a material base for the work of its members, and preparing guidelines for financing the activities of its members;
• plays an active role and represents its members in permanent expert ministerial bodies and the chamber for social affairs, co-operates with members of parliament, as well as other professional associations and with municipalities;
• participates in the preparations and implementation of collective agreements, representing the interests of its members;
• supports its members in implementing common interests, for achieving more appropriate and high-quality solutions in the fields of business organisation, division of labour, development of information systems and development of SWC by the analytical processing of data, preparation of development and other concepts, assessments, professional guidelines and estimates;
  
• co-operates with faculties and colleges which train experts for various professional fields of the Centres, helps in the development of employees and takes part in educational programmes abroad;
• takes care of uniform calculation of prices of social care services, gives initiatives and takes part in defining and changing standards and norms of social care services;
• offers expert and organisational assistance to the member Centres;
• raises the awareness of the public by publishing articles in specialised periodicals and publishes a magazine that provides information to its members.

Published by: Association of SWC, November 2001