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"This is an increase of 50 per cent in real terms over 1992. We are well on our way to creating a first world environment where we can meet the health, welfare and housing needs of old age," he said.

Expenditure on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA), which had 122,000 beneficiaries, had also increased from $1.4 billion in 1992-93 to $4.3 billion this year, up 208 per cent, he said.

He said a major review chaired by him was examining how to improve the arrangements for social security and that a report would be made to the Secretary for Health and Welfare in early 1996.

On services for people with a disability, Mr Strachan said the government was committed to implementing the Rehabilitation Green Paper key targets (relating to 7,690 additional residential and day services places) in full by 1997.

"We recognise that amidst the many improvements we have made and are making to our services for disabled people, we must improve employment and training opportunities for them," he said.

"We are looking at, for example, the possibility of redeploying resources from the more traditional manufacturing related sheltered workshops to supported employment in the service industries, such as desk-top publishing, laundry and office cleaning services, where there is much greater potential for growth."

Pointing out that the government had made marked progress in tackling and preventing the problem of child abuse in the past year, Mr Strachan said SWD followed closely the principles laid down in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in the planning and provision of family and child welfare services.

"However, although we have increased substantially the number of trained social workers in family services centres in recent years, the caseloads carried by each professional are still far too high.

"We must provide the resources to reduce these caseloads from the present 1:73 to about 1:50, which is the standard in other developed countries," he said.

Since further improvements would cost money and require additional resources, he encouraged everyone in the social welfare sector to examine critically the need to redeploy resources and ensure that they managed their services efficiently and effectively and so obtained the best value for money for the community.

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