ENG-1999 — Page 237

SOCIAL WELFARE

were also an addition of 60 places in early education and training centres, 48 integrated programme places and 60 special child care places for pre-school disabled children.

The Marketing Consultancy Office was set up in January 1997 as a pilot project to enhance the productivity of sheltered workshops and the income of people with disabilities. Its tenure has been extended to January 2001 with an expanded service scope to promote also the Volunteer Movement and Senior Citizen Card Scheme.

The Working Group on Battered Spouses, convened by the SWD, continued to launch a series of publicity measures in 1999 with a view to enhancing public awareness of the destructive impact of spouse-battering on the family, to encourage victims of domestic violence to seek help as early as possible, and also to prevent spouse-battering.

During the year, the Committee on Child Abuse continued to co-ordinate multi- disciplinary efforts tackling the problem of child abuse. These include launching publicity and public education campaigns to prevent child abuse, and strengthening the joint training of professionals in handling child abuse cases. A three-day Asian Conference on Child Protection was jointly organised by the SWD, International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect and the Against Child Abuse from November 25-27. The conference facilitated international exchange of expertise and pointed to the way forward in strengthening protection for children and their families.

Having expanded membership to include representatives from advisory bodies such as the Parent-Teacher Association and the Action Committee Against Narcotics from April 1998, the Working Group on Services for Youth at Risk has been renamed the Committee on Services for Youth at Risk, since June. Apart from monitoring the implementation of the outstanding follow-up actions in respect of the issues examined, including the pilot projects of Understanding the Adolescent Project and Youth Mobile Teams, the committee has also examined the issue of the geographical impact on juvenile delinquency, the training and employment opportunities for youth at risk and juvenile gangs. Appropriate measures and programmes for tackling these issues are being formulated or implemented.

To build a caring community, the SWD formed a Steering Committee on Volunteer Movement involving members from other government departments, NGOs, professionals and corporations to further the Hong Kong-wide movement, especially promoting volunteering in schools and corporations. A web site on Volunteer Movement was developed to provide a forum for information sharing. At the end of the year, 188 000 volunteers had registered with the movement. During the year, some 4.6 million volunteer service hours were delivered.

The Service Performance Monitoring System, a major recommendation of the Subvention Review, has been implemented by phases in the welfare sector with effect from April. A package of streamlining measures was introduced in early 1999 to simplify the existing subvention system. To achieve greater cost-effectiveness, the department was also examining the feasibility of allocating welfare services through competitive bidding.

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