Downloading of the acrobat documents for reading and printing can be done through the use of the Adobe(R) acrobat(R) reader software which is available free at the Adobe Systems Inc. Website.

The Social Welfare Department is now inviting, through a Service Specification, bona fide charitable organisations with experience in providing services relating to caring of children under the age of six to implement a new Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project (NSCCP)(鄰里支援幼兒照顧計劃) a more flexible form of day child care service.  The new NSCCP aims to meet the needs of parents who are either working long, unstable and /or unconventional hours, in emergency needs, and / or for various reasons require child care assistance, but lacking support network and having financial hardship in securing alternative child care support.

A full set of the Service Specification of the project can be accessed here:

Service Specification

Should you need further enquiries, please contact Mr LAI Yiu-chung at 2892 5177.

The Social Welfare Department is inviting non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to submit proposals to operate the Hotline and Outreaching Service Team.  Applicant NGO must be a bona fide non-profit making charitable institution or trust that is exempted from tax under Section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance and is providing welfare services.  The deadline for submission of proposal is 5:00 pm on 6 June 2008 (Friday).  Late submission will not be considered.  The Service Specification and Annex can be downloaded here:

• Service Specification and Annex Acrobat file

A briefing session will be held with details as follows:

Date: 5 May 2008 (Monday)
Time: 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Venue: Gymnasium, Lady Trench Training Centre, 44 Oi Kwan Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Quota: 2 representatives from each agency

Please download and complete the reply slip if you wish to attend the briefing session, and return it by fax (Fax no.: 2833 5840) or email (Email address: af1@swd.gov.hk) on or before 30 April 2008:

• Reply Slip for Briefing Session MS Word file

"The Jockey Club IT Scheme for People with Visual Impairment" (6th round) and "Central Fund for Personal Computers" (18th round) now accept applications.  The deadline for both the Scheme and Fund is 6 June 2008.

Eligible organisations, educational institutes and individual persons with visual impairment may apply for "The Jockey Club IT Scheme for People with Visual Impairment" whereas "Central Fund for Personal Computers" is for eligible persons with disabilities engaging in self-employment or supported employment service.

Detailed information and application forms can be downloaded from SWD Website:
http://www.swd.gov.hk/en/index/site_pubsvc/page_rehab/sub_listofserv/id_itforpeople/; or
CyberAble.net: http://www.cyberable.net .

Enquiries can be made to Rehabilitation and Medical Social Services Branch, Social Welfare Department:

"The Jockey Club IT Scheme for People with Visual Impairment"
Telephone: 2892 5652; Email Address: srm3@swd.gov.hk; Fax: 2119 9035;

"Central Fund for Personal Computers"
Telephone No.: 2892 5156; Email Address: srm5@swd.gov.hk; Fax: 2119 9035.

Following the invitation letter issued to NGOs (welfare) for the caption subject on 18 March 2008 and the subsequent site visits to the projects namely a Care & Attention Home for Severely Disabled Persons at Lei Muk Shue Estate, Tusen Wan and two Integrated Rehabilitation Services Centres at Lei Yue Mun Estate, Kwun Tong and A Kung Kok Shan Road, Sha Tin respectively, a briefing session was held on 28 March 2008 to answer questions on these projects.  The PowerPoint and Summary of Questions and Answers presented in the session can be accessed here:

1. PowerPoint
2. Summary of Questions and Answers

As announced by the Chief Executive in the 2007-08 Policy Address, the government will create 3 000 new temporary posts, namely Programme Worker (PW), to enhance employment support for young people aged between 15 and 29 from 2008-09 to 2010-11 subject to budgetary approval by the Legislative Council. The new PW posts are created for helping young people to gain working experience so that they could eventually find jobs in the labour market thus achieving the goal of open employment.

Social Welfare Department (SWD) is responsible for allocating these 3 000 new PW posts to subvented non-governmental organizations (NGO) for assisting social workers to deliver/enrich service/programmes in various service settings to serve different target groups, such as children and youth, secondary students, at-risk youth, young drug abusers, young offenders, elders, persons with disabilities and their family members.

Operating NGOs are responsible for the actual operation of the PW posts including recruitment, posting arrangement, training and supervision. They have been notified of the allocation of PW posts and the employment arrangements by SWD at end of February 2008.

Young people, who are interested in applying for these posts, may find the recruitment advertisements of these posts put up by operating NGOs in the newspaper. The contact phone numbers of operating NGOs can be downloaded here.

The Rehabilitation and Medical Social Services Branch has issued an invitation letter dated 18 March 2008 to the NGOs (welfare) for their tendering of quality proposal for the operation of any ONE of the three new rehabilitation projects, namely:

i) the Care & Attention Home for the Severely Disabled (C&A/SD) at Lei Muk Shue Estate, Tsuen Wan;
ii) the Integrated Rehabilitation Services Centre (IRSC) at Lei Yue Mun Estate, Kwun Tong; and
iii) the IRSC at A Kung Kok Shan Road, Sha Tin.

Site visits and a common briefing session will be held with schedules as follows:

i. 26 March 2008, 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ¡V site visit to the new IRSC at A Kung Kok Shan Road, Sha Tin;
ii. 26 March 2008, 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ¡V site visit to the new C&A/SD at Lei Muk Shue Estate, Tsuen Wan;
iii. 28 March 2008, 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ¡V site visit to the new IRSC at Lei Yue Mun Estate, Kwun Tong; and
iv. 28 March 2008, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. ¡V a common briefing session on all the three projects at the hall of Evangelize China Fellowship Holy Word School, 60 Lei Yue Mun Road, Yau Tong, Kowloon.

Interested NGOs are reminded to study the requirements of the particular project carefully; and service proposal for the intended project of pages not exceeding required limit has to be sent, in 6 hard copies and 1 soft copy in a sealed envelope, by hand before the deadline to:

Please note the DEADLINES for each of the projects are different and have been spelt out in Annex 9 of the respective Service Specifications.  No late application will be considered.  The same NGO tendering for more than one project will render their second and third project proposal(s) submitted disqualified.

For access to the Invitation Letter (copy), Summaries and full sets of the Service Specifications and related Annexes of the three projects, please click here:

- Invitation Letter (copy)

- Summaries, Service Specifications and Annexes:

C&A/SD at Lei Muk Shue Estate, Tsuen Wan
IRSC at Lei Yue Mun Estate, Kwun Tong
IRSC at A Kung Kok Shan Road, Sha Tin

For further enquiries, you may contact the following officers:

C&A/SD at Lei Muk Shue Estate -	Ms Annisa MA, SS(RM)3, at 2892 5114
IRSC at Lei Yue Mun Estate -	Mr CHAN Ping Ching, SS(RM)2, at 2892 5131
IRSC at A Kung Kok Shan Road -	Mr CHAN Kwok Ho, SS(RM)1, at 2892 5378

To facilitate the improvement of inter-sector collaboration and multi-disciplinary cooperation, and to enhance the current child welfare service systems for achieving the objective of prevention of child death, the Social Welfare Department has launched the Pilot Project on Child Fatality Review.  The Director of Social Welfare has appointed 14 professionals and independent persons from different sectors to serve the Review Panel from 15 February 2008 to 14 February 2010.  The Review Panel is responsible for reviewing all cases of children died of non-natural causes.  Under this mechanism, the Secretariat of the Review Panel will collect relevant information from those service organisations or units that had had contact with the deceased child and/or his/her family members for review purpose. The Brief on the Pilot Project can be downloaded here.

Pilot Project on Child Fatality Review

Powerpoint of Briefing on Child Fatality Review on 4 March 2008 (Chinese only) 

The list of Flag Day Organisers from April 2008 to March 2009 can be downloaded here.