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Chapter 5
Financing
機密
The Role of the Government and the Voluntary Sector
5.1
The Government has ultimate responsibility for ensuring
Its
a satisfactory standard and range of social welfare services.
role in this field is three-fold: to direct and co-ordinate the
development of social welfare services including overseeing and
monitoring the implementation of services according to set
priorities; to provide an adequate social security system and certain
social welfare services direct, particularly those required by
law; and to ensure that funds are available for the social welfare
services which the community needs.
5.2
The voluntary sector has long been involved in providing
social welfare services in Hong Kong, to a greater extent than is
perhaps the case in other countries. It operates many essential
basic services, particularly for the disabled and the elderly. By
their very nature, voluntary agencies enjoy a degree of flexibility
which the Government does not have. They are therefore better
placed to carry out certain functions, such as new and experimental
projects. Moreover, they have greater freedom in recruiting
volunteers. The Government attaches great importance to the
involvement of large numbers of public-spirited people in community
work. There is scope for expanding the work of volunteers in the
social welfare field with the growing awareness of the need for
social welfare services and the availability of more leisure time.
Services provided by voluntary agencies are complementary to the
efforts of the Government and they provide a basis for comparison
and improvement.
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