Regulations on conditions for practicing social work in Vietnam from October 15, 2024

Regulations on conditions for practicing social work in Vietnam from October 15, 2024 (Image from the Internet)

On August 30, 2024, the Government of Vietnam issued Decree 110/2024/ND-CP on social work.

Who are Social Workers from October 15, 2024?

According to Article 7 of Decree 110/2024/ND-CP, social workers include:

- Civil servants, public employees, and workers engaging in social work in government agencies and public service providers.

- Social workers in units and establishments providing social work services in fields such as social affairs, health, education, justice, detention facilities, reformatory schools, and other fields as prescribed by law.

- Social workers in political-social organizations, professional social organizations, non-governmental organizations, associations, businesses, and other organizations as prescribed by law.

- Independent social workers.

Regulations on conditions for practicing social work in Vietnam from October 15, 2024

Specifically, Vietnamese citizens permanently residing in Vietnam, foreigners, and overseas Vietnamese complying with the Constitution and laws of Vietnam, possessing good ethics, and meeting the conditions prescribed in Article 31 of Decree 110/2024/ND-CP are permitted to practice social work, detailed as follows:

- Graduated from intermediate, college, university, or postgraduate programs in social work, sociology, psychology, special education, or other social sciences as stipulated by law.

- Ensuring health to engage in social work.

- Not falling under the following cases and others as prescribed by law regarding administrative violations:

+ Persons convicted without rehabilitation of criminal records.+ Under administrative measures to be sent to mandatory education institutions, compulsory rehabilitation centers, reformatory schools, or education at commune, ward, or commune-level town.+ Currently under criminal investigation.+ Loss of civil capacity, difficulties in cognition and behavior control, or limited behavioral capacity as prescribed by law.

- Possessing a valid certificate of social work practice registration issued by competent state agencies.

Rights of Social Work Practitioners in Vietnam

From October 15, 2024, social work practitioners will enjoy the rights specified from Articles 21 to 25 of Decree 110/2024/ND-CP. To be specific:

(1) Rights to practice social work:

- Practice social work according to the certificate of practice registration.

- Decide on prevention, intervention, therapy, protection, care, rehabilitation, development support, counseling, assistance, and social work methods according to the certificate of social work practice registration.

- Establish agreements to provide social work services with organizations or individuals in need as prescribed by law.

- Independent social work practitioners are entitled to remuneration as per contractual agreements. Compensation is agreed upon based on service content, the nature of social work, time and efforts of the practitioner, experience and reputation, travel, accommodation costs, and other reasonable expenses for service provision.

- Social work practitioners working at facilities offering social work services are entitled to salary policies, allowances, remuneration, bonuses, increased income (if any) per legal regulations.

- Practice at one or multiple facilities offering social work services or independently.- Participate in professional social organizations.

(2) Rights to refuse to provide social work services:

Social work practitioners can refuse to provide services in the following cases:

- Beyond the scope of the practice registration certificate or contrary to it.- Providing services is against legal regulations or social work ethics.- The client or their relatives engage in behavior that harms the body, health, life, honor, or dignity of the social work practitioner.- Other cases as prescribed by law.

(3) Rights to enhance professional social work capacity:

- Right to training and retraining to develop professional capacity and update social work knowledge in accordance with practice content.- Participate in professional training and knowledge exchange on social work law.

(4) Rights to safety assurance while practicing social work:

- Protection of health, life, honor, and body.- In cases where life, health, honor, or dignity of the practitioner is threatened, they may leave their workplace and service-providing facility temporarily; the local government where the incident occurs should take measures to protect social work practitioners.

(5) Rights to implement social work intervention measures:

Taking lead or cooperating with police or related agencies to use social work measures for prevention, intervention, therapy, protection, care, rehabilitation, development support, counseling, assistance to protect the rights and legal interests of victims of violence, abuse, maltreatment causing physical or mental harm, and other subjects as prescribed by law.

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