Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1962-1963 — Page 8

economic, social and financial conditions which inevitably restrict the extent to which they can be satisfied. Against this background the situation in Hong Kong at the present time obliges the Government to think in terms of priorities, with emphasis on encouraging or developing those social welfare services that contribute most directly to the independence and self-reliance of individuals and so to the economic and social well being of the community.

4. The responsibility for working towards this objective rests to a considerable extent upon the Social Welfare Department, which was made an independent department in 1958 after ten years as a sub- department of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs. The Director of Social Welfare, as head of the Department, assumed in 1958 those statutory functions and powers contained in the Ordinances relating to social welfare (a list of which is at Appendix 1) which were formerly exercised by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. The Director is also the Chairman of the Social Welfare Advisory Committee, the Advisory Committee on Social Work Training, the Social Work Training Fund Committee and the Community Relief Trust Fund Committee; all but the first of these Committees have been established since 1962, the last two by statute (Further details are at Appendix 2). In addition to administering statutory requirements in the fields of the care and protection of children and young persons, adoption, probation and correctional institutions, the Department makes direct provision for minimum public assistance to relieve destitution; tries to alleviate or to prevent the causes of dependency, so as to reduce the extent of destitution; assists the handicapped to fit themselves for independent life to the maximum possible extent and aims to help groups, especially in new towns or resettlement estates, to develop a sense of community in these recently built areas of dense population.

5. The Department seeks to dovetail its operations with those of voluntary agencies which were in many fields the pioneers of social welfare work and continue to provide most valuable and often essential services. Much of this voluntary effort is now subvented from public funds. Very broadly the Department is responsible for any statutory functions within the welfare field, for basic services such as public assistance or registration of the handicapped and for liaison with voluntary agencies, together with certain other specific services; while voluntary effort continues to pioneer in fresh directions as well as to provide widespread institutional, vocational training, supplementary relief and other services.

2