Following is a question by the Hon Chau Siu-chung and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, in the Legislative Council today (February 4):
 
Question:

     The Government has, starting in April 2025, extended the District Services and Community Care Teams - Scheme on Supporting Elderly and Carers (the Scheme) to across the territory to provide support to elderly persons and carers in need. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the number of households visited or contacted by the District Services and Community Care Teams (Care Teams) in various districts in connection with the Scheme since April 1, 2025, with a breakdown by District Council (DC) district and type of target service user (i.e. (i) singleton elderly households, (ii) doubleton elderly households, (iii) carers of elderly persons, and (iv) carers of persons with disabilities (PWDs)), together with a breakdown of the figures and percentages;

(2) of the following information on the referrals for support services made by Care Teams in various districts to the service targets of the Scheme since April 1, 2025: (i) the number of cases referred to social welfare service units for follow-up (set out by type of welfare service), (ii) the number of cases referred to the Designated Hotline for Care Support for follow-up, (iii) the number of cases in which eligible elderly persons and PWDs are referred to install the Safety Bell; and (iv) the number of cases referred to persons in need for applications for assistive devices, with a breakdown by DC district and the types of service targets mentioned in (1);

(3) among the cases referred to social welfare service units for follow-as mentioned in (2)(i), of the number of cases first identified as high-risk cases and their share of the percentage of the total number of cases referred;

(4) of the following information on the specialised training provided by the authorities to the Care Teams in response to the Scheme since April 1, 2025: (i) the names of the training programmes, (ii) the training format, (iii) the number of class hours, (iv) the names of the training institutions, (v) the number of trainees, and (vi) the means of assessing the effectiveness of the training programmes;

(5) as the 2025 Policy Address proposes expanding the Carer Support Data Platform (Data Platform) to connect data from more Government departments and public organisations, of the current progress and timetable of the relevant work; the respective numbers of elderly persons and carers currently covered by the Data Platform; and

(6) given that, in its written reply to a question raised by the Panel on Welfare Services of this Council in June 2025, the Government indicated that the Social Welfare Department did not maintain records of the number of elderly persons or carers in need identified and assisted by property management personnel under the Support for Carers Project (the Project), whether the authorities will collect such data in future to facilitate assessment of the actual effectiveness of the Project in supporting elderly persons or carers; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that and the alternative assessment methods?

Reply:

President,

     The Government launched the District Services and Community Care Teams - Scheme on Supporting Elderly and Carers (the Scheme) in March 2024 on a pilot basis in Tsuen Wan and Southern District. The Scheme was extended to all 18 districts of Hong Kong in April 2025. More than 450 Care Teams across the territory have been assisting in, through visits and contacts, identifying households of singleton/doubleton elderly persons, carers of elderly persons and carers of persons with disabilities in need. Care Teams have provided care and support to these households, and referred elderly persons and carers in need to social welfare service units so that they can receive suitable support.

     Our reply to various parts of the question is as follows:

(1) As at end-December 2025, Care Teams had visited or contacted 79 342 households in need under the Scheme, distribution as follows:
 

District	No. of singleton elderly households	No. of doubleton elderly households	No. of households with carers of elderly persons	No. of households with carers of persons with disabilities	Total no. of households
Central & Western	974 (31.44%)	1 019 (32.89%)	1 101 (35.54%)	4 (0.13%)	3 098
Southern	1 134 (32.94%)	1 110 (32.24%)	1 184 (34.39%)	15 (0.44%)	3 443
Islands	872 (39.23%)	688 (30.95%)	659 (29.64%)	4  (0.18%)	2 223
Eastern	1 314 (33.14%)	1 078 (27.19%)	1 572 (39.65%)	1 (0.03%)	3 965
Wan Chai	370 (29.53%)	496 (39.58%)	387 (30.89%)	0 (0%)	1 253
Kwun Tong	5 022 (53.50%)	2 601 (27.71%)	1 756 (18.71%)	8 (0.09%)	9 387
Wong Tai Sin	2 311 (41.60%)	1 534 (27.61%)	1 698 (30.57%)	12 (0.22%)	5 555
Sai Kung	735 (37.52%)	646 (32.98%)	575 (29.35%)	3 (0.15%)	1 959
Kowloon City	1 678 (36.65%)	1 739 (37.98%)	1 156 (25.25%)	6 (0.13%)	4 579
Yau Tsim Mong	1 442 (32.67%)	887 (20.10%)	2 080 (47.12%)	5 (0.11%)	4 414
Sham Shui Po	1 758 (52.35%)	1 047 (31.18%)	545 (16.23%)	8  (0.24%)	3 358
Sha Tin	2 980 (40.77%)	2 071 (28.33%)	2 254 (30.84%)	4 (0.05%)	7 309
Tai Po	985 (39.93%)	871 (35.31%)	603 (24.44%)	8 (0.32%)	2 467
North	1 207 (43.01%)	1 098 (39.13%)	495 (17.64%)	6 (0.21%)	2 806
Yuen Long	2 237 (43.89%)	1 450 (28.45%)	1 400 (27.47%)	10 (0.20%)	5 097
Tsuen Wan	1 126 (31.28%)	1 191 (33.08%)	1 273 (35.36%)	10 (0.28%)	3 600
Kwai Tsing	3 238 (35.95%)	3 484 (38.68%)	2 265 (25.15%)	20 (0.22%)	9 007
Tuen Mun	2 549 (43.78%)	1 847 (31.72%)	1 424 (24.46%)	2 (0.03%)	5 822
Total	31 932  (40.25%)	24 857 (31.33%)	22 427 (28.27%)	126 (0.16%)	79 342

(2) As at end-December 2025, Care Teams of all 18 districts across the territory had made a total of 6 773 welfare service referrals under the Scheme. The breakdown of referral categories by District Council district is as follows:
 

District	Services for the elderly (case)	Rehabilitation services (case)	Mental health services (case)	Family services (case)	Financial assistance (case)	Other services (Note) (case)	Total  (case)
Central & Western	6	1	1	19	0	60	87
Southern	4	0	0	7	1	2	14
Islands	11	2	2	8	3	52	78
Eastern	12	2	2	14	7	327	364
Wan Chai	37	38	2	37	36	1	151
Kwun Tong	156	97	74	96	88	107	618
Wong Tai Sin	91	14	9	11	11	117	253
Sai Kung	91	14	6	49	7	3	170
Kowloon City	829	42	42	50	36	68	1 067
Yau Tsim Mong	105	81	66	100	42	145	539
Sham Shui Po	49	2	1	8	1	241	302
Sha Tin	24	9	8	19	63	132	255
Tai Po	18	4	1	17	2	45	87
North	65	2	2	13	20	9	111
Yuen Long	18	12	4	103	12	43	192
Tsuen Wan	64	13	5	58	4	43	187
Kwai Tsing	326	18	15	119	223	296	997
Tuen Mun	602	92	66	96	79	366	1 301
Total	2 508	443	306	824	635	2 057	6 773

(Note: Other services include referrals to the District Social Welfare Offices for welfare services, and referrals to activities or community resources provided by social service units)

     Currently, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) does not categorise the aforementioned referral cases by household or carer type. In general, Care Teams would not refer the cases to the Designated Hotline for Carer Support as relevant households would be referred direct to respective welfare services based on their actual needs. That said, Care Teams would introduce the Hotline to these households and encourage them to call for assistance when necessary.

     In addition to the aforesaid welfare service referrals, as at end-December 2025, over 2 700 households across the territory had received subsidies for the installation and service of emergency alarm system through referrals by Care Teams under this Scheme. Care Teams had also referred 1 085 households in need to apply for assistive devices.

(3) and (5) The Labour and Welfare Bureau and the SWD launched two pilot schemes in July 2025 respectively. Under one of the schemes, the SWD and Housing Department (HD) have identified, through consolidation of data from the two departments, high-risk households comprising singleton/doubleton elderly persons that are relatively older and lack community support, as well as high-risk households with carers of elderly persons or carers of persons with disabilities. We have then deployed Care Teams to contact and visit these households, and provide them with care and suitable support. This scheme aims to establish a community support network for high-risk groups which have yet to receive social welfare service support. In September 2025, we expanded this pilot scheme to all 18 districts across the territory, covering approximately 55 000 high-risk households. As at end-December 2025, Care Teams had contacted or visited over 27 000 high-risk households under the scheme.

     Another pilot scheme is about establishing the first phase of the Carer Support Data Platform in July 2025. The objective is to provide emergency support to hospitalised carers and assist them in looking after their care recipients at home. We have initially connected data from the SWD, the Hospital Authority (HA) and the HD. When the SWD learns from the HA's notification mechanism that a carer is hospitalised and hence the relevant household may be at risk, we will proactively contact the care recipient and provide emergency support tailored to their needs, such as respite and meal delivery services, to achieve early intervention. As at end-December 2025, the SWD had contacted over 3 100 carer cases, with three cases identified as cases requiring immediate emergency support. For the remaining cases, the SWD provided them with contact details of social welfare units so that support for care recipients could be provided when needed. In future, Government will systematise the relevant database and progressively expand its coverage, and the next target is to include high-risk households living in Hong Kong Housing Society public rental units and "three-nil" buildings.

(4) Before the District Services and Community Care Teams - Scheme on Supporting Elderly and Carers was expanded to all 18 districts across the territory, the SWD had already held 44 briefing sessions and training seminars for more than 450 Care Teams across all 18 districts. The training covered the Scheme's service content and model, basic communication and visitation skills, methods to identify households' needs, familiarisation with welfare service resources and referral procedures in the district, and instruction on using the tenant information management platform to collect data and manage service records, etc.  

     In addition, each District Social Welfare Office has a designated contact person who maintains close contact with Care Teams and provides professional advice and support as needed. The Scheme has been operating smoothly so far.

(6) The SWD launched the "Support for Carers Project" (the Project) in October 2023. Through the SWD's subvented centres for the elderly and rehabilitation service units, the Project provides training for frontline property management personnel (PMP), equips them with the skills to identify and assist needy elderly persons, persons with disabilities and their carers, and provides them with information on welfare services in the community so that the PMP can promptly leverage community resources when necessary. Over 420 property management companies/owners' corporations have participated in the Project since its launch, covering more than 3 750 residential buildings across the territory. Over 11 000 frontline PMP have received training.

     Property management companies participate in the Project on a voluntary basis and are responsible for arranging training for frontline property management staff. The focus of this Project is to attract more property management companies/owners' corporations to participate, thereby enhancing the ability and awareness of PMP to identify households in need. In this sense, collection of referral data may dampen the willingness of property management companies to participate due to additional resources and administrative burden, thereby undermining the original intent of the Project.

     Training providers, property management companies and personnel will review the effectiveness of the training after each session. The SWD will continue to evaluate, by collecting feedback from stakeholders, the effectiveness of the training programmes in supporting carers.

Ends/Wednesday, February 4, 2026
Issued at HKT 15:42

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