Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
LCQ22: Special child care centres
Question:
The special child care centres (SCCCs) under the Social Welfare Department provide whole day training and care for children with moderate to severe disabilities to facilitate their growth and development, helping them prepare for articulation to primary education. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has compiled statistics on the number of children receiving services provided by SCCCs in various districts in the past five years (with a breakdown by type of disability), as well as their average waiting time for such services;
(2) whether it has compiled statistics on the respective numbers and percentages of children receiving services provided by SCCCs who have successfully articulated to mainstream schools and special schools; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(3) whether SCCCs will provide follow-up services to the children mentioned in (2); if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(4) whether it will regularly assess and review the teaching plans of SCCCs, so as to ensure that children receiving such services can adapt to social development and better articulate to primary education; if so, of the details?
Reply:
President,
In response to Hon Lillian Kwok’s question, our reply is as follows.
(1) and (2) As of the end of January 2025, there are 50 Special Child Care Centres (SCCCs), including six Residential Special Child Care Centres, across the territory providing full-day training and care for children aged two to six with moderate to severe disabilities. Children assessed to have the following developmental problems may register for SCCC service waitlist through the Central Referral System for Rehabilitation Services (CRSRehab): (ii) moderately or severely physically handicapped;
(iii) deaf or with severe to profound hearing impairment;
(iv) blind or with severe visual impairment; or
(v) severe behavioural/emotional problems, hyperactive disposition or autistic disorder.
CRSRehab allows parents to register their children under the age of two in advance for the service waitlist. However, service allocation will only be provided once the child reaches the age of two and when a service vacancy becomes available.
Children on the SCCC waiting list who are not receiving the aforementioned transitional services may apply for a training subsidy under the Training Subsidy Programme for Children on the Waiting List of Subvented Pre-school Rehabilitation Services, without being subject to any means test. They may utilise the subsidy to acquire self-financing pre-school rehabilitation services run by recognised service providers to receive training as early as possible.
The numbers of service users for SCCCs and the average waiting time, broken down by the eleven administrative districts of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) in the past five years, are tabulated below: