China's urban and rural communities are being urged to significantly expand community-based social services and the number of trained social workers available to meet the needs of residents for elder care, healthcare and other essential services.
By 2020, each urban community should have at least 10 nongovernment organizations, and each rural community should have at least five, Li Liguo, China's civil affairs minister, said on Thursday at a community social work conference in Chongqing.
Li urged communities and social work professionals to work together to better govern communities and provide necessary social services.
"By 2020, most communities in urban and rural regions should establish social service systems that are capable of promptly responding to residents' needs," Li said.
Thursday's conference, which attracted about 150 civil affairs officials from the ministry and provinces, sought to set goals for improving both the quality and quantity of China's social services and the training for those who do such work.
China has 208,000 certified social workers, and two thirds work in communities, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said. Provincial and city level civil affairs bureaus are also working to train professional social workers.
Chongqing trains about 10,000 social workers each year, aiming to provide professional social service to residents, said Liu Tao, head of the city's Civil Affairs Bureau.
Beijing has 29,702 social workers, and 20,000 of them are certified professionals.
