ENG-1996 — Page 233

12 SOCIAL WELFARE

HONG KONG is not a welfare state but the community cares deeply about its state of welfare. Its residents expect the government to help the disadvantaged maintain an acceptable standard of living. The Social Welfare Department spent $6 billion five years ago; in 1996, it spent $16 billion.

An inter-departmental working group established in March 1995 and chaired by the Director of Social Welfare completed a comprehensive review of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme in February 1996. The findings and recommendations of the review were published in March, and a wide-ranging package of improvements to the scheme was brought into effect in April 1996.

The review also recommended that elderly CSSA recipients be allowed the option of retiring permanently to China while continuing to receive their monthly standard rates and annual long-term supplement under the scheme. The proposal is expected to be implemented in 1997, subject to detailed arrangements being worked out.

Following a review of the Emergency Relief Fund, a package of improvements to its payment schedule was implemented in June 1996.

The responsibility for carrying out government policies on social welfare rests with the Director of Social Welfare. It is based on the objectives set out in three White Papers, the most recent on rehabilitation entitled Equal Opportunities and Full

Participation: A Better Tomorrow for All (1995).

The government is advised on social welfare policy by the Social Welfare Advisory Committee, covering the whole area of social welfare, and the Rehabilitation Advisory Committee (the former Rehabilitation Development Co-ordinating Committee), on matters of rehabilitation. Committee members are appointed by the Governor and their meetings are chaired by non-officials. The Social Welfare Department maintains

maintains a close working partnership with non-governmental organisations, most of which are subvented by the government and affiliated with the Hong Kong Council of Social Service.

Many services were expanded in 1996. They included the addition of 741 day nursery places, 144 occasional child care places, 13 small group homes, 10 home help teams, one urban hostel for single persons, 111 family caseworkers, 11 family aides, one clinical psychologist and five family life education workers. For young people, 22 additional school social workers and two outreaching social work teams were provided and seven combined children and youth centres and three integrated teams were established through the reprovisioning of existing centres. An additional team of specially trained social workers was set up to help occasional young substance-

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