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Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (November 6):
Question:
The Steering Committee on Population Policy has expressed support for the enhancement of child care services, and the Commission on Poverty has also suggested establishing additional standalone child care centres (CCCs) in districts with keen demand for such services to support low-income families. However, it has recently been reported in the press that at present, places for formal child care services are in acute shortage. There are only 676 places provided by subsidised CCCs for children aged below 2, but the number of children of the same age exceeds 100 000. The numbers of children waiting for services provided by individual CCCs range from 100 to nearly 400, with the highest over-subscription rate standing at 4.5 times. A survey conducted by a social service agency has revealed that, due to the lack of suitable child care services, quite a number of women who need to take care of their young children are forced to give up their jobs, and when their children are admitted to whole-day kindergartens, it is not easy for them to return to work since they have left the work force for too long. I have also learnt that quite a number of couples have hesitation about giving birth to children due to the lack of whole-day CCC services in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) in respect of subsidised, non-profit-making and private CCCs and kindergartens cum CCCs in each of the past three financial years (years), of the respective (i) numbers of approved places and (ii) actual numbers of places for services provided by, (iii) the quarterly numbers of children waiting for such places, (iv) the total annual numbers of children waiting for such places, (v) the average waiting time, (vi) the numbers and percentages of children subsidised by the "Kindergarten and Child Care Centre Fee Remission Scheme", and (vii) among those subsidised cases, the numbers and percentages of children whose parents are both working (set out by year in tables of the same format as Table 1);
(b) of the respective numbers of (i) places for services provided for children by whole-day and half-day subsidised, non-profit-making and private CCCs and kindergartens cum CCCs and (ii) the places utilised in each of the past three years, with a breakdown by administrative district under the Social Welfare Department (SWD) and age group (aged below 2 and 2 to 3) (set out by year in tables of the same format as Table 2);
(c) of the respective numbers of places and the respective average utilisation rates of CCC extended hours service, occasional child care service and mutual help child care centres in each of the past three years, and set out the figures by administrative district under SWD in Table 3;
(d) the respective numbers of beneficiaries under the Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project and home-based child carers participating in the Project for the year 2012-2013, with a breakdown by District Council (DC) district set out in Table 4;
(e) of the respective population of children aged between 0 to 6 in the next decade (set out by year, DC district and age group in tables of the same format as Table 5); and
(f) whether the Government will increase the numbers of places for services provided by subsidised CCCs and kindergartens cum CCCs to the level of that in 1997; if it will, of the details; if it will not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the Hon Cheung Kwok-che's question is as follows:
(a) The numbers of approved places and actual places of subsidised, non-profit-making and private child care centres (CCCs) and kindergarten-cum-CCCs (KG-cum-CCCs) in each of the past three financial years; and the numbers and percentages of children subsidised by the "Kindergarten and Child Care Centre Fee Remission Scheme", and among the subsidised cases, the numbers and percentages of children whose parents are both working are set out in Table 6. There is no waiting list for subsidised standalone whole-day CCCs and KG-cum-CCCs.
(b) There are around 27 000 day child care service quotas, including subsidised standalone CCCs for children below the age of three, non-profit-making and private CCCs, and KG-cum-CCCs which provide education and child care service for children aged six or below. Subsidised CCCs provide a total of 690 whole-day care service quotas, and do not provide any half-day care service. The numbers of places for whole-day care service provided by subsidised CCCs and the numbers of places utilised in each of the past three financial years, with a breakdown by administrative district under the Social Welfare Department (SWD) and age group (aged below two and two to three) are set out in Table 7.
At present, non-profit-making/private CCCs provide half-day care service to children below the age of three (except in Eastern/Wan Chai whereby non-profit-making/private CCCs provide 43 places for whole-day care service in 2012-13). The numbers of places for half-day care service provided by non-profit-making/private CCCs in each of the past three financial years, with a breakdown by administrative district under SWD and age group (aged below 2 and 2 to 3) are set out in Table 8. SWD does not have figures of the actual service utilisation of non-profit-making/private CCCs.
KG-cum-CCCs services are provided by private organisations. The numbers of places for whole-day and half-day care service provided by KG-cum-CCCs and the numbers of places utilised in each of the past three financial years, with a breakdown by administrative district under SWD and age group (aged below 2 and 2 to 3) are set out in Tables 9 and 10.
(c) The respective numbers of places and the respective average utilisation rates of CCC extended hours service, occasional child care service and mutual help child care centers in each of the past three years, with a breakdown by administrative district under SWD are set out in Tables 11 to Table 13.
(d) The respective numbers of beneficiaries under the Neightbourhood Support Child Care Project (NSCCP) and home-based child carers participating in the NSCCP for the year 2012-2013, with a breakdown by District Council district are set out in Table 14.
(e) Convened by the Planning Department, the inter-departmental Working Group on Population Distribution Projections produces projections of population distribution by geographical area on a need basis. The latest projected numbers of children for the age group 0 to 6 for years 2014 to 2021 are set out in Table 15. The Working Group has no breakdown of the projected numbers by age within this age group.
(f) SWD has all along been providing subventions to non-governmental organisations to provide a variety of child care services, including standalone CCCs service, KG-cum-CCCs service, extended hours service and occasional child care service etc. In general, there are still unused quotas for various child care services. SWD will continue to closely monitor the demand for child care services and, subject to funding availability, consider adjusting resource allocation and increasing the number of places and relevant subsidy when the need arises. These include considering setting up additional standalone CCCs in districts with keen demand or providing additional CCC places through in-situ expansion in existing centres, subject to compliance with relevant requirements under the Child Care Services Ordinance.
To further meet the service needs of families, the Government has actively promoted and developed non-institutional care service other than standalone CCCs, for example NSCCP, in order to provide more flexible and convenient services to parents. Under NSCCP, service operators have the flexibility to provide additional home-based child care places on top of the minimum requirement set by SWD to meet the actual service demand. SWD will continue to monitor the operation of various services and ensure that the services meet community demand.
Ends/Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Issued at HKT 18:34
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