ENG-1976 — Page 163

SOCIAL WELFARE

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petty expenses. Government subvention is also made available to 12 of the establish- ments and to two voluntary organisations providing home-help for the elderly in their own homes. At the end of the year, nine new residential establishments for the elderly were in various stages of planning and development to provide a further 1,400 places by 1978-9.

In the voluntary sector, training facilities for the mentally retarded were con- siderably increased with the expansion of the Chai Wan Morninglight Centre and the Pine Hill Training Centre run by the Hong Kong Association for Mentally Handicap- ped Children and Young Persons, and with the opening of the association's advanced training centre and the Po Leung Kuk's Ko Chiu Road Centre. Two further recrea- tion centres were established-one for mentally retarded adults by the Action Group for Aid to the Mentally Retarded, and another for the deaf by the Hong Kong Society for the Deaf. Also during the year, the Hong Kong Physically Handicapped and Able-bodied Association opened eight clubs and one activities centre for the physically disabled.

Recommendations for the future development of rehabilitation services are con- tained in a Green Paper published in October (see Chapter 7).

Probation and Correction

The probation and corrections division of the Social Welfare Department is responsible for the supervision of offenders placed on probation, the operation of correctional institutions, and for conducting such social enquiries as may be directed by the courts for the purpose of determining and reviewing sentences or in connec- tion with petitions for clemency. It has a staff of probation officers deployed through- out Hong Kong on attachment to the courts. Their duties, in addition to that of supervision, include the individual and group counselling of probationers, arranging for their voluntary participation in community service projects, and organising educa- tional, social and recreational activities for them.

In 1976 a total of 7,627 social enquiries were carried out by the division and, at December 31, there were 3,085 offenders under probation supervision.

Five correctional institutions for boys and girls of different age groups are operated by the division. These are the O Pui Shan and Castle Peak homes, which are reformatory schools for boys; the Begonia Road Boys' Home, which is a com- bination of a remand home, probation home and place of refuge; the Ma Tau Wai Home, which provides similar facilities for girls; and the Kwun Tong Hostel, which is for youths between the ages of 16 and 21 who are on probation and who, as a special condition imposed by the courts, are required to reside under supervision for a period not exceeding one year. The total capacity of these institutions is 590. For offenders released on licence, the division provides an aftercare service to bridge the gap between life in a reformatory school and in the community.

Among the voluntary agencies which help to prevent the spread of juvenile delinquency are the Hong Kong Juvenile Care Centre and the Society of Boys' Centres, which extend care and residential training to children from broken homes with behavioural and other problems.