**3.2 Obstacles to the spread of private practice agencies in Oman**

According to Saleh [37], the majority of social workers and recent graduates included in the study do not consider establishing private agencies in the future due to the many obstacles that prevent them, including a lack of professional skills required for private practice, the high financial cost of establishing private agencies, and bureaucratic procedures, in addition to Society's cultural norms. The study identified a number of obstacles to the establishment of private practice social work agencies in Oman, some of which are connected to the profession itself and others to the practitioners themselves. There are further challenges linked to social work education institutions, societal awareness of the profession, regulations governing private practice, and finance [37].
