Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1967-1968 — Page 12

Their educational standard also tended to be higher than that of ordinary juvenile offenders as most of them had completed their primary school education and several were attending middle schools. Their pres- ence in the homes created new problems for the staff in dealing with them, as the measure of co-operation necessary to the running of an institutional home proved in many cases more difficult to elicit. The general policy was to separate the politically inspired offenders from ordinary delinquents. Reason and patience were combined with a degree of firmness to ensure that the running of the homes was not disrupted and some success was achieved in that discipline was maintained, and it was not necessary at any time to have recourse to outside help from the Police. This had a heartening effect on the staff themselves as amply demonstrated that normal methods of social work practice could achieve successful results in coping with the behaviour problems posed by these misguided young people.

16. Attention was inevitably drawn more acutely by the disturbances to the importance of considering the needs and aspirations of the young people of Hong Kong, and the Department stood willing to bear its share in the development of services in collaboration with the voluntary agencies to help the young generation on the road to adult responsibility. There seems sometimes to be an unspoken assumption that the Social Welfare Department has almost the exclusive respon- sibility of dealing with all the problems of the younger generation. This is of course not the case; other departments such as the Education Department, the Urban Services Department and the Labour Depart- ment have wide responsibilities in their own spheres. Nevertheless the desirability and the practicability of securing a co-ordinated approach to programmes for young people were being pursued.

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT

17. The Department works towards the broad goal of human well being through the provision or promotion of a wide variety of social services. The first, from the historical point of view, and one which for that reason is still felt by many people to be the most typical, is the assistance given to families facing economic need. This includes the provision of such assistance as dry rations and cooked food as well as other assistance for selected needs, and emergency assistance in natural and other disasters. An extension of benefits in public assistance was made during the year as education payments made by a family and

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