Open letter to the Ministry of Labour: inspections should focus on people, not paperwork
On Wednesday, 23 July 2026, the Employers' Association of Private Social Services Providers (PFPSS) submitted an open letter to Mr. Dragoș-Nicolae Pîslaru, Minister of Labour, Family, Youth and Social Solidarity, calling for the continued simplification of licensing procedures and for redirecting the inspection system towards the effective protection of beneficiaries.
The initiative follows the letter addressed to the Romanian Government by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Michael O'Flaherty — a document that brings back into focus the need for a profound reform of Romania's social care system. The Commissioner notes a persistent shortage of care services precisely as the population ages and needs grow: real demand exceeds the current capacity of the public system, and expanding that capacity is not possible without encouraging and supporting licensed private providers.
PFPSS considers these conclusions confirm that the system's problems are not caused by procedures being insufficiently bureaucratic, but by the authorities' inability to identify and stop, in time, activities operating entirely outside the legal framework. Recent years have shown licensed providers subjected to a very high number of inspections and documentary obligations, while numerous illegal facilities operated for years without being shut down.
Excessive bureaucracy drains financial and human resources that should go towards service quality, hiring and training staff, investment in care, and developing new places for vulnerable people. As the Commissioner also recommends, inspections should primarily verify respect for beneficiaries' rights and well-being — not merely formal compliance.
In the letter, PFPSS asks the Ministry of Labour to: (1) continue simplifying licensing and re-licensing procedures; (2) remove administrative requirements that do not genuinely improve service quality; (3) clearly distinguish licensed providers from illegal operators; (4) refocus inspections on the actual quality of services and respect for beneficiaries' rights; (5) open public funding mechanisms — subsidies, reimbursements, European funds — to all licensed providers regardless of legal form; (6) establish a permanent working group with representatives of private providers.
A central point of the letter is legal-form neutrality: access to public funding should depend on holding an operating licence and on service quality, not on the provider's form of organisation. Restricting these mechanisms to associations and foundations leaves the investment capacity of licensed companies untapped — and a working model already exists in healthcare, where private providers of any legal form contract services with the health insurance funds.
The full document, registered with the Ministry under no. 61/23.07.2026, can be downloaded below (in Romanian). The action continues PFPSS's efforts for a fair licensing framework — including the petition to remove the ISU fire-safety permit from the mandatory licensing documents, open for signatures at pfpss.ro/petitii.
