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Helping the Needy
40. To help the needy we have an established social security safety net, including the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme. Early this year, to further address the poverty problem, the Government set up the Commission on Poverty to co-ordinate relevant policies and implement district-based poverty alleviation measures. Our policy thinking is to help people to help themselves, with a focus on increasing employment and reducing inter-generational poverty. Dedicated, district-based organisations have been formed in many districts. These are chaired by the respective District Officers to oversee the co-ordination of cross-department and cross-sector poverty alleviation work. District-based work programmes have also been drawn up. We will provide additional resources to support them where appropriate.
41. The Government will emphasise helping people capable of work to move from welfare to self-reliance. We will promote co-operation with all parties to further develop social enterprise, enhance the employability of the unemployed and consider how our employment services and training programmes can supplement one another to tie in with this development.
42. The Government will continue to implement various social policies, including mobilising the strengths of the community to provide an opportunity for healthy and balanced development for our children and youth. The Government will continue to provide extra support to children and youth of poor families or with special needs, to ensure they have a proper opportunity to develop.
43. Some poor families are ethnic minorities. They have to overcome many obstacles such as language barriers and different customs. We have provided suitably designed language courses for children of ethnic minorities in schools to help their early integration into our society. We have also provided specialist vocational training for those who have left school to help them find employment. The Government will continue to study the needs of the ethnic minorities and render appropriate assistance.
44. We will strengthen community support services to people with disabilities and their families. To facilitate disabled people's early return to the community, we will provide severely disabled people, including tetraplegia patients, with transitional residence, day training, nursing and support services. At the same time, we will provide discharged patients suffering from mental, physical or neurological impairments with continuous day rehabilitation and infirmary care services. For the disabled residing in rehabilitation facilities, we will introduce a new scheme for visiting doctors to take care of their medical needs. The Government has all along strived to provide people with disabilities with a barrier-free environment. In this connection, we have completed a relevant review. We will conduct public consultation on the outcome of the review and start the necessary legislative process as soon as possible to ensure the provision of barrier-free access to buildings for the disabled.
Cherishing Family Values
45. Cherishing the family is a core value of our community. Family harmony is the foundation of social harmony. The Government will continue to enhance family cohesion with effective policies. Our tax system provides allowances for taxpayers taking care of their children, parents and grandparents. Concessions are also given to single parents and carers of family members, especially disabled family members, who face special difficulties. Our public housing allocation policy gives special consideration to tenants looking after elderly family members.
46. Like many other places, families in Hong Kong bear the brunt of social and economic changes. Divorced and single-parent families are on the rise. Cross-border employment separates families. An ageing population means more elderly people need health care and other forms of attention. Many parents of dual income families have to juggle their jobs and family life. As a caring Government, we actively provide support, counselling and a variety of other social services to such families. At the same time, we will remind all family members of their respective responsibilities to help them build a healthy family relationship.
47. Family education is very important. We will allocate new resources to strengthen and extend family education. We will promote the values, ethics and individual responsibility needed for family harmony through various channels such as media publicity and district activities.
48. The Government does not tolerate domestic violence. We provide protection to victims of domestic violence, in particular women and children. We will also pursue the perpetrators of violence and bring them to justice. Since last year, we have taken special measures and devoted more resources to support families in need and to resolve family crises. These include more social service staff, enhancing co-operation among the Police, Social Welfare Department and non-government organisations, improving the planning and co-ordination systems in districts, and increasing publicity and education as well as staff training. In the coming year, we will launch a pilot scheme to provide counselling to domestic violence offenders. We will also help victims of domestic violence understand their rights, the protection afforded by law and the support services rendered by the Government, and encourage them to seek help as early as possible. We will allocate additional resources and utilise community capital to set up community support networks, and will reach out to families that have not sought help to address their problems at an early stage.
49. In future, the Government will allocate resources according to the different situations in each district. We will strengthen district welfare planning and co-ordination to optimise our care for families. For instance in Tin Shui Wai, we have added a Family and Child Protective Services Unit and will build an integrated children and youth services centre.
50. The Government will seek partnership with the business community and social service agencies to create a family-friendly and community environment in workplace. Relevant government departments, in collaboration with some private sector employers and social service agencies, have established the Employee Assistance Programme to provide employees with professional personal advice and counselling services to help manage stress and emotional problems. Some companies also provide staff with child care services to meet the needs of working parents. We will continue to explore ways to help working parents achieve a better family-work balance so they can upgrade the quality of their family life.
51. Elderly people will enjoy better physical and mental health if they live in the community and maintain a normal social life. To take forward our vision of "ageing in place", we need to provide a better interface between medical and elderly services in the development of community-based elderly care services. This will allow the elderly to receive appropriate medical and nursing care in the community and avoid their premature admission into elderly homes. The Health, Welfare and Food Bureau will work with the Elderly Commission in this regard. We will continue to improve the facilities in elderly homes in order that they may provide a continuum of care.
(To be continued)
Ends/Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Issued at HKT 11:43
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