ENG-1982 — Page 177

9

Social Welfare

福社

新藥

SIGNIFICANT developments in the field of social welfare during the year included plans to increase the number of trained social workers, regrading of the duties of voluntary agency staff, and changes in subvention policies. It was a year, too, for continued consolidation and progress towards the targets set in the 1979 White Paper on Social Welfare into the 1980s.

The shortage of trained social workers continues to have a serious impact on plans to expand services. A working party on social welfare manpower, which had been set up by the Secretary for Social Services completed its deliberations in January and recommended various measures, both short and long term, to alleviate this shortage. Interim measures recommended include a relaxation of present recruitment criteria to enable non-social work graduates to be appointed to the rank of assistant social work officer provided they undertake a course of in-service training leading to a professional qualification. In the long term, the working party emphasised the need to increase the supply of trained social workers and reduce wastage from the profession. Having sought the views of the public and voluntary agencies, the government has accepted the main recommendations of the working party and plans for their implementation are now under discussion.

Early 1982 also saw the conclusion of a major exercise to review the duties of staff working in various service areas in voluntary agencies and to regrade them, where appropriate, in line with principles established in a similar review of the welfare class in the Social Welfare Department.

Progress continued to be made on another issue affecting the voluntary sector: the introduction of a new subvention system to replace the existing system of discretionary grants. In line with recommendations arising from the report by a working party set up to review the provision of social welfare services and subvention administration, all services have now been classified into two categories. Services in Category I will receive a sub- vention designed to meet the full cost of a specified standard of service, and income raised privately by voluntary agencies will not be taken into account in the calculation of the government subvention. Of the 35 categories of service identified overall, 27 have been classified as Category I and, as a first stage in the introduction of the new system, no account has been taken of income raised by the voluntary agencies in calculation of this year's subvention for these services.

Services classified in Category II, which mainly comprise social and recreational activities and the uniformed groups, will not receive subvention to meet the full cost of the services provided, and agencies will be expected to contribute to the operational cost from their own resources. The department has established working groups to formulate proposals on standard costs for services which can be costed in this way. The aim is to achieve full implementation of the new subvention system by the 1984-5 financial year.