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SOCIAL WELFARE
members of the community. This generally involves three phases-treatment to help individuals adjust to their disabilities; vocational training to encourage them to make the fullest possible use of their residual skills, and their restoration to society through appropriate training or placement in remunerative employment. Rehabilitation serv- ices are provided at 17 centres and institutions, and are supplemented by the work of more than a dozen voluntary welfare organisations. The continuing expansion of these services was marked by the opening during the year of the Pine Hill Training Centre and the Kwai Fong Morninglight Centre run by the Hong Kong Association for Mentally Handicapped Children and Young Persons, and the St James Sheltered Workshop run by the St James Settlement. Various improvements were also made to existing rehabilitation institutions.
Through the joint efforts of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, the Social Welfare Department, the Transport Department and the Medical and Health Depart- ment a scheme to help physically handicapped drivers was introduced in May 1972. Under this scheme, a disabled driver suffering a permanent or substantial disability which causes him considerable difficulty in walking is exempted from parking meter fees and time limits at parking meters.
Probation and Correction
The probation and corrections division of the department assists the courts with social enquiries and supervision of offenders on probation, and operates correctional institutions. At the end of the year, 2,602 people were under supervision on probation and 7,599 social enquiries were carried out at the direction of the courts. =
There are five correctional institutions catering for boys and girls of different age groups. The Castle Peak Boys Home and the O Pui Shan Boys Home are reformatory schools. Castle Peak caters for 150 boys between 14 and 16, and O Pui Shan for 140 boys aged 14 and below. The Begonia Road Boys Home is a combination of a remand home, a probation home and a place of refuge for 164 boys. The Ma Tau Wei Girls Home provides similar facilities for 60 girls. The fifth institution is the Kwun Tong Hostel for young men aged between 16 and 21 who are ordered to live there as a condition of their probation order. Aftercare service is also provided for boys who are released on licence to bridge the gap between life in a reformatory school and in the community.
Voluntary organisations which play a leading part in helping to prevent the spread of juvenile delinquency are the Hong Kong Juvenile Care Centre and the Society of Boys Centres, which provide residential training to those in need of special help.
Social Security
Rapid development in the field of social security in Hong Kong was marked by the introduction during the year of two new schemes the Disability and Infirmity Allowance Scheme and the Criminal and Law Enforcement Injuries Compensation Scheme. These two schemes together with the existing Public Assistance Scheme are administered by the social security division of the department.