Arrangements for subsidised welfare services and services of Social Welfare Department
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(1) All day care centres or units for the elderly, sheltered workshops, integrated vocational rehabilitation services centres, integrated vocational training centres, day activity centres and day care services attached to care and attention homes for severely disabled persons will resume capacity of about 50 per cent attendance to cater for the rehabilitation/training needs of service users and to relieve the burden of carers.
(2) Apart from (a), (c), (i) and (k) which are provided as normal, the other services will continue to be provided on a limited scale as stated below. Group activities may still be conducted online, whereas mass programmes will continue to be suspended. Services include:
a. Residential care services;
b. Integrated Family Service Centres and Integrated Services Centres (providing casework services and online group activities while extended hours sessions are resumed);
c. Short-term Food Assistance Service;
d. Integrated Home Care Services (providing services including meals, escort, nursing, administration of medicine, assistance with personal hygiene, procurement of necessities, and rehabilitation exercises according to the needs of frail elderly persons);
e. Enhanced Home and Community Care Services (providing services including meals, escort, nursing, administration of medicine, assistance with personal hygiene, procurement of necessities, and rehabilitation exercises according to the needs of frail elderly persons);
f. Home Care Service for Persons with Severe Disabilities (providing services including escort, nursing, administration of medicine, assistance with personal hygiene and procurement of necessities, etc);
g. Integrated Support Service for Persons with Severe Physical Disabilities (providing services including escort, nursing, administration of medicine, assistance with personal hygiene and procurement of necessities, etc);
h. Visiting Medical Practitioner Service for Residential Care Homes;
i. Hotline services;
j. Specialised Co-parenting Support Centres; and
k. Humanitarian Assistance for Non-refoulement Claimants.
Areas within the above service units designated for public use, such as resource corners and game corners, will continue to be temporarily closed.
(3) Centre-based services subsidised by the SWD, such as district elderly community centres, neighbourhood elderly centres, social and recreational centres for persons with disabilities, district support centres for persons with disabilities, community rehabilitation day centres, parents/relatives resource centres, support centres for persons with autism, integrated children and youth services centres, children and youth centres, community centres, and integrated community centres for mental wellness, will continue to operate on a limited scale (such as provision of meal service through distributing meal boxes in some elderly centres and provision of standardised care need assessment for elderly services) in order to reduce the risk of infection arising from the gathering of people. Group activities of the centres might still be conducted online, whereas mass programmes and drop-in services will not be provided at this stage.
(4) All aided child care centres providing day care services for children aged under 3 (including aided standalone child care centres and aided child care centres attached to kindergartens) will gradually resume normal services starting from May 16. Starting from May 3, child care centres may, having regard to their circumstances (e.g. individual centres' operational modes and individual parents' needs), flexibly arrange children to return to the centres to facilitate their adjustment. Service users may contact respective centres for details of the arrangements.
(5) Operators of pre-school rehabilitation services may arrange appropriate modes of individual training, such as centre-based training, e-learning and home training, for service users having regard to the epidemic situation, service users' circumstances and their parents' preference. Moreover, special child care centres will resume half-day classroom training from May 16.
(6) The SWD-subsidised multi-disciplinary outreaching support teams for the elderly and professional outreaching teams for private residential care homes for persons with disabilities will resume their services, including visits to residential care homes or the provision of training and support services through other modes.
(7) For other services not covered by (1) to (6) above, operators may decide whether to continue to provide them under their respective Funding and Service Agreements having regard to their circumstances.
The aforementioned arrangements will continue until further notice. Service operators should keep their service users informed of the latest arrangements and provide suitable personal protective equipment for their staff having regard to the relevant guidelines issued by the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health. They should continue to put in place measures to prevent communicable diseases, including keeping the premises hygienic and clean, requiring service users and staff to wear masks and to wash hands with alcohol-based hand rub, and implement measures on the screening of body temperatures.
Departmental hotline services will be in operation as normal. Other services such as those of Integrated Family Service Centres and Social Security Service Units will continue to be open to the public. The Integrated Family Service Centres will provide casework service as well as online group work service with extended hours of service. For social security applications, relevant application forms are also provided next to the drop boxes of Social Security Field Units and can be downloaded from the SWD's website (www.swd.gov.hk). Completed forms can be returned to the relevant Social Security Field Units by post, fax or email or through drop boxes of the Social Security Field Units. After receiving the applications, the staff of the Social Security Field Units will contact applicants for processing their applications. For enquiries, please call the staff on duty during office hours.
Service users are advised to call the hotline number 2343 2255 for details of the service provisions. To reduce the risk of infection arising from the gathering of people, service users are advised to contact the staff of service units by telephone in advance, so that interviews can be scheduled as appropriate. All visitors must wear masks, have their body temperature checked and maintain social distancing.
Ends/Thursday, April 21, 2022
Issued at HKT 14:00
Issued at HKT 14:00
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