Social work professionalization in China: the case of Shenzhen

External supervision for social workers in another socio-political context: a qualitative study in Shenzhen, China

“…However, in its adjacent city Shenzhen, social work was only introduced after 2007. The social workers' provisions, salary scale and related supervision system were not clearly stated until the '1 + 7 policy documents' was published (Chan, Ip and Lau 2009;Ministry of Civil Affairs 2008). As part of the measure for fast-tracking the development of social work, the Shenzhen government decided to employ a 'purchase scheme' for employing social work positions; also, a competitive bidding system was also introduced to assist the development of local supervisors by implementing an 'external supervision scheme' (Leung and Mo 2011;Ng 2013;Wang and Jiang 2013).…”

The achievement and predicament of 30-year social work development in Chinese mainland

“…It has caused doubt about the quality of social work services. Actually, nowadays those poortrained but "qualified" to claim themselves "social workers" have now already occupied many social work positions, causing less position for those fewer but better trained social work graduates (Chan, Ip, and Lau 2009). In the result, poor-trained social workers cause the government officials and community (particularly those at the regional level and below) in turn to query the usefulness and effectiveness of government purchased social work services.…”