Since 2001, the SAR government has implemented the Lump Sum Grant (LSG) system to non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but unexpectedly it has caused negative effects such as "fat and thin" and "unequal pay for equal work", which has been widely criticized by the social welfare circle as "" Root of all evil".
Although the government has undergone two reviews over the past 21 years, there has been no complete reform.
Earlier, the Social Welfare Department released the "Review Report on the Salary of Staff at the Top Three Levels" of more than 80 NGOs. Among them, the annual salary of senior executives reached 2.05 million to 3.12 million yuan, and the annual salary of senior executives accounted for more than 1/10 of the organization's salary expenditure, which once again exposed LSG Structural issues behind it.
The original defects have not been repaired, and the government has earlier decided to implement a cost-saving plan, cutting the block grant by 1% from the next financial year, or triggering layoffs in small institutions.
All of these can reflect how narrow the government's concept of social welfare is, and it continues to "reverse the car".
Midpoint salary allocation hidden flaws
"social welfare commercialization" goes against the original intention
Before 2001, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) implemented the "Reimbursement" system, which set limits on the staffing, salary levels, employee qualifications, and individual expenditures of various social welfare services of social welfare organizations, after a relatively rigorous review process. approve.
However, the system has obvious drawbacks, such as lack of flexibility and autonomy, high administrative costs, and funding criteria that cannot effectively ensure the quality of services provided by organisations.
As a result, the then Director of Social Welfare, Carrie Lam, decided to abolish the traditional funding system and introduced a lump-sum grant subsidy system, that is, a one-off payment of salary costs, project costs and other operating costs to NGOs.
Funding Basis The approved staffing number of the subsidized NGO as of April 1, 2000 is "fixed", and then the sum of employee salaries is calculated based on the midpoint salary of the civil service master salary scale as of March 31, 2000, and based on this benchmark " Even if the organization hires new employees in the future, once the government approves the funding, there will be no additional funding.
According to the latest table, the median monthly salary is 53,500 yuan.
The midpoint salary allocation benchmark is inherently insufficient and has hidden defects. Over time, social workers and the SWD will be paid unequally for equal work, which is not conducive to the sound development of social welfare.
(Hong Kong 01 cartography)
The original intention of the reform was to increase the autonomy and flexibility of institutions and to improve the quality of services, but it backfired.
One of the crux of the problem is that the lump sum amount around the median salary scale is always limited, and the government funding is based on the manpower establishment in 2000, which has long been unable to keep up with the changes of the times, causing many problems.
One of the problems is that LSG has caused social welfare agencies and the SWD to "unequal pay for equal work", resulting in social workers' professional quality and seniority not being respected and recognized.
Theoretically, social workers should jump one salary scale point a year. If the number of experienced and senior social workers in the organization increases, the labor cost will gradually exceed the median, and the old social workers will become a burden on the organization, and the amount of the block grant will be limited.
However, according to the system, the government will not increase follow-up funding, and in order to reasonably plan funds and reserve financial resources, organizations generally do not act according to the table, which eventually leads to the dilemma of "unequal pay for equal work".
Zhang Zhiwei cites that some institutions may keep all salaries at the median, or extend the time for employee salary increases, and use operations such as raising one salary point in two years and half a salary point in one year to control costs. Professionalism and reasonable pay.
(Photo by Huang Baoying)
The second problem is that NGOs have too much autonomy and flexibility, which may lead to improper management and insufficient transparency.
Zhang Zhiwei, vice president of foreign affairs of the Hong Kong Federation of Social Workers (Social Union), cited that organizations may lay off senior social workers with high labor, or delay hiring new people to fill vacancies, which will seriously affect the service quality of small organizations.
In addition, organizations that have received subsidy amounts of less than 10 million, or whose operating income is only 50% or less, are exempt from uploading financial and review reports to the SWD. Therefore, the remuneration structure and staffing that are independently determined by the organizations are not transparent enough, resulting in " Fat on top and thin on the bottom" chaos.
The third problem is that the estimated manpower establishment recognized by LSG already existed in 2000, and some of the manpower used the standards of the 1980s and 1990s. The establishment is completely out of touch with the current social needs. The SWD should re-analyze and analyze the current service types as soon as possible. Evaluate actual manpower.
Di Zhiyuan, a newly-elected member of the Legislative Council in the social welfare sector and chairman of New Thinking, pointed out that social welfare organizations may be concerned about the increased labor costs of senior and experienced social workers, and their management is becoming increasingly conservative.
Organizations should invest about 90% of their budget on manpower. If manpower is reduced to control costs, morale will be low and high-quality talents will be lost.
(Photo by Gong Jiasheng)
In essence, social welfare organizations should focus on improving the lives of grassroots people and increasing social stability. However, over the years, LSG has required the senior management of the organization to use business thinking for management, and practitioners should benefit from key performance indicators (KPIs), budgets, etc. The problem is running around, which is very contradictory to the original intention of "people-oriented".
Influenced by Western managementism, the government is superstitious about market forces, reflecting its backward outlook on social welfare.
Social welfare resources suffer from widowhood and inequity,
the government has reviewed twice
On December 8, 2021, the Social Welfare Department sent a letter to 164 subsidizing organizations regarding the cost-saving plan, which mentioned that the recurring subsidy for 2022-2023 will be reduced by 1%.
Based on the appropriation of about $19.8 billion for the 2021-22 financial year, the reduction in funding will involve about $200 million.
Zhang Zhiwei believes that these two hundred million yuan is only a drop of the government's overall expenditure, but it will have an impact on small social welfare organizations with low financial reserves, and may reduce or freeze recruitment, which will affect the quality of services.
The society's demand for services is already huge and is still increasing, but the treatment of social workers and the resources allocated by the government have not kept up.
Zhang Zhiwei believes that many social service projects require considerable funds to operate, and 164 organizations in Hong Kong have distributed nearly 20 billion yuan, which makes people question how many problems can be solved.
(Hong Kong 01 cartography)
In addition, due to the outdated manpower establishment, in order to meet new social demands and to save expenses, organizations will share the pressure in the form of outsourced services.
However, the contract of outsourced employees cannot provide long-term and stable services, and the great responsibility of taking care of the elderly or the disabled is shied away from the market with uneven quality and short cycle, which seriously affects the experience of service users.
In the face of numerous problems, the social welfare sector continued to strive for the reform of the LSG system, but the government failed to face the problems head-on, and even went downhill during the review.
When the government launched the LSG system, many NGOs laid off staff and significantly shortened the service plan period to save money.
The social welfare sector fought for a review through strikes, hunger strikes, and sit-ins. Finally, in 2008, the government established a block grant independent review committee, which carried out the first review and made 48 recommendations.
The government's review failed to fundamentally address the hidden flaws of the LSG system, but the way the "cake" is divided has not changed, and the "cake" has not become significantly larger.
(Hong Kong 01 cartography)
Zhang Zhiwei pointed out that at the time, the 48 proposals were considered "hard-won".
In July last year, after completing the review of the LSG system, a task force appointed by the Labour and Welfare Bureau concluded that the LSG system, including the current calculation method of grants to institutions, should be retained, and made 30 recommendations to further optimize the system.
The social welfare community generally believes that these 30 suggestions are just "small repairs" and icing on the cake.
Zhang Zhiwei lamented that the 30 proposals last year were not even as sincere as the 48 proposals that year, and the government has been "reversing the car" for many years.
In 2017, the Hong Kong Federation of Social Workers, the Hong Kong Social Workers Association, the Hong Kong Council of Social Service and the office of Shao Jiazhen, a member of the Legislative Council, held nine consultation sessions, sorted out 10 pain points, and urged the government to completely reform the LSG system , but the effect is still not ideal.
(File photo/Photo by Li Zetong)
There are two reasons for this.
First, the LSG system resulted in an unreasonable salary structure and opaque management within social welfare organizations. The grassroots social workers and the management were not united, and it was difficult to reach a consensus. They could not concentrate on how to adjust social services.
Secondly, there is a conflict of ideas between the social welfare sector and the government. The Hong Kong government does not understand the real living environment of the industry. The so-called review is just a high-profile consultation meeting and questionnaires; but the industry's expectation is clearly through insight into the industry's salary The actual situation such as structure, manpower establishment, staff turnover rate, etc. is the right medicine.
Zhang Zhiwei said he was "very disappointed" by the government's light-hearted review.
Looking at the world, many European and American countries or regions use social forces to provide services. As a Chinese society, Hong Kong relies on government funding for institutions to maintain services. This is a special case in the world. Therefore, it is difficult to have an example to learn how to reform the funding system.
But in any case, the government should let go of the ground, listen to the real needs of the industry, and thoroughly reform the LSG system, instead of deceiving itself and retaining the "root of all evil".