ENG-2005 — Page 251

Social Welfare 209

Funding allocation for capital grants was administered by the department on the advice of the Lotteries Fund Advisory Committee.

To facilitate the 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 16 well-defined Service Quality Standards and a specific Funding and Service Agreement.

Information Technology

In April, the SWD completed the implementation of the Technical Infrastructure project, which included setting up a corporate-wide network and facilities to support communication and deployment of information technology (IT) applications and joint initiatives. The department is continuing to develop a work-flow based Client Information System for case management and service planning purposes. The system will be completed in 2006-07.

By the end of the year, an accumulative total of about $190 million in Lotteries Fund grants had been approved for use in 32 IT development projects in the welfare

sector.

Enhancing Social Capital: Community Investment and Inclusion Fund

The Chief Executive first announced the establishment of the $300 million Community Investment and Inclusion Fund (CIIF) in his 2001 Policy Address. The CIIF was set up to encourage mutual concern and aid, promote community participation and mobilise community resources through cross-sector collaboration that would contribute to building social capital and harmony.

Since its launch in August 2002, the CIIF has approved funding of over $70 million for 90 projects. These projects involve over 1 600 collaborating organisations, including schools and businesses and 70 of them are up and running. When fully implemented in three years, the projects will result in over 17 000 people who were previously service recipients being empowered to become volunteers and contributors (with some being re-engaged in employment); 200 mutual help networks and over 17 cooperatives being formed; 1 812 jobs being created; 3 500 jobs being matched; and over 300 000 people being helped.

Some of the new strategies are beginning to demonstrate positive results, with groups previously considered marginalised (such as the homeless, unemployed middle-aged people, disengaged youth, the elderly, newly arrived families, women and ethnic minorities) becoming more socially included and gainfully employed. As the Chief Executive said in his 2005-06 Policy Address, after three years in operation, the CIIF will continue to consolidate its early success in promoting social capital concepts, helping to break the cycles of disadvantage, encouraging tripartite partnership and creating the right conditions for social harmony.