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Following is a question by Dr Hon Elizabeth Quat and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (April 24):
Question:
A survey conducted by a political party has found that almost 70% of the responding women are willing to go out to work in order to improve the financial situation of their families. Owing to a shortfall in child care services, quite a number of them are forced to stay at home to take care of their young children aged below 12 to avoid committing the offence of leaving children unattended at home. Some single mothers receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) have relayed that they once intended to take up part-time jobs under the Support for Self-reliance (SFS) Scheme in order to help their families make ends meet. However, as the service hours of home-based child carers failed to dovetail with their schedules (as most of these carers get off work at 6pm each day) and their services were unreliable, they very often had to take unscheduled leave in order to look after their children at home. Moreover, part of the income from part-time jobs would be deducted by the Social Welfare Department when calculating the amount of allowance payable to CSSA recipients, so much so that the remaining income was even unable to cover the costs for engaging home-based child carers. In the end, they had no alternative but to give up taking up part-time jobs as the losses outweighed the gains. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) as some parents have indicated that the places for services of independent child care centres, kindergarten-cum-child care centres, occasional child care and child care provided under the Neighbouring Support Child Care Project (NSCCP) in their districts have been fully taken up and they are unable to register for waiting for such services as there are no waiting lists for such services, whether the authorities will compile statistics on the number of families who were denied of such services because the places for such services had been fully taken up, and whether it will increase the quotas of such services and set up waiting lists to facilitate assessment of the service demand;
(b) of the details of the child care services provided by various NSCCP service operators, including the respective numbers of home-based child carers in each District Council (DC) district who provide child care services: (i) at their own homes; (ii) at clients' homes, and (iii) in the premises of the service operators;
(c) of the actual situation concerning the child care services provided by home-based child carers in various DC districts at present, including: (i) whether the child carers have received pre-employment training; (ii) the maximum and minimum service charges, and (iii) the percentage of those carers who provide services beyond 8am to 6pm;
(d) of the implementation details of the SFS Scheme at present, together with examples illustrating the provision of disregarded earnings under the CSSA Scheme and the calculation method;
(e) as CSSA recipients taking up part-time jobs may not always be exempted from making payments to home-based child carers or for child care services while the CSSA payments they receive will be deducted because of their income from part-time jobs, so much so that their income after deduction may even be unable to cover the costs for child care services, whether the authorities have assessed if the SFS Scheme can achieve its goals under such circumstances;
(f) given the view that the turnover rate of home-based child carers is on the high side because (i) they are not protected by the minimum wage law as they are offered incentive payments instead of wages, and (ii) there are quite a number of better-paid jobs in the market, whether the authorities have compiled statistics on the turnover rates of home-based child carers before and after the implementation of the statutory minimum wage; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for not studying the impact of the minimum wage on the stability of the supply of home-based child carers;
(g) given that the Police received 61 reported cases of leaving children unattended at home in 2012, representing a year-on-year increase of 40%, whether the authorities will review the existing home-based child care services and consider afresh requiring service operators to increase the amount of incentive payments for their home-based child carers to reasonable levels to attract more experienced women to work as home-based child carers, so that working mothers may go to work without worries and hence a larger women labour force will be released; and
(h) focusing on the problem of home-based child care services failing to meet the actual demand at present, in particular the acute shortage of those services for young children aged between six and 12, whether the authorities have assessed the demand for child care services for children aged between six and 12, as well as studied and considered any policies and measures to help the needy families solve their problem; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
It is the responsibility of parents to take care of their young children. Parental care would cater for young children's developmental needs and is in their best interests. To support parents who are unable to take care of their children temporarily because of work or other reasons, the Government provides subvention to Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) to run diversified and flexible child care services, and service fee subsidy is also provided for low-income families to ensure that the needy families can get the necessary services.
My reply to the eight parts of the question raised by the Hon Elizabeth Quat is as follows:
(a) In general, there are still unused quotas for various child care services and after-school care services. As at December 2012, the utilisation rates of all kinds of child care services were below 87%, with the exception of standalone child care centres which had a utilisation rate of 100%. For the Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project (NSCCP), service operators have the flexibility to provide additional home-based child care places on top of the minimum requirement to meet the actual service demand. The Social Welfare Department (SWD) has not received any report of needy children failing to receive such service because of insufficient service places. We will continue to review the operation of various services to ensure that the services can meet the demands from the community.
(b) Currently, service operators of NSCCP in all 18 districts are required to provide a minimum of 26 home-based child care places and 14 centre-based care group places. That is, there are a total of at least 468 home-based child care places and 252 centre-based care group places in the territory. 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.
(c) As stipulated in the service agreements under NSCCP, service operators are required to recruit suitable persons as home-based carers and provide relevant training to them, and ensure their quality of service through regular home visits. At present, the basic fees for home-based child care service range from $18 to $24 per hour. The utilisation rate of home-based child care service beyond 8am to 6pm accounts for about 39% of the overall service utilisation.
(d) and (e) Regarding subsidy to NSCCP service fees, CSSA recipients are deemed to have passed the means tests. CSSA recipients will be granted fee waiving or reduction if they are identified as having social needs.
As regards the Support for Self-reliance (SFS) Scheme, SWD has launched this Scheme under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme from 1999 onwards to encourage and help unemployed able-bodied CSSA recipients aged 15 to 59 to secure employment and move towards self-reliance.
Under SFS Scheme, unemployed CSSA recipients should find paid jobs of not less than 120 work hours per month and with income not less than the standard amount specified by SWD. For single parents and child carers on CSSA whose youngest child is aged 12 to 14, SWD encourages and assists them to find jobs of not less than 32 work hours per month.
To encourage CSSA recipients who have the ability to work to find jobs and remain in employment, disregarded earnings (DE) arrangement is provided under SFS Scheme. Under the Scheme, a portion of the CSSA recipient's monthly earnings from employment will not be deducted from his CSSA entitlement if he has been on CSSA for not less than two months. The maximum level of the monthly DE is $2,500 at present. An example of calculation of DE is at Annex.
The Social Security and Retirement Protection Task Force under the Commission on Poverty supported at its meeting on March 18 the implementation of a pilot scheme on savings accounts through the Community Care Fund. The objective of the pilot scheme is to save up any CSSA payments deducted in excess of the maximum level of DE for the CSSA recipients who are in employment. When the total amounts of savings exceed CSSA asset limit by a certain amount, the total savings amounts will be released to the CSSA recipients to assist them in leaving the CSSA net. Details of the scheme are being considered and followed up by SWD.
(f) and (g) NSCCP is a mutual aid scheme instead of an employment project. Its objective is to foster community participation and mutual help in the neighbourhood, and provide needy families with flexible child care support service. Home-based child carers under NSCCP provide services as volunteers in the spirit of care for others and will receive incentive payments. The incentive payment for home-based child carers is part of the overall financial arrangements of the service operators, and its level is determined by the service operators concerned in light of their scope of service and the district's situation. Such level is not subject to the minimum wage requirement. In selecting service operators, SWD will consider whether the incentive payments offered to the home-based child carers by the service operators are reasonable.
SWD will continue to monitor the operation of NSCCP through performance statistics and reports submitted by service operators on a monthly basis as well as pre-arranged visits or ad hoc spot checks. The service agreements that SWD signed with service operators will expire in March 2015. By then, SWD will review the scope of service and performance outcome of individual service operators, and collect views from stakeholders and relevant social organisations.
(h) Currently, NSCCP mainly targets at children aged under six. Under special circumstances, service operators may provide child care service for children aged above six. The service is available in the morning, afternoon and evening sessions of weekdays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays (including school holidays). It is believed that the service can meet the needs of the parents in general.
Under the After School Care Programme (ASCP), SWD has been providing service for children aged six to 12 through NGOs. The services provided include homework guidance, skill learning and other social activities. At present, there are a total of 142 ASCP centres offering about 5 400 service places across the territory; and with a utilisation rate of 87%, there are still unused service quotas. In general, ASCP centres provide services in various sessions from Monday to Friday till 7 or 8pm. To cater for the special needs of some parents, individual centres also extend their service hours until late evening and provide services on Saturdays and during Summer holidays in response to the actual demand in individual districts. To ensure efficient use of resources, SWD will conduct regular review on the demand for fee-waiving subsidies in various districts and will also liaise with NGOs concerned to increase their ASCP places to cope with additional demand as and when required.
To ensure that needy families can afford such services, SWD grants fee waiving or reduction for them. Currently, there are still unused fee waiving or reduction quotas for various services. SWD will continue to review the operation of such services to ensure that they can meet the demands of the community.
Ends/Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Issued at HKT 18:46
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