receive retirement benefits, help with medical and educational expenses and paid maternity leave. These additional benefits probably cover only a minority of the total workforce. In some cases, indirect financial aid may also be available, such as medical facilities, free or subsidised meals, transport and accommodation or housing loans on concessionary terms. There are tax concessions to encourage the development of retirement benefit schemes.
Social Welfare Services
2.4
Direct social welfare services to various client groups have a much longer history in Hong Kong than cash payments. Both the Government and the voluntary sector are involved in providing these services; in some areas, such as family counselling, these are on a complementary basis; in others such as services for the elderly, the voluntary agencies have played a key role, usually with financial assistance from the Government, whilst in services such as probation and corrections, the Government has a statutory responsibility to be the major provider.
Community and Youth Services
2.5
In the social welfare field, there is already a programme to provide the physical facilities necessary for promoting community spirit - the community halls (of which nine have so far been built), estate community centres (of which there are eight), and community centres (of which there are nineteen at present). These halls and centres provide the local population with readily available social, community and recreational amenities and serve people of all ages. Using the facilities offered, the Social Welfare Department and the voluntary agencies have been able to organise community programmes, such as interest groups and good neighbourhood projects, for the local residents. The current target is to provide one community hall for each public housing estate with over 20,000 residents, one estate community centre for each public housing estate with over 50,000 residents and one community centre for over 100,000 people in areas not served by community halls and estate welfare buildings.
2.6
To encourage young people to involve themselves in worthwhile activities and interests, youth and children's centres are provided on a more localised basis at a ratio of 1 centre for each 20,000 population. There are now 108 youth centres for those aged 15 to 24 and 99 children's centres for children aged 8 to 14. The Social Welfare Department, together with the voluntary agencies, is largely responsible for the territory-wide Summer Youth Programme, the Opportunities for Youth Scheme and the Youth Leadership Training Scheme which, together, catered for almost a million young participants in 1978.
2.7
To develop and co-ordinate community and youth services at the district level, 15 Community and Youth Officers have been appointed since 1973.
Family Welfare Services
2.8
In 1965 a regionalized family counselling and casework service was established to provide comprehensive services to families in need. By 1977, there were four district offices, nine family service centres and eight casework units operated by the Social Welfare Department, offering counselling services for individual family members, referrals to Government and voluntary agencies for housing, employment, medical care, school placement and vocational training, assistance in providing day or residential care for children whose parents were unable to look after them, and arranging local and overseas adoptions. Many of these services are also provided by voluntary agencies.
2.9
To ensure that children enrolled in child care centres are adequately cared for and supervised, the Child Care Centres Ordinance and Regulations were enacted in 1975 to regulate and control the activities of these centres and to impose minimum standards of staff training and
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