LCQ5: Child care centres and School-based After School Care Service Scheme
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Question:
The Government increased the Child Care Centre Parent Subsidy to a maximum of $1,000 per month in April 2024, and further expanded the School-based After School Care Service Scheme (the Scheme) in the 2025-2026 school year. As at February this year, there were already 205 primary schools participating in the Scheme, providing over 10 000 service places. Regarding the strengthening of support for working families in childbearing, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of cases that have received the Child Care Centre Parent Subsidy in full since April 2024; among them, the proportion of infants and toddlers from birth to under the age of two who have benefited;
(2) given that under the Scheme, care services on weekdays are provided until 6pm or 6.30pm, and may be extended to 7pm in individual schools, whether the Government has plans for extending the service hours of the Scheme to 7pm across the board; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(3) given the large population size of the Northern Metropolis (NM) in the future, whether the Government has plans to enhance the standard planning ratio for child care centres and the overall supply of child care service places in NM; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
To support parents in taking care of their children, the Government subsidises non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to provide a variety of day child care services, including the full-day Child Care Centre (CCC) service, the After School Care Programme (ASCP) and the Extended Hours Service (EHS) for school-aged children, the district-based and flexible Occasional Child Care Service (OCCS) and the Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project, as well as implements the School-based After School Care Service Scheme (SBA), to meet the different needs of parents and children.
In recent years, the Government has implemented a series of measures to enhance child care services, including reforming child care services, increasing service places, and providing additional professional manpower resources, etc, to respond to the community's demand for child care services. The Labour and Welfare Bureau and the Social Welfare Department (SWD) are making every effort to implement measures of the 2025 Policy Address in relation to the strengthening of day child care services for infants and toddlers, so as to support families who wish to have children as well as working families with infants and toddlers.
The reply to the Member's question on the three parts is as follows:
(1) CCC service provides long-hour day care services for children aged from birth to under three years in a safe, stimulating and learning environment. As at the first quarter of 2026, there are a total of about 43 000 CCC service places in Hong Kong, among which about 8 700 service places are provided by 21 aided standalone CCCs and 242 aided CCCs attached to kindergartens subsidised by the Government. The SWD also funds some of these centres to provide about 460 OCCS places and about 2 400 EHS places for pre-primary children, to support parents who cannot take care of their children because of sudden engagements or long working hours.
The Government introduced the Child Care Centre Parent Subsidy (Parent Subsidy) in February 2020, and has increased the subsidy from a maximum of $600 to $1,000 per month since April 2024, for subsidising parents in paying part of the service fee of full-day aided CCCs so as to alleviate their financial burden. There are about 10,000 beneficiaries every year. Parent Subsidy, a non-mean-test subsidy, is disbursed through the aided CCCs concerned. The SWD will disburse Parent Subsidy to the aided CCCs where the children are enrolled to directly offset a portion of the children's monthly fees until they cease to receive full-day aided CCC services. In 2024-25 and 2025-26, a total of about 22 400 cases received Parent Subsidy of $1,000 in full, with children aged below two accounting for an average of about 11 per cent of all beneficiaries.
(2) The Government launched the SBA in the 2023/24 school year, with a view to allowing primary students in need to stay after school for care and learning support in a safe and familiar environment, thereby easing the pressure on parents/guardians in caring for and supervising their children. At the same time, it gives parents/guardians who otherwise need to look after their children in after-school hours the option of taking up employment and improving their livelihood. The SBA was expanded to cover 126 primary schools in all 18 districts in the 2024/25 school year and uncapped the number of service places in the 2025/26 school year to support more primary students and parents in need. As at end of May 2026, 207 primary schools have joined the SBA, providing over 10 500 service places.
Under the current arrangement of the SBA, service operators are required to provide at least three hours of after school care service daily from Monday to Friday. Depending on the dismissal time of individual participating schools, operating hours generally end between 6pm to 6.30pm. The service hours may be extended to 7pm if school conditions permit. If individual students have other needs, the service operators will make appropriate arrangement.
(3) In accordance with the planning ratio stipulated in the Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines, i.e. 100 aided CCC places for children under the age of three for every 25 000 population, the SWD reserves suitable premises for the provision of CCCs in new development areas. For developed areas, the SWD will take into account the overall provision of child care services and the characteristics of individual districts when planning services, including the number of service places and utilisation rates, the ratio of subsidised to private service supply, land supply situation of the district, and demographic changes, etc, so as to better meet the service demand of the community.
Since non-aided CCCs currently offer more service places for children aged two or above, the SWD will, to ensure the efficient use of public resources, allocate more service places for infants under two when planning new aided standalone CCCs, while meeting legal requirements and optimising staff ratios. If the CCC is smaller in size, all service places will be dedicated to caring for children aged below two.
Currently, there are a total of 21 aided standalone CCCs in Hong Kong, providing 1 536 service places. The SWD is setting up 15 additional aided standalone CCCs in different districts (including North District and Yuen Long) in phases. It is estimated that a total of about 1 500 additional service places will be provided progressively by the end of 2029, almost doubling the existing supply.
Ends/Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Issued at HKT 15:20
Issued at HKT 15:20
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