SOCIAL WELFARE
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of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, Caritas and many others in a variety of community activities. In co-operation with Government these organisations sponsored a Colony-wide programme of activ- ities during the summer in which upwards of 1.2 million children and young persons took part. The department's summer activities resulted in the formation of some 18 self-directing youth groups.
FAMILY SERVICES
The family services of the department consist of a widespread network of nine casework offices and supporting services for child care, the welfare of women, relief of those in need and reha- bilitation of the disabled. The number of families and individuals receiving such services continued to increase and at the end of the year amounted to some 20,158.
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The child care services of the department are responsible for the co-ordination of day care centres provided mainly by voluntary welfare organisations and for adoptions. The department itself does not run any child care institutions, with the exception of a reception centre which provides temporary care for children found abandoned or wandering. The department is responsible, however, for the ad- ministration of subventions to some 77 non-profit-making nurseries and 17 play centres providing a total of 12,465 places at the end of the year, and maintains close liaison with the Child Care Institutions and Day Nursery Supervisory Committees of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service as well as with UNICEF. Legal adoptions of children, made in accordance with the provisions of the Adoption Ordinance, require investigations by the department in the first instance as to the suitability of the adoptive parents. Although some adoptions are arranged between families the majority are in fact made in respect of abandoned children and orphans for whom the department is responsible for finding suitable homes and parents either locally or overseas. A total of 340 adoptions were investi- gated during the year.
Children and women in moral danger are assisted partly through counselling and guidance for the individual as well as his or her family, partly through the relief of such immediate anxieties as care and accommodation for unmarried mothers and partly through vocational training. This work is done by two reputable voluntary