How to establish a local social work department? Scholar analysis: The person in charge may consider having a member of the Party Committee Standing Committee serve as a social worker | scholar
The newly established Central Department of Social Work has two department leaders, Minister Wu Hansheng and Deputy Minister Liu Zheng, making appearances.
As a functional department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Central Department of Social Work is responsible for coordinating and guiding people's petition work, guiding people's proposal collection work, coordinating and promoting party building to lead grassroots governance and political power construction, leading the party work of national industry associations and chambers of commerce, coordinating and promoting deepening reform and transformation development of industry associations and chambers of commerce, guiding party building work for mixed ownership enterprises, non-public enterprises, new economic organizations, new social organizations, and new employment groups, guiding the construction of social work talent teams, and leading the National Bureau of Letters and Visits.
The first minister, Wu Hansheng, was born in April 1963. Prior to that, he served as the deputy secretary in charge of daily work in the Central and State Organ Working Committees. Vice minister Liu Zheng was born in August 1966 and previously served as the deputy minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Pengpai News has noticed that recently, an article titled "Administrative Management Reform" hosted by the Central Party School has outlined the theoretical logic and key tasks of the new round of local institutional reform. It is mentioned that the establishment of local social work departments should mainly refer to the organizational structure and functional allocation of the Central Social Work Department. The main responsible persons of local party committees and social work departments may consider being appointed by local party committee members, and the status and influence of social work in local governance can be enhanced through the high ranking of leading cadres.
"The establishment of the Central Department of Social Work signifies that the Party's social work has become a stable and relatively independent function, and is a major measure to improve the functional system of the Party's social work institutions." Zhang Ke, Associate Professor of the Public Management Teaching and Research Department of the Central Party School, and Liu Xinyue, a graduate student of the Central Party School, stated in the article that the construction of the Party's social work functional system is related to the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, as well as the overall promotion of Party building leading grassroots governance and political power construction. Therefore, it is required to establish a unified Party committee social work department from the central to the county levels. As a regulatory action in the current round of local institutional reform, the establishment of local social work departments should mainly refer to the organizational structure and functional allocation of the central social work department, while fully considering the operational experience of some local party committees in establishing social work committees. On the premise of ensuring the smooth connection and effective implementation of the party's social work structure, the provincial, municipal, and county party committees should coordinate the establishment of social work departments.
The article points out that local party committees and social work departments should have basic correspondence with the central social work department in terms of organizational structure and functional allocation.
Among them, in terms of institutional nature and specifications, local social work departments should be uniformly set up as local party committee functional departments corresponding to the central party committee. Local social work committees that have previously been set up as party committee dispatched agencies or department listed institutions should optimize their institutional settings and maintain consistency with the central social work department.
In terms of functional allocation, local party committees and social work departments should clearly define their basic functions and strictly correspond with the central social work department, mainly including coordinating and guiding the work of petitions and soliciting people's suggestions, guiding grassroots governance and political power construction with party building, and social party building in the three major aspects. They should be correspondingly assigned to the "Two New" work committees, civil affairs departments to guide grassroots political power construction, formulate social work policies, and guide the construction of social worker teams. Before the current round of institutional reform, provinces and cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Chengdu, and Kunming that had already established local social work committees can, based on a comprehensive evaluation of the operational effectiveness of the current institutions, have the newly established social work department assume the responsibilities of the party committee's social construction decision-making, deliberation, and coordination agency. In addition to its basic functions, it can add local characteristic functions such as overall social construction planning, overall coordination, supervision and implementation, or overall coordination of community governance personnel, financial resources, etc.
In terms of institutional mechanisms, local social work departments should strengthen the overall coordination of petition work and provide centralized leadership to local petition departments. For some innovative social conflict and dispute resolution centers established in certain regions, according to the spirit of this round of institutional reform, the guidance of the local party committee and social work department can be clearly defined based on the principle of one category of matters being coordinated by one department and one matter being responsible by one department. Under the constraints of institutional quotas, counties, urban areas, especially small counties, can increase the overall coordination of party and government institutions, explore the joint office or merger of county-level party committees and social work departments with petition and civil affairs departments, integrate and optimize county-level social work institutions and resources, and build a large-scale social work department system.
The article analyzes that local party committees and social work departments should pay attention to clarifying their responsibilities with other party and government departments when formulating the "Three Determinations" regulations. For a long time, the problem of overlapping responsibilities of party and government institutions in the field of social work has been prominent. Local level organizations, political and legal departments, civil affairs and other departments have closely related responsibilities in leading grassroots governance, grassroots political power construction, and municipal social governance, which can easily lead to the phenomenon of multiple management and power responsibility disconnection. The social work departments at all levels shall formulate the "Three Determinations" regulations, which shall focus on clarifying the boundaries of responsibilities and work connections with organizational departments in grassroots party building, the boundaries of responsibilities with political and legal committees in grassroots social governance and conflict resolution, and the boundaries of responsibilities with civil affairs departments in guiding social organizations and public welfare forces to participate in grassroots governance. The newly established Party Committee's Social Work Department should further transform its functions, accurately grasp the work objects and methods led by Party building, fully support administrative organs, market entities, social organizations, volunteers and other entities to perform their functions in accordance with the law, play a key role in grassroots governance by taking over the entire bureau rather than everything, coordinating all parties rather than replacing all parties, and promote the formation of a unified leadership, reasonable division of labor, clear responsibilities, and coordinated operation of the grassroots governance system.
According to the Party and State Institutional Reform Plan, the Central Department of Social Work has been assigned to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to guide the construction of urban and rural community governance systems and governance capabilities, formulate social work policies, and coordinate the promotion of Party building leading grassroots governance and grassroots political power construction. The party building responsibilities of national industry associations and chambers of commerce, which are under the jurisdiction of the Central and State Organ Work Committees and the Party Committee of the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and the overall planning, coordination, guidance, supervision and inspection of national volunteer service work, which are under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Central Guidance Committee for Spiritual Civilization Construction. Provincial, municipal, and county-level party committees shall establish social work departments and assign corresponding responsibilities to the "Two New" work committees of the same level party committee organization departments.
In terms of personnel allocation, the aforementioned article indicates that the focus and foundation of the Party's social work are at the grassroots level, and local Party committees and social work departments need to strengthen the overall coordination and supervision of local work in this field. As a newly established functional department of the Party Committee, the main person in charge of the Social Work Department of the local Party Committee may consider being appointed as a member of the Standing Committee of the Local Party Committee, in order to enhance the status and influence of social work in local governance through high-level leadership. Considering the position limit of 9-11 local party committee members, the main person in charge of the social work department of the local party committee can also be concurrently held by the same level party committee members.
