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The boundaries that have been used are the same, except that where for various reasons it did not seem that separate districts were justified in
social welfare terms, two districts have been combined into one. We shall
keep the validity of these combined districts under close review, in
particular as the population, and thus the likely social welfare workload
and capacity increase in the New Towns, but we shall make sure that we
continue to be consistent with the administrative district boundaries used
by the Home Affairs Department and the New Territories Administration.
Manpower Planning
Dr. Ho also had some valuable comments to make on the subject of
manpower planning in the social welfare field. I am as aware as he is of
the need to increase the supply of trained social workers, and to make the
best use of those already available. Steps are being taken to increase the output of trained workers and to deploy trained personnel only in jobs which require social work skills with a view to reducing the present shortfall.
Opportunities in training will also be provided to enable progression from
one career stream to another and to borrow Dr. Ho's words job levels will be appropriately matched with professional competence.
Consultation with Advisory Committees
Dr. Rayson Huang spoke of the need to extend public participation
in decision-making, and he quoted two instances where he believed that decisions had been made by Government without the appropriate, advisory
bodies being consulted. The first was the proposal to train primary school
teachers to be student guidance officers, which, as Members may recall,
was included in the Green Paper on Personal Social Work among Young People.
This Green Paper which was itself based on consultation with the voluntary
sector was discussed and approved by the Social Welfare Advisory Committee
in March, 1978, after it had been issued for public comment.
Dr. Huang's second example was, if I understand him correctly,
the proposal to amend the entry requirements for the post of assistant
social welfare officer. There are various stages of consultation through
which changes of this sort would have had to go before implementation
including the need to seek the advice of the Public Services Commission.
In this particular case, it was decided, before completion of discussion with the staff through the normal consultative machinery, not to pursue the matter further. This matter was later discussed with the Advisory
Committee on Social Work Training when the advice of the Committee was
the
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