Analysis Of Local Government’s Double Attitudes Towards Social Workers Institution

Government purchase of services becomes an international trend, which promotes the transformation of government functions and innovation of social governance system in China. On one hand, the support including funding, venues and manpower, provided by the Government, has become the main driving force for the development of social institutions; on the other hand, social workers agencies and their practices have been questioned and denied, which can be said that the Government holds the double attitudes of support and deny toward social workers institutions.Dual attitude of government caused the author’s thinking. The relationship between government and social agencies can’t be explained only by principal-agent theory. To some extent, social workers institutions play the role of housekeeper. Government puts trust on social agencies and is convinced that the two sides have common interests and goals. However, the government, as a sponsor, doesn’t give the full right to develop institutions, and used to give administrative intervention to social workers organization. Social work agency is regarded as a "buddy" rather than "partner".This data is collected from the author’s personal practice in social workers agencies. Through four months of participant observation and interviews to collect a large number of reliable first-hand materials, the author tries to explore the reasons of dual attitudes from the government about social workers organizations. The study finds that the reasons of supportive attitude are:social workers meet the operational needs in the process of transferring functions of government; university teachers lead the social institutions with strong professional strength; government procurement of services lacks the optional object, as social workers institutional development is short and does not appear strong competitors. Causes of the government to hold a negative attitude are:low social recognition of social workers and lack of government social awareness; inadequate assessment and monitoring mechanisms from independent third party. According to the analysis above, the author concluded that:regarding social service organizations as a "buddy" is the main reason government holds double attitudes to social work agencies. That means the government not only supports and protects the social institutions, as social workers agencies are unable to be replaced by another institution temporarily, but also limits social institutions under its control.The author believes that the "buddy" role is not conducive to transform the government’s functions and the development of social organizations, therefore the government must take actions to promote the transformation of "buddy" relationship to "partner" relationships. Specific strategies should focus on the following areas strengthening government purchasing to meet the diverse needs of the people; accelerate the transformation of government functions and clear job responsibilities of both parties; social institutions must change the ideas of development, and continuously expand funding sources to ensure their independence; improve the management mechanism of social institutions and improve competitiveness,in order to have more say in government procurement services; improve monitoring and evaluation mechanisms independent third party, in order to reduce the government’s excessive administrative intervention to social institutions.