LCQ21: Support for divorced parents and their children
19.4.2023

Following is a question by the Hon Luk Chung-hung and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, in the Legislative Council today (April 19): Question: The Social Welfare Department (SWD) has set up across the territory five Specialised Co-parenting Support Centres (SCSCs) which are operated by non-governmental organisations to provide one-stop co-parenting support services for separated/divorcing/divorced parents (divorced parents) and/or their children, with a view to assisting such parents in fulfilling their parental responsibilities under the "child-focused" principle, strengthening parent-child connections, and supporting children affected by parental separation/divorce and family change to promote their healthy physical and mental development. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council, in each of the past four financial years: (1) of the following information of each SCSC: (i) the number of new cases, (ii) the number of reactivated cases, (iii) the number of closed cases, (iv) the number of cumulative cases, and (v) the number of families awaiting services; (2) of (i) the number of child contact service sessions, (ii) the number of exchange service sessions, and (iii) the number of supervised exchange service sessions provided by each SCSC; (3) among the closed cases of each SCSC, of the numbers of those receiving (i) zero to five sessions and (ii) six or more sessions of child contact or exchange services; (4) of (i) the number of programmes/activities and (ii) the number of groups organised by each SCSC; (5) of the numbers of participants who were aged (i) zero to five, (ii) six to 12, and (iii) 13 or above in the children's groups and programmes/activities organised by each SCSC; and (6) in respect of issues such as child custody, access, care and control, of the following information of SWD: (i) the number of new cases, (ii) the number of reactivated cases, (iii) the number of closed cases, (iv) the number of cumulative cases, (v) the number of social enquiry reports completed, and (vi) the number of times for which social workers were requested to attend court hearings? Reply: President, The five Specialised Co-parenting Support Centres (SCSCs) operated by non-governmental organisations are subvented by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) to provide one-stop specialised services for separated/divorcing/divorced parents and their children, including co-parenting counselling, parenting co-ordination service, parenting groups or programmes and child contact service, etc, to assist the separated/divorced parents in carrying out parental responsibilities under the child-focused principles, strengthening parent-child connection and providing support to children affected by parental separation/divorce and family change to promote their healthy development physically and mentally. The reply to the Member's question is as follows: (1) to (5) In the past four financial years, the number of new cases, reactivated cases, closed cases and cumulative cases of each SCSC are enclosed at Table 1 of Annex 1; number of child contact sessions and exchange sessions (including supervised exchange) is at Table 2; number of closed cases grouped by sessions of child contact or exchange received is at Table 3; number of programmes/activities and groups organised is at Table 4; and number of children participants in groups and programmes/activities by age is at Table 5. The SWD does not have the number of families waitlisting for the above services. (6) In the past four financial years, the number of new cases and cumulative cases, number of social enquiry reports completed (identical to the number of closed cases) handled by the Family and Child Protective Services Units of the SWD regarding child custody matters and number of court attendances are set out in Annex 2. The SWD does not have separate figures on reactivated cases.