agency staff having regard to these differences. Indeed, no such combined review would have been practicable in view of the number of agencies and staff involved (about 2,700 in the voluntary sector) and the great diversity in the services provided. (This explanation has been accepted by the voluntary sector generally.) Furthermore, it would be imprudent to seek to impose a Government department structure on the voluntary sector without careful consideration of all the relevant factors.
(b) Since the voluntary agencies are subvented on a 'discretionary grant' basis to provide financial assistance towards the cost of specific activities which are considered worthy of Government support, there is no financial commitment on the part of the Government to maintain the salaries of such staff in the voluntary sector at any particular level (although since 1976/77 the Government has given supple- mentary subventions to social welfare voluntary agencies to enable them to pay salary increases in line with those given to the Civil Service as a whole by way of cost of living adjustments).
(c) The structural and salary changes in SWD were the result of a comprehensive staff review in 1977 and 1978 to identify and resolve certain structural problems facing SWD. The revised salary scales for SWD staff were brought about mainly by providing separate staff structures for 'social security' and 'social work' streams and by reorganising duties at various levels. Since these changes were not salary adjustments to take account of the cost of living, they could not apply automatically to the voluntar y sector without a similar review of the staff structures in the voluntary sector being carried
out.
/(d)
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