China had more than 1,000 private social work institutions as of November, up from the 600-plus reported in May, according to the China Association of Social Workers.
According to a statement released Thursday by the association, privately owned organizations providing social work services account for a small proportion of social work service providers and large gaps exist in terms of the quality and development potential of such institutions in different regions and industries.
The increase of private social work groups came after authorities revealed an ambitious plan in May to set up 300 social worker training centers in order to train 1.45 million social workers by 2020. ‘ Fifty state-level training centers will be devoted to cultivating 80,000 private social work institutions by 2020.
Lu Shizhen, a senior official with the association, urged private social work institutions to exert more efforts to provide more professional services for special social groups and improve their credibility among the public.
According to the statement, the association has trained more than 7,000 social workers since 2010.
Xinhua