Paper 2
MC/4/99-00
THE HONG KONG COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE
FAMILY SERVICE AND CHILD CARE DIVISION
REVIEW ON SERVICES FOR FAMILIES
- Introduction
The captioned review was initiated by the SWD and a meeting was held with Mrs Patricia Chu, Deputy Director, SWD on November 23, 1999 to share views on the subject.
- Result of the Discussion with SWD
In the November 23 meeting, Mrs Patricia Chu frankly shared with the NGO representatives the Department’s thinking/views on the subject. The NGO members also shared their views. According to the recollection of the D.O, the major points are:
the need for the review: the need to conduct a review over FLE service and the need to strengthen families etc.
way of proceeding the review: the Department would invite a university to conduct a consultancy study on the subject. Consultancy brief will be prepared for the bidding.
scope of review: 1) the needs of families will be looked into – will make use of the secondary data for the purpose 2) the services in mind to be covered are family casework/family service centre, FLE, family aide, SSWP, FARC, family care demonstration and resource centre and other supportive services 3) existing ways of delivering the services will be re-examined and to consider also how best the services interface with each other etc. 4) will also look into the outcome measurement.
the review will not include the development of assessment tool (assessing the risky level of clients) but can include the identification of whether there is a need for developing such a tool.
SWD does not mean to cut the existing resources for families. If the review demonstrates a need to increase resources, the Department will follow up the bidding of resources.
the time frame: the initial thinking is to start the consultancy study in early 2000 and to complete the task in around 8 months’ time.
a steering committee will be set up to oversee the whole study. With regard to the membership, the following categories of persons will be involved: SWD representatives, NGO/Council representatives, independent persons, PTA related individuals …. At the working level, working group will be set up to work on specific tasks.
follow-up action: the Council will organise a small group brainstorming session on the subject. The SWD representatives will attend the session as well. The views gathered could help shape SWD’s consultancy brief.
Mari4/MC1130