Social Welfare | 217
Rehabilitation Centres (Licensing) Ordinance, 38 certificates of exemption and six licences valid for drug dependence treatment centres had been issued or renewed by year-end.
To enhance cooperation among relevant youth services, 18 Local Committees on Services for Young People, chaired by the District Social Welfare Officers, coordinate the provision of youth services at district level.
Clinical Psychological Services
The department and NGOs employ 68 clinical psychologists who provide a range of services to family casework, rehabilitation and correctional units in the social service sector. These services include psychological assessment, treatment, consultation, staff training and public education services. During the year, 3 784 cases were served, and 2 798 assessments and 17 416 treatment sessions conducted.
Volunteerism
The Steering Committee on Promotion of Volunteer Service held a series of promotional and publicity programmes to promote volunteerism among students and youth, corporations and community organisations, and to encourage cross-sector cooperation in organising volunteer services so as to enhance social capital and develop a tripartite partnership among the private sector, the 'third sector' and the Government. At year-end, 1 248 organisations and 470 854 individuals had registered to participate in volunteer service.
Subventions and Service Monitoring
By year-end, recurrent subvention and capital grants had been given to 182 NGOs to provide social welfare services in accordance with government policies. Funding allocation for capital grants was administered by the department on the advice of the Lotteries Fund Advisory Committee.
To facilitate smooth implementation of the continuing subventions reform, a Lump Sum Grant Steering Committee (with the Director of Social Welfare as Chairperson) advises on measures to achieve continuous improvement. The Service Performance Monitoring System is in place to monitor the output and quality of subvented units. Under the system, the service performance of individual subvented units is monitored on the basis of well-defined Service Quality Standards and a specific Funding and Service Agreement.
Information Technology
Implementation of the Technical Infrastructure (TI) and Client Information System (CIS) projects in the department started in June. The TI includes setting up a corporate-wide network and facilities to support communication and deployment of information technology (IT) applications and joint initiatives. The CIS will provide a workflow-based database which collects and shares client data across the department for case management and service planning purposes. The TI and CIS will be completed in 2005-06.
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