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Social Welfare
Social Welfare Programmes
Family and Child Welfare
A variety of family and child welfare services is provided by the SWD and NGOs.
Family Services
The SWD provides services to families in need through a multi-layered approach. At the primary level, attempts are made through early detection, public education, publicity and empowerment to prevent family problems. The SWD launches publicity campaigns and operates a departmental hotline to provide service information, counselling and other forms of assistance.
At the secondary level, 65 Integrated Family Service Centres across all districts in Hong Kong and two integrated services centres in Tung Chung provide support services, ranging from developmental programmes to intensive counselling.
At the tertiary level, specialised services, including crisis intervention, are provided in cases of domestic or sexual violence, family crisis or custody dispute.
Services for Children
The SWD provides 3,661 residential places and a wide range of welfare services to children and young people who need care or protection owing to serious family, behavioural or emotional problems. The SWD also arranges adoption for children abandoned by their parents or whose parents are unable to support them. Three NGOs are accredited under the Adoption Ordinance to make arrangements for local and inter-country adoptions of Hong Kong children.
The SWD also provides day child care services to support parents who cannot take care of their children temporarily because of work or other reasons. The SWD and the Education Bureau subsidise some standalone child care centres and some kindergarten-cum-child care centres to provide regular and full-day services. The SWD also funds 383 occasional child care service places and 1,230 extended hours service places at these centres. The Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project provides at least 720 subsidised places, comprising flexible home-based and centre-based child care services to families in need throughout the territory.
Social Security
The CSSA and Social Security Allowance (SSA) schemes form the mainstay of Hong Kong's social security system, supplemented by three accident compensation schemes: the Criminal and Law Enforcement Injuries Compensation (CLEIC) Scheme, the Traffic Accident Victims Assistance (TAVA) Scheme and Emergency Relief. These schemes are administered by 39 Social Security Field Units and two centralised offices.
The CSSA Scheme
The CSSA Scheme is non-contributory but means-tested. It provides cash assistance to people suffering from financial hardship to enable them to meet basic needs. Applicants must satisfy the stipulated residence requirement. At year-end, there were 269,239 CSSA cases involving
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