ENG-1968 — Page 212

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SOCIAL WELFARE

FAMILY SERVICES

Services for child care, the welfare of women, the relief of those in need, the rehabilitation of the disabled and family casework generally are provided on a regional basis through the Social Welfare Department's district offices and subsidiary family services centres, the organization of which has been described at the begin- ning of this chapter. The number of families receiving such services at the end of the year amounted to 14,584. Other specialized services and facilities, such as the adoption of children and the provision of institutional care, are provided on a Colony-wide basis by the department as well as by many voluntary welfare agencies.

Many voluntary agencies provide residential child care and day care centres for young children of working mothers. Seven new non-profit-making nurseries were opened during the year, and the total places available in day care centres rose from 13,500 in 1967 to 13,613. Many of these agencies receive government subventions towards their work. The Social Welfare Department has been maintaining close liaison both with individual child care institutions and with the Hong Kong Council of Social Service's Child Care Institutions Committee and a Day Nursery Supervisory Committee. These Committees enable the directors and workers of institutions caring for children to meet regularly for discussions on ways and means of improving child care standards.

A children's reception centre, run by the department, cares for children who are found abandoned or wandering. Their physical and psychological needs are investigated and their behaviour and growth observed and recorded, as background to a plan for each child's future. Of 187 children who left the centre during the year, 28 were adopted into families, 17 in Hong Kong and 11 overseas. The steady fall in recent years of the number of babies abandoned seems to be levelling out. The number for 1968 was 34 compared with 38 last year and 48 in 1966. Altogether 1,465 adoptions have been registered in the Adopted Children's Register since the first entry was made on July 22, 1957. Where possible, children are kept in institutions only for short-term care, in the hope of the early return of children to their own families or their adoption by new ones. Residential homes for babies and children, maintained by voluntary institutions, provide 3,167 places for orphans or