******************************************************
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 (January 27):
Question:
Since 2005, the Social Welfare Department has been provided with an annual recurrent provision of $15 million for implementing the District Support Scheme for Children and Youth Development (the Scheme) through District Social Welfare Offices to address the developmental needs of disadvantaged children and youth aged 0 to 24. Some of the money is used for implementing individual projects in various districts, while some is granted to the children and youth in need in the form of direct cash assistance. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of projects which have been approved in various districts since the Scheme was launched, the content of such projects, total amount of funds involved, number of children and youth to whom cash assistance has been granted, the per capita amount of assistance granted and standard for granting the cash assistance; and
(b) whether it will review the effectiveness of the Scheme and increase the provision?
Reply:
President,
Since the 2005-06 financial year, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) has been provided with an annual recurrent provision of $15 million for implementing the District Support Scheme for Children and Youth Development (the Scheme) through the District Social Welfare Offices. The Scheme aims to address the developmental needs of disadvantaged children and youths aged 24 or below in the districts. The provision comprises two parts: around 40% of the funding is used to support district projects and cover related programme expenses, whilst the remaining 60% is direct cash assistance (DCA) distributed to individual deprived children and youths according to their developmental needs.
The Administration's reply to the two parts of the question is set out below:
(a) Since the inception of the Scheme, over 900 territory-wide projects involving around $27 million have been approved. These projects can be broadly categorised into the following three groups: (i) organising small group activities to address the developmental needs of those children and youths who have strong interests and talents in sports and arts (such as music, painting and drama, etc.); (ii) implementing mentorship, job skills training programmes, etc. relating to self-employment/job-hunting to enhance the self-reliance of the unemployed youths; and (iii) arranging volunteer services, leadership skills training and youth exchange programmes, etc. to enrich the social experience of young people.
DCA provides one-off financial assistance for those deprived children and youths receiving services from the welfare service units under SWD or SWD-subvented non-governmental organisations, so as to meet their individual developmental needs. Beneficiaries are mainly from families with financial difficulties or disadvantaged groups, such as non-engaged or at-risk youths. The caseworkers of the children and youths in need will decide on the amount of assistance according to their family background and financial conditions, personal development, items required for assistance, etc. DCA is mainly used to purchase academic items, reference books or participate in extra-curricular activities. Over 27 000 children and youths have been granted with DCA since the implementation of the Scheme. The average amount granted was around $1,390 per person. Each beneficiary can only receive the grant once a year, and the maximum amount is $1,500 per person per year.
(b) In 2008-09, the utilisation rate of the Scheme was about 94%. According to the service output evaluation, over 95% of the DCA beneficiaries indicated that the cash assistance could meet their individual needs, while more than 90% of the Scheme participants reported that the projects could facilitate their personal development. All these reflected the satisfactory results of the Scheme. SWD will continue to regularly review the Scheme to examine the utilisation of resources and its effectiveness.
Ends/Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Issued at HKT 11:39
NNNN
