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SOCIAL WELFARE
Rehabilitation. New purpose-built facilities opened during the year include two community halls, two estate community centres and two community centres: one serving the Yau Ma Tei District and the other in Tuen Mun. The year also saw the opening of 17 day nurseries, a home for the elderly and three new care-and-attention homes for the elderly with a total capacity of 630 places. Expansion in the provision of community services for the old and disabled includes 140 additional places in sheltered workshops for the disabled, 40 places in day work activities centres for the severely disabled, 20 additional home helpers, and the opening of six social centres for the elderly.
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The additional services were reflected in considerable increases in both capital and recurrent expenditure. Total estimated expenditure on social welfare in the 1983-4 financial year is $1,319 million
an increase of $349.5 million in recurrent expenditure and $2.9 million in capital expenditure over 1982-3. Some $363 million in capital and recurrent subvention is estimated for 1983–4, representing an increase of $96 million over 1982–3. The Community Chest also organises and co-ordinates local fund-raising activities for its member agencies, raising $26.9 million in its annual fund-raising campaign in 1982–3 compared with $26.76 million in 1981-2.
Considerable progress was made in introducing a new subvention system. Under the new system, the majority of social welfare services will be subvented on the basis of a standard cost. All services have been classified into two categories. Services in Category I will receive a subvention designed to meet the full cost of the specified standard of service, and income raised privately by voluntary agencies will not be taken into account in the calculation of the government subvention. Services in Category II, which mainly comprises social and recreational services and the activities of uniformed groups, will not receive subvention to meet the full cost of the service and will be expected to contribute from their own resources. In 1983-4, standard cost subvention was introduced in eight service areas, namely school social work, out-reaching social work, family life education, neighbourhood level com- munity development, small group homes, foster care, family counselling and the pool bus service for the elderly. The aim is for the new subvention system to be fully operational in the 1984-5 financial year.
Responsibility for carrying out government policies on social security and social welfare rests with the Director of Social Welfare, who heads the Social Welfare Department. The department is organised on a regional basis, with 13 district offices divided into four regions - Hong Kong Island, West Kowloon, East Kowloon and the New Territories. District social welfare offices are the main points of contact with the public and voluntary welfare organisations, and are responsible for co-ordinating the provision of all social welfare services in their districts. The department includes a Development Branch and a Social Security Branch which are responsible for the central planning and development of new policy in social welfare and social security, and a Subventions Branch which deals with the central administration of subventions to voluntary organisations and evaluation of services provided by them.
On all matters of social welfare policy, except rehabilitation, the government is advised by the Social Welfare Advisory Committee, chaired by the Director of Social Welfare and with members appointed by the Governor. The Rehabilitation Development Co-ordinating Committee, also appointed by the Governor, advises on the policy and principles governing the development of rehabilitation services and is chaired by an unofficial.
In the day-to-day administration, planning and development of services, the Social Welfare Department works closely with voluntary agencies which play a major role in the provision of many welfare services. The majority of voluntary agencies are affiliated to the