TNAG-0735-FCO40-939-Policy-objective-for-the-developing-of-Hong-Kong-in-the-1980-1978 — Page 42

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The boundaries that have been used are the same, except that where for various reasons it did not seem that separate districts were justified in

social welfare terms, two districts have been combined into one. We shall

keep the validity of these combined districts under close review, in

particular as the population, and thus the likely social welfare workload

and capacity increase in the New Towns, but we shall make sure that we

continue to be consistent with the administrative district boundaries used

by the Home Affairs Department and the New Territories Administration.

Manpower Planning

Dr. Ho also had some valuable comments to make on the subject of

manpower planning in the social welfare field. I am as aware as he is of

the need to increase the supply of trained social workers, and to make the

best use of those already available. Steps are being taken to increase the output of trained workers and to deploy trained personnel only in jobs which require social work skills with a view to reducing the present shortfall.

Opportunities in training will also be provided to enable progression from

one career stream to another and to borrow Dr. Ho's words job levels will be appropriately matched with professional competence.

Consultation with Advisory Committees

Dr. Rayson Huang spoke of the need to extend public participation

in decision-making, and he quoted two instances where he believed that decisions had been made by Government without the appropriate, advisory

bodies being consulted. The first was the proposal to train primary school

teachers to be student guidance officers, which, as Members may recall,

was included in the Green Paper on Personal Social Work among Young People.

This Green Paper which was itself based on consultation with the voluntary

sector was discussed and approved by the Social Welfare Advisory Committee

in March, 1978, after it had been issued for public comment.

Dr. Huang's second example was, if I understand him correctly,

the proposal to amend the entry requirements for the post of assistant

social welfare officer. There are various stages of consultation through

which changes of this sort would have had to go before implementation

including the need to seek the advice of the Public Services Commission.

In this particular case, it was decided, before completion of discussion with the staff through the normal consultative machinery, not to pursue the matter further. This matter was later discussed with the Advisory

Committee on Social Work Training when the advice of the Committee was

the

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