Executive Summary

In this book the authors describe and document a two-year project on social work supervision conducted in Jinan，the provincial capital of Shandong，China where social work has just developed into a profession. Young social workers in Jinan are in need of guidance，advice and support from experienced social workers to apply social work knowledge and skills in their daily practice. However，there is a severe shortage of experienced social work supervisors there. In view of this，an attempt was made to draw professional expertise from Hong Kong，which has become possible with advancement in information technology in the past two decades. This project aimed to enhance the service quality of social work in Jinan through cross-border professional supervision from Hong Kong.

This project was carried out collaboratively by the Jiai Social Work Service Center in Jinan and the Family and Group Practice Research Center，Department of Social Work of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. From August 2010 to August 2012，two experienced Hong Kong social work supervisors，who have extensive working experiences in rehabilitation and community services，provided professional supervision through on-site supervision and video conferencing to social workers working in a rehabilitation center for mentally challenged adults and a community-based youth center respectively. They coached the supervisees at service，organizational and community levels.

The objectives of the project were threefold：（a）to help the supervisees critically examine their social work values and foster their professional identity；（b）to enhance their self-efficacy in planning and implementing social services；and（c）to facilitate the development of a socially relevant and culturally applicable social work intervention approach. The efficacy of professional supervision was assessed using the combination of a survey and in-depth interviews；feedback from the supervisees and the service users were gathered. The results of the evaluation study have indicated positive effects of professional supervision on agency staff’s professional competence and agency development. More importantly，the service users witnessed the positive changes in agency administration，work culture and an improvement in the quality of service provided.

It is our hope that by sharing our experience in Jinan，we can help to promote professional supervision in social work in the Mainland. In addition，this book can inspire agency supervisors to realize fully social worker’s potentials and to establish a systematic administrative and supervisory model in the organization，which in turn would eventually benefit the service users through provision of high quality services.