Review on Family Services in Tin Shui Wai Completed

The Social Welfare Department (SWD) announced that the Review Panel on Family Services in Tin Shui Wai had completed the review and the Report was submitted to the Director of Social Welfare.

The Panel has put up a number of recommendations relating to district co-ordination and collaboration, service enhancement and improvements to support families.

"The Department welcomes the recommendations of the Report and will study them carefully with other government departments and non-governmental organisations with a view to making continuous improvements," a department spokesman said today (November 22).

He remarked that SWD has already started off several enhancement and improvement measures in service delivery .

They include the sixth Family and Child Protective Services Unit, review of the guidelines on handling child abuse cases, re-engineering of family services, and strengthening of district co-ordinating mechanism. The Department is also taking steps to enhance co-ordination with the Police in handling referrals of domestic violence cases.

The Administration is also examining proposals relating to legal provisions in the Domestic Violence Ordinance and related issues.

The Director of Social Welfare thanked the Panel for their hard work over the past months and agreement to conduct a further review on the progress made with respect to the Report''''''''s recommendations in nine months'''''''' time.

Following a family tragedy took place in Tin Shui Wai in April this year, a three-person Panel was appointed to review the provision and service delivery process of family services in Tin Shui Wai and to see what improvements could be made. Members of the Panel include Mr Aaron Wan Chi-keung, Prof Nelson Chow and Dr Sandra Tsang Kit-man.

The Report will be put on the website of the Department for public access in due course.

End

Monday, November 22, 2004