Govt To Act Faster On Child Abuse Reporting Law

Labour and Welfare Secretary Chris Sun said on Monday that the government would speed up legislation to compel people to report suspected cases of child abuse.

He told a Legislative Council panel that the original plan was to consult lawmakers on the matter in December, but the administration had now decided to bring it forward to next month.

“In light of the community’s concern, we’d like to further expedite the progress,” he said.

Sun made the announcement as he briefed lawmakers on an interim report by a committee reviewing residential childcare services.

He said it had made a total of 31 recommendations, some of which had already been implemented, including the installation of CCTV in all residential foster homes.

Another recommendation is to impose a period of surveillance for care homes that fail to meet service quality standards.

Director of Social Welfare Charmaine Lee revealed that the Children’s Residential Home in Prince Edward would be under surveillance until August next year after it was caught up in a child abuse case.

The foster home, run by the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children, will have to prove it is still capable of providing services subsidised by the Social Welfare Department, said Lee.

“According to the mechanism, progress reports will have to be submitted to the Social Welfare Department every three months, and within the one-year period, we keep in view whether they have improved their situations, and depending on the performance decide whether to extend the surveillance period,” she said.

Other recommendations include the introduction of a registration mechanism for superintendents, increasing manpower for childcare centres, and using new technology to monitor staff behaviour and identify any inappropriate behaviour.