Child Care Services

Additional Places of Residential Child Care Services

To enhance support for families in need, SWD provided 9 additional girls’ home places in October 2020 through in-situ expansion.

Improving the Accommodation Facilities of Residential Child Care Service

To address the present-day need of children and youth, SWD has implemented the environment improvement programme (EIP) for small group homes since 2019-20. As at March 2021, allocations from Lotteries Fund have been approved for the EIP of 27 small group homes and 7 of them have completed the renovation works. Moreover, to facilitate smooth implementation of the EIP, SWD has provided financial support to 5 participating small group home operators which had applied for rental subsidy so as to meet the rental expenses in securing suitable temporary accommodation for children during the renovation period.

Agency-based Enhancement of Clinical Psychological Support Services for Children Under Foster Care

To support children and youth with special learning needs/emotional and behavioural problems receiving foster care service, SWD has taken forward “Agency-based Enhancement of Clinical Psychological Support Services for Children under Foster Care” since October 2020 so that they can receive related services and support while waiting for long-term clinical psychological service. The services provided include case assessments, clinical consultations/treatments, and training for foster care workers and foster parents. The annual provision involved is about $3.7 million.

Additional Places of Day Child Care Services

SWD set up a new aided standalone child care centre (CCC) in Sha Tin in March 2021, providing 105 long full-day child care service places for children aged below 3.

Enhancing Day Child Care Service

SWD has improved the service quality of subsidised CCCs by strengthening their supervisory support since February 2021.

Child Care Training Programme for Grandparents

SWD continued to implement the two-year child care training programme for grandparents in 2020-21, providing a total of 840 training places to equip them with contemporary child care knowledge and skills.