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The Residential Care Homes (Persons with Disabilities) Bill, which aims to regulate residential care homes for persons with disabilities (RCHDs) through a statutory licensing scheme, will be gazetted this Friday (June 18).
The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said, "Having regard to the views of the Legislative Council (LegCo), groups of persons with disabilities, parents groups and the rehabilitation sector, the Administration has undertaken to regulate all RCHDs in the territory through a statutory licensing scheme to require them to meet a set of basic service standards to ensure service quality.
"This licensing regime, coupled with the introduction of suitable complementary measures, will encourage private RCHDs to upgrade their service standards and help the market develop more service options for persons with disabilities."
These include the introduction of a pilot Bought Place Scheme (BPS) for private RCHDs prior to the implementation of the statutory licensing scheme and a Financial Assistance Scheme to provide subsidies to private RCHDs to carry out improvement works in compliance with the licensing requirements in building and fire safety.
To allow time for individual RCHDs to put in place suitable arrangements for application for a new licence, there will be a grace period of 18 months after the passage of the Bill.
Mr Cheung stressed, "Though the proposed licensing standards provide only basic requirements, RCHDs with bought places in future will need to comply with higher standards.
"This will not only ensure that all RCHDs can meet acceptable standards and minimise any adverse impact on existing service users of RCHDs, but also further enhance service quality through the BPS."
The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council for first and second readings on June 30.
Ends/Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Issued at HKT 17:01
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