Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ4: Child abuse cases

Following is a question by the Hon Choy So-yuk and a reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (January 31):

Question:

As the number of child abuse cases has been on the rise in recent years, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the respective numbers of reported cases and requests for assistance involving child abuse in each district in each of the past three years; and among such cases, the respective numbers of those in which the abuser was the unmarried or single parent of the abused child;

(b) how the authorities will enhance the existing mechanism for handling child abuse cases with a view to facilitating early identification of families with high risks of child abuse on the basis of the profile of such families, and providing timely assistance to such families; and

(c) whether it will flexibly allocate additional resources to districts in which there are more child abuse cases, in order to support the implementation by non-government organisations of specific service programmes or pilot schemes on district coordination mechanism for handling problems of child abuse; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The Administration has always attached importance to child protection, and abusers will be pursued and brought to justice. The Social Welfare Department (SWD), the Police and relevant departments will follow up every identified case, and will, having regard to the circumstances and needs of individual cases, deal with such cases in a most appropriate and professional manner so as to render comprehensive assistance to the abused children.

According to the statistics of SWD's Child Protection Registry, the number of first reported child abuse cases in 2004, 2005 and from January to September 2006 were 622, 763 and 594 respectively. Please refer to the Annex for the breakdown of child abuse cases in terms of place of occurrence by districts.

According to SWD's record, among the cases reported to SWD in the respective years mentioned above, there were 405, 490 and 405 (from January to September 2006) cases involving abusers who were parents or step-parents of the abused children. SWD does not have a breakdown of the marital status of these abusers.

(b) At present, the 61 Integrated Family Service Centres (IFSCs) set up across the territory provide a wide range of preventive, supportive and therapeutic welfare services to, and organise various parenting activities for families in need. In addition, a major focus of the IFSCs is on early intervention. They will pro-actively reach out to the needy families to support them in developing mutual help networks with the community and enhancing their resilience.

In addition, the Administration has since 2005 launched a pilot Comprehensive Child Development Service (CCDS) in phases in Sham Shui Po, Tin Shui Wai, Tuen Mun and Tseung Kwan O respectively. With an aim to identify needy children or at-risk pregnant women and families at an early stage, the community-based CCDS uses the Maternal and Child Health Centres, which currently provide services for over 90% of the new born babies, as a platform to enhance cross-sectoral collaboration and communication. Through better alignment of health, education and social welfare services, CCDS facilitates timely referral of identified cases to IFSCs or other service units for early intervention. We are planning to extend CCDS to the whole territory in phases.

In tandem, the Administration has since 2006-07 allocated an additional annual recurrent funding of about $30 million to launch the Family Support Programme (FSP) in IFSCs, the Integrated Services Centres, the Family and Child Protective Services Units (FCPSUs), and the Psychiatric Medical Social Service Units. The FSP aims at forging closer connection with the vulnerable families that are unwilling to seek help, to introduce and encourage them to receive appropriate services, so as to help prevent escalation of their problems.

The FCPSUs, which specialise in handling spouse battering and child abuse cases, provide outreaching, crisis intervention, casework and group therapeutic services as well as statutory protection for children. SWD has since 2004 reinforced the manpower resources of the FCPSUs and increased the total number of units from five to eight. In the coming year, we will continue to strengthen the support services of the FCPSUs and the IFSCs and enhance the clinical psychology service for the abused children.

(c) The roles and functions of District Social Welfare Officers (DSWOs) have been enhanced since 2001, and they are tasked to establish closer partnership and collaboration with non-government organisations (NGOs) at district level. Having regard to district needs and service priorities, DSWOs work towards building consensus among NGOs in their respective districts to meet the changing service needs by more effective utilisation of resources through various means, such as reorganising services, enhancing coordination, streamlining procedures and setting priorities. Moreover, SWD has conducted a review of the district coordination mechanism. In addition to the existing service-based district coordination mechanism, a cross-service district welfare coordination mechanism has been introduced to various districts in phases from 2006. The new mechanism is expected to be fully implemented in 2007-08, which will further enhance the effectiveness of DSWOs in developing and formulating the overall district welfare strategy.

In the final analysis, concerted efforts of the community are paramount in order to build a society that is free of domestic violence and in which our children can grow up in a caring and supportive environment. In 2006-07, the Administration will continue to roll out different family education, publicity and community involvement programmes to promote the values, ethics and individual responsibility that are important for family harmony. For example, the Education and Manpower Bureau has devised education materials on prevention of domestic violence to help teachers of kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools to organise relevant activities for students. We have also been promoting the development of social capital through the Community Investment and Inclusion Fund to build up neighbourhood mutual help networks, matching needy families with caring supporters and promoting family harmony, and these will hopefully help to reduce child abuses.

Thank you, Madam President.


Ends/Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:52

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Attachment:
Annex to LCQ4