ENG-1980 — Page 173

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SOCIAL WELFARE

of the children's training centres run by voluntary agencies have been transferred to the Education Department and placed under the Codes of Aid for Special Education. This operation is expected to be completed in 1981 when all of the remaining centres will have been transferred to the Education Department. As a result, the Social Welfare Department will cease to operate its own children's centres and will convert the premises for alternative use. During 1980, one centre was converted to a sheltered workshop and three others became work activity centres providing day-care training for severely mentally handicapped adults.

The Education Department is also assuming, by stages, the responsibility for providing vocational training for the disabled, and in 1980 took over from the Social Welfare Depart- ment the vocational and pre-vocational training sections of the World Rehabilitation Fund Day Centre. Similarly, the responsibility for placing the deaf, blind and physically disabled in employment has been transferred from the Job Placement Unit of the Social Welfare Department to a newly-established Selective Placement Service run by the Labour Department. In 1982-3 this service will be extended to the ex-mentally ill and mentally handicapped, and to the socially handicapped in 1984-5.

The Social Welfare Department continues to provide counselling services for the disabled, and to be responsible for pre-school care, residential and day care for adults, sheltered workshops, special transport schemes and recreation and sports. At present, the department operates 19 centres and institutions and subvents 44 centres run by voluntary agencies, serving about 4,000 disabled people.

During 1980, a total of 138 additional places were provided for disabled pre-school children in three special child-care centres operated by the Spastics Association of Hong Kong, Caritas and the Po Leung Kuk. A fourth centre with 24 places was being planned for operation by the Hong Kong Society for the Deaf. In addition, 60 places were provided for mildly disabled children in ordinary child-care centres, bringing the total number of these places to 180.

Residential places were increased by 86 for disabled children and 180 for disabled adults. These became available chiefly through the expansion of residential facilities at Canossa School for the Blind, Pinehill No. 3 School and the Wong Tai Sin Hostel run by the Spastics Association of Hong Kong; the relocation of the Hong Kong Red Cross Hostel from Tsz Wan Shan to Shun Lee Estate; and the opening of new centres by the Mental Health Association, the Spastics Association and the Society of Homes for the Handicapped.

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The Social Welfare Department opened two new sheltered workshops for 220 people at Pak Tin and Tung Tau estates, while five new workshops, providing 395 places, were opened by four voluntary agencies Caritas, the Spastics Association of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Federation of Handicapped Youth and the New Life Psychiatric Rehabilita- tion Association. The Hong Kong Society for the Blind reprovisioned its Yuen Long workshop in Tai Hang Estate, Tuen Mun, making more space available for additional residential places at the Yuen Long Home for the Blind.

Progress was also seen in a relatively new service in Hong Kong, with the opening of more day-care centres where severely mentally handicapped adults are taught self-care and simple work activities. The Social Welfare Department opened three of these centres during the year in premises previously used for children's centres; the new facilities enable an intake of 110. In addition, 48 places became available in conjunction with residential centres operated by the Society of Homes for the Handicapped.