************************************************************
The Residential Care Homes (Persons with Disabilities) Ordinance (Ordinance) and the Residential Care Homes (Persons with Disabilities) Regulation (Regulation) will come into effect on November 18, 2011.
The Director of Social Welfare will subsequently issue a Code of Practice, which specifies detailed procedures, guidelines and standards for the operation, management and other control aspects of residential care homes for persons with disabilities (RCHDs), on the basis of the licensing requirements stipulated in the Regulation. Thereupon, the licensing scheme for RCHDs will come into operation.
To allow time for individual RCHDs to put in place suitable arrangements for application for a new licence or certificate of exemption (CoE) and for the Social Welfare Department to process all applications, there will be a grace period of 18 months starting from the commencement of the Ordinance. During the grace period, no sanction will be imposed on the operation of an RCHD without a licence or CoE. The Government will issue another notice to the effect that Part 2 of the Ordinance, which creates an offence for the operation of an RCHD without a licence or CoE, will come into operation upon the expiry of the 18-month grace period.
The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said, "By regulating RCHDs through the statutory licensing scheme, we can ensure the service quality of the residential care service for persons with disabilities on the one hand, and help the market develop residential care homes of different types and operational modes on the other, thereby providing more service options for persons with disabilities.
"To facilitate the healthy development of the private market, we have introduced complementary measures in tandem. These include the pilot Bought Place Scheme for private RCHDs launched in October last year, which aims to encourage private RCHDs to upgrade their service standards and help the market develop more service options for persons with disabilities, and increasing the number of subsidised places, thereby shortening the waiting time.
"We will also shortly introduce the Financial Assistance Scheme to provide subsidies for private RCHDs to carry out improvement works in compliance with the licensing requirements in building and fire safety. During the 18-month grace period, we will closely monitor the implementation of the licensing scheme and the complementary measures," he said.
Following the enactment of the Ordinance on June 24 this year, its commencement notice and the revised Regulation were passed by the Legislative Council in accordance with negative vetting procedures on November 9.
Ends/Friday, November 11, 2011
Issued at HKT 11:10
NNNN
