202 Social Welfare
recommendations on how to further develop the CDF into a longer-term model to promote child development in Hong Kong.
Clinical Psychological Services
Working under the SWD and NGOs, 71 clinical psychologists provide a range of services to welfare units handling family casework, rehabilitation and correctional matters. The services include psychological assessment, treatment, consultation, staff training and public education. During the year, 3 914 clients were treated, and 3 150 psychological assessments and 18 414 treatment sessions were conducted.
Voluntary Work
The Steering Committee on Promotion of Volunteer Service ran a series of promotional and publicity programmes during the year under the theme 'One Family One Heart' to encourage cross-sector collaboration and family participation in voluntary work. By year-end, more than 1 970 organisations and 880 000 individuals had registered for voluntary service.
Subventions and Service Monitoring
Recurrent subventions and capital grants were given to 171 NGOs to provide social welfare services in accordance with government policies. Capital grants from the Lotteries Fund were allocated to NGOs on the advice of the Lotteries Fund Advisory Committee. The Service Performance Monitoring System (SPMS) keeps track of the output, outcome and service quality of subvented units according to 16 well- defined service quality standards and of specific funding and service agreements for the service units concerned.
The SPMS has been strengthened by introducing surprise visits to the service units in addition to the scheduled and regular review visits and collecting feedback from service users on the service delivery in a more systematic way.
A Help Desk has been set up to provide advice and support for small NGOs on a time limited basis. It aims at rendering advice to small NGOs on subvention matters, helping them enhance their corporate governance competence and achieve sustainability in the Lump Sum Grant (LSG) environment.
An LSG Independent Complaints Handling Committee has also been set up to handle complaints related to the use of subventions and service quality that cannot be satisfactorily addressed at the NGO level.
Information Technology
In 2009, the SWD continued to develop a workflow-based client information system to facilitate case management and service planning. This is expected to be completed in 2010-11.
By year-end, about $260 million in Lotteries Fund grants had been approved for 44 information technology development projects in the welfare sector.
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