ENG-1959 — Page 239

SOCIAL WELFARE

199

March on the occasion of the visit of H.R.H. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Some members of the junior staff of the Department and of the youth organizations were invited to His Royal Highness' reception on board the Royal Yacht on the same day.

More ground floor accommodation in resettlement estates has been allotted for welfare purposes and work started at Wong Tai Sin towards the end of the year. Two wings were being used for a case-work centre, a nursery, a children's library and for group work with children and adults. Three voluntary organizations as well as the Department participate in this work.

The Department also inaugurated its first comprehensive 6-month In-Service Training Course on the basic principles of social work. Thirteen members of the Department participated, together with some fifty from other Government Departments who were enrolled either for the whole course or for certain sections.

Probation. The Probation Section of the Department has sixteen Probation Officers, four of whom are in charge of institutions con- cerned with the training of delinquents. The other twelve officers, six of them still under training and three of them women, are attached for Probation duties to the two Magistracies of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon and are available to the New Territories Court sitting alternately at Tai Po and Ping Shan. All are liaison officers to the District Courts and the Supreme Court when re- quired. One officer was sent to the United Kingdom for a three- month visit of observation.

At the end of the year the total number of persons placed on probation by Court Order was 316, of whom 60 were females and 256 were males; it is interesting to note that 183 were juveniles. Supervision was also exercised over 20 cases (5 female) referred by the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, the Magistrates, the Police or welfare agencies; these cases receive the same standard of supervi- sion as that given to probationers. Of the total of 271 males under supervision at the end of 1959, 115 were adults; of the 65 females, 38 were adults. The courts are tending to make increased use of probation as an alternative to imprisonment or other sentences, especially in the case of adults. 180 persons ceased to be on proba- tion during the year; of these 22 were charged with new offences while still on probation and 15 were untraced. The remainder, 80%, satisfactorily completed the period of probation.