Paper 1
THE HONG KONG COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE
FAMILY SERVICE AND CHILD CARE DIVISION
Summary of the Discussion made in the
Sharing Session on Review of Family Services
Held on March 23, 2000
Introduction
- A sharing session amongst the workers was held on March 23, 2000. Four supervisors were invited to share their views first. They are:
- Mrs. Laurene Man, Hong Kong Christian Service
- Mr. Johnnie Chu, St. James Settlement
- Ms. Sira Ng, Caritas-Hong Kong
- Ms. Ellennie Hui, Hong Kong Family Welfare Society
There was a total of 65 workers participated in the session.
Summary of the Discussion
- The major views raised by the four supervisors and the other participants are summaried below.
- The suggestions and reminders
3.1 Re. how to proceed with the review:
- should have a framework worked out for analysing the needs of families, the role of family services, the content of the family services and then the service delivery modes etc.
- the reminders:
- clients’ needs come first (rather than considering from the angle of what we could provide)
- field workers should be consulted during the review process, they have rich experiences in serving the families
- should make full use of and give due recognition to the experiences and development gained in past years
d) clients should be involved in the review
- to seek views from other related professionals as well
3.2 Re. future development:
- the elements to be presented in the future family services should include: early identification of family problems and offer timely assistance; outreaching to the needy clients; be responsible to community needs; be proactive and integration of services. To facilitate the fulfillment of these requirements, the service units should be given flexibility in using the resources
- mutual help network, community care and volunteer participation could go along with the professional development (the vertical development and the horizontal development)
3.3 the social welfare sector alone could not solve the family problems. We should advocate for a family policy with strategies to meet the family needs, with stance on the family and specifying the role of welfare services in supporting the family.
The concerns
- government might put emphasis on the remedial services and hence less resources to the preventive and educational services
- Family Activity & Resource Centres do not receive SWD fundings (agencies use the Lotteries Fund to set up the service), the feasibility to be involved in the review is doubted
- would government be willing to input more resources to meet the family needs?
FS Review/Sum0323