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SOCIAL WELFARE
Wan. The Community Service Order aims at being both punitive and rehabilitative. Offenders subject to a Community Service Order are supervised by probation officers who provide them with counselling and guidance and arrange work for them. A full review was carried out at the end of the year to determine the future of the scheme.
In April 1987, a Young Offenders Assessment Panel was set up jointly by the Social Welfare Department and the Correctional Services Department. The panel, comprising professional staff from the two departments, provides magistrates with a co-ordinated view on the most appropriate programme of rehabilitation for convicted young offenders aged between 14 and 25. This represents an improvement in the arrangement of dealing with young offenders and after a review of the functions of the panel during the year, plans were made to extend the service of the panel.
The Social Welfare Department operates seven residential institutions, each with a slightly different training programme to cater for the needs of the residents. Educational, pre-vocational, and character training is provided to assist juvenile offenders to return to the community as law-abiding citizens. The Begonia Road Boys' Home and Ma Tau Wai Girls' Home are combined remand-and-probation institutions for juvenile offenders and youth in need of statutory care and protection. The establishment of Pui Chi Boys' Home in 1984 has helped to alleviate overcrowding in the probation section of the Begonia Road Boys' Home by catering for a younger age group of under 14. Similarly, the Pui Yin Juvenile Home, operating since February 1986, has contributed to improving the conditions at the remand sections of the Begonia Road Boys' Home and Ma Tau Wai Girls' Home. The Castle Peak Boys' Home is a reformatory school for boys aged 14 to 16 on admission, while the O Pui Shan Boys' Home is a similar institution for those aged under 14 on admission. The Kwun Tong Hostel is a probation hostel for young men aged between 16 and 21. Following a review of the educational programmes in these institutions, the department has recruited qualified teachers to run all academic classes and efforts are being made to improve the curricula and facilities for academic teaching and pre-vocational training. A new set of teaching material is being designed to suit the needs and interests of the trainees. Plans to improve residential facilities include the construction of a new girls' home in Tuen Mun and reprovisioning the Castle Peak Boys Home and Begonia Road Boys' Home in Sha Tin and Ngau Tau Kok.
The Social Welfare Department also operates an after-care unit for boys discharged from reformatory schools by supervising and supporting them while they remain in community as law-abiding members. Besides the work carried out by the Social Welfare Department, several welfare agencies also provide services to help young offenders and young people with behavioural problems to reintegrate into the community.
Family Welfare
The Social Welfare Department and a number of welfare agencies are involved in the pro- vision of family services with the objective of maintaining and strengthening the family unit through helping individuals and families to solve problems and prevent them from arising. The department operates a network of 30 family service centres and the subvented welfare sector operates 24 such centres. Services provided under this programme include counselling on personal and family problems; care and protection of young people aged under 21; residential and foster care for children up to the age of 21; day care for children under six; referrals for schooling, housing, employment, financial assistance, legal advice, medical attention, home help and, where appropriate, placement in institutions for elderly or disabled persons.