‘Social Work’ has become more widely accepted in the Chinese Mainland since 2006 when the government decided that the social work profession could become the key solution to meeting rising needs of social development. Subsequently Shenzhen was selected as one of the cities for developing a local social work system. This paper reviews and assesses the Shenzhen experience. It finds that despite government efforts to introduce a national examination for accrediting social work as a profession, the social work system developed by Shenzhen proved to be somewhat ineffective as the general public remains uninformed and ignorant about the services and the functions of social work in general.

Mode of access: Internet.