Standards for main social workers in Vietnam

Standards for main social workers in Vietnam (Internet image)

Regarding this issue, LawNet would like to answer as follows:

1. Standards for main social workers in Vietnam

1.1. General standards of professional ethics

The main social worker must meet the general standards of professional ethics for public employees specializing in social work specified in Article 3 of Circular 26/2022/TT-BLDTBXH, specifically as follows:

- Having good political and moral qualities; abide by the guidelines and policies of the Party and the laws of the State.

- Set the interests of the subject as the most important goal in professional activities; consciously protect the long-term and continuous interests of the subject; respect the subject's privacy, self-determination, and privacy rights; encourage and support the target audience to achieve appropriate goals.

- Do not take advantage of professional relationships for personal gain to affect the work of assisting the subject.

- Respect, openness, solidarity, empathy, and sharing with colleagues in professional activities.

- To properly and fully fulfill the obligations of public employees in professional activities.

- Regularly study to improve the professional level of social work.

1.2. Standards of training and retraining in Vietnam

According to Clause 2, Article 4 of Circular 26/2022/TT-BLDTBXH, the standards for training and retraining of key social workers are as follows:

- Having graduated from university or higher in social work, sociology, psychology, special education, or social science majors suitable to social work tasks.

If you have a university degree in another major, you must have a certificate or certificate of professional training and retraining in social work, granted by a training institution or a competent agency or organization under the program issued by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs, or possess a college or intermediate diploma or a primary certificate in social work;

- Possessing a certificate of training in standards for professional titles of social workers specialized in social work.

1.3. Standards of professional competence in Vietnam

Specifically, in Clause 3, Article 4 of Circular 26/2022/TT-BLDTBXH, stipulating the standards of professional competence of key social workers as follows:

- Capable of leading, organizing, directing, and implementing professional social work activities;

- Ability to organize and coordinate effectively with relevant agencies, units, and individuals in the process of performing social work tasks;

- Capable of analyzing, synthesizing, and generalizing activities related to the professional profession to propose solutions to improve the efficiency of implementing social work activities;

- Ability to guide professional social work in accordance with the specialized training;

- Having basic information technology skills, using foreign languages or ethnic minority languages for officials working in ethnic minority areas according to job position requirements.

3. Duties of the main social workers in Vietnam

The main social workers are responsible for performing the following tasks:

- Assume the prime responsibility for organizing, directing, and performing social work professions with complex requirements in theory, methods, and practical skills;

- Organize the screening, classification, and reception of subjects;

- Preside over the assessment of the subject's psychophysiology, health status, personal identity, and needs for using social work services;

- Preside over the development and implementation of support plans for the subjects;

- Preside over the provision of social work services with complex requirements in terms of theory, methods, and practical skills of social work, including: counseling, consultation, therapy, rehabilitation, education, negotiation, mediation, advocacy, and propaganda;

- Lead the monitoring and review of intervention activities; adjust the help plan if necessary;

- Preside over the data collection, synthesis, analysis, and forecast of the object's progress;

- Organize support for subjects to integrate into the community;

- Assume the prime responsibility for summarizing, evaluating, and drawing experiences from professional social work activities; propose amendments and supplements to standards and professional processes of social work;

- Lead or participate in research projects, scientific topics on social work;

- Preside over or participate in compiling content, programs, textbooks, and documents on social work and training and guiding social work skills for social workers and collaborators;

- Advise on the development of short-term and long-term strategies, plans, programs, schemes, and plans for organizing the development of social work services.

(Clause 1, Article 4 of Circular 26/2022/TT-BLDTBXH)

Nguyen Thi Hoai Thuong

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