8. Finally, before the Department's work during the year is described in its various aspects, an interesting experiment in organizational decen- tralization and professional crossing of specialist barriers should be mentioned. The Western District Office was set up in the last month of the financial year, as a centre designed to provide the residents of the western half of Hong Kong Island with welfare services from all the Department's functional sections, for most of which in the past they might have had to make their way in their initial need to the headquarters in the Causeway Bay Government Offices. This self-contained unit is under the control of an experienced officer who is solely responsible for its administration. The caseworkers serving with him will generally take their own decisions, guided by the policy of their parent section, but if doubts arise they will consult with him first. The overworked senior officers in headquarters will become involved in individual cases only as a last resort or if policy is in question. If this experiment is successful, the intention would be to extend regional offices over Hong Kong as a whole, as opportunity offers, and some adjustments in 'command structure' may have to be made in consequence. Meanwhile it is interesting to notice the number, variety and wide-spread locations of the Department's present offices, centres and institutions, which are listed and marked on a map at Appendix 3. This bird's eye view may surprise those who suppose that official social welfare services function only from a Director's office, a couple of kitchens and one or two approved schools and community
centres.
THE SOCIAL WELFARE DEPARTMENT
9. The Social Welfare Department became an independent Grade I department in 1958, after ten years as a Social Welfare Office within the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs. The Director of Social Welfare has a variety of statutory functions and powers, set out in the legislation an index of which is at Appendix 4. As well as exercising the powers con- ferred by Law for the care and protection of children and young persons, adoption, probation and juvenile correctional institutions, the Depart- ment directly provides basic public assistance to relieve destitution; tries to alleviate or to prevent the causes of dependency, so as to reduce the extent of destitution; helps the handicapped to fit themselves as far as humanly possible for independent life; and aims to help people who are living closely together, especially the dense populations of the new towns or resettlement estates which have not grown up as natural communities, to develop a community feeling and to use well their hard-won and limited leisure time. The Department also provides the secretariat for the Social
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