CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
THE twelve months which ended on 31 March 1970 was a period of further progress in many fields of social welfare services. During the year the department and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service continued to be actively involved in a joint endeavour to produce a five year development programme based on approved aims and policy for social welfare, to meet existing and future needs. This programme is intended to provide a comprehensive plan for the future provision of services by Government as well as by voluntary welfare organization. Headway was also made in the preparation of an 'Appreciation of Social Welfare Services and Needs in Hong Kong' in which will be embodied descriptive material prepared as a result of the joint con- sultation with the Hong Kong Council of Social Service in connection with the five year programme. This document will provide the more generalized background information and trends in social welfare against which more precise plans for the future can be set.
2. Another major task undertaken during the year was the formula- tion of a more extensive programme of public assistance estimated to cost an additional $20 million in its first full year of operation. The new scheme envisages assistance in the form of cash grants administered on the basis of a suitable means test related to an accepted level of sub- sistence. It is hoped that the scheme would be implemented in early 1971. Details of the scheme are described in the following pages.
3. New projects completed during the year include the O Pui Shan Boys' Home, a school for the training of young delinquents established under the Industrial and Reformatory Schools Ordinance (Chapter 225). The Home provides residential care and training for 140 boys aged 14 and under, and its purpose is to train, educate, and rehabilitate delinquent children committed to it by juvenile courts, in an environ- ment which helps the normal development of youngsters while main- taining control of them. The Lady Trench Day Nursery and Training Centre which was also completed during the year will establish for the first time in Hong Kong a demonstration day nursery and a training
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