ENG-1971 — Page 194

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SOCIAL WELFARE

activity areas, family planning clinics, general outpatient clinics, pre-vocational training centres and departmental family casework offices.

PROBATION AND CORRECTION

The probation and correctional services of the department are concerned with the supervision of offenders on probation and the operation of correctional institutions. The Probation Service has a staff of 81 trained officers working with the courts, an increase of 53 per cent over the previous year. At the end of the year, 2,985 people were under supervision on probation and 7,955 social investigations had been carried out at the request of the courts, including cases referred for welfare assistance of some kind. The Correctional Service operates five institutions: the Castle Peak Boys' Home is a reformatory school for 150 boys, aged between 14 and 16; the O Pui Shan Boys' Home accommodates 140 boys, aged 13 and below; the Begonia Road Boys' Home accommodating 164 boys, combines a remand home, a probation home and a place of refuge for boys who need care and protection under the Protec- tion of Women and Juveniles Ordinance; and the Ma Tau Wei Girls' Home, another such combined home which provides accom- modation for 60 girls. The capacity of this home is inadequate since the number of cases referred by the courts is continually increasing and plans are already advanced to build a new home at Broadcast Drive, Kowloon. The fifth institution is a probation hostel at Kwun Tong for young men aged between 16 and 21 who are ordered to reside there as a condition of their probation order. Most of the young men go to work daily and are required to pay a nominal sum of $20 a month as contribution towards their upkeep. This payment is intended primarily to instil a sense of self- dependency. Voluntary welfare organisations which take a leading part in helping to prevent the spread of juvenile delinquency are the Hong Kong Juvenile Care Centre and the Society of Boys Centres, which give residential training to those in need of special help.

PUBLIC ASSISTANCE

The expanded public assistance scheme was implemented in two stages in 1971. From January 1, cash assistance has been provided instead of assistance in kind. Those eligible are given a book of orders or vouchers which they cash each month at a specified post office (or, in the New Territories, a Treasury sub-office or District Office). New eligibility criteria were brought into effect from April 1. A single person who has been resident in Hong Kong for