There have been a series of child abuse cases in residential homes in Hong Kong. Two local institutions providing residential nursery services, namely the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children, and the Infant Unit of Po Leung Kuk, are involved in the case. The situation is worrying.
A member of the Legislative Council Welfare Services Committee visited Tong Le Ju today (28th). Deputy Chairman Tang Ka-piu bluntly said that the child abuse incident made people feel "worrying, regretful and remorseful".
Commissioner Tian Beichen was worried about the sustainability of Tongleju's reform, and bluntly said that it was difficult for someone to check CCTV clips 24 hours a day, and artificial intelligence (AI) was needed.
He said: "And the fire in the family is about holding on to it. Whether there will be a review after one year, two years or three years, and what results will be achieved, we will see the truth first."
Another member, Lin Suwei, lamented that there is a shortage of manpower in the social welfare industry. If the salaries are similar, some people may choose jobs such as community service, and fewer people will join more challenging services such as residential care homes.
She suggested that in addition to reviewing the background of sexual crimes, relevant recruitment should also pay more attention to the mental health of candidates. "Will he be more grumpy?"
Deng Jiabiao said bluntly that he felt "worrying, regretful, and remorseful" about the child abuse incident at Tongleju, and he also said that "I don't believe that someone would do it exclusively."
(File photo/Photo by Zeng Fengting)
Deng Jiabiao: I don't believe that someone will do it
Members of the Welfare Services Committee visited Tong Le Ju today and described the environment as good, with sufficient space for children to play, and the children were very happy during the visit.
According to the institution, many live-in children have protection orders, because many parents are involved in court cases or drug abuse, and even some children are physically disabled and need to be taken care of.
However, in a place that should protect children, it is really distressing that there have been cases of child abuse one after another.
Deng Jiabiao said when he was inquired by "Hong Kong 01" that he felt "worrying, regretful and remorseful" about the "systematic" and "collective" child abuse incident at Tong Leju, describing the incident as a tragedy, and bluntly said: "I don't believe that anyone would To do (child abuse), staff should know, be safe, nurtured, and caring. I think they are influenced by bad culture, such as asking 3 or 4-year-old children to eat, wanting them to finish eating soon, and finally Using 'inappropriate force', but fast is not equal to good, will only be counterproductive."
Tian Beichen pointed out that the reform should be long-term and suggested that an independent agency should review it regularly
At present, the Council of Non-profit Early Childhood Education Institutions (CNOPE) is assisting in the reorganization of Tongleju’s services.
Lin Suwei pointed out that the committee is concerned about the sustainability of the current supervision and reform, and is concerned about how Tongleju will continue to improve its services after the contract of CNOPE and related supervisors expires at the end of the year.
Tian Beichen also believes that under the current "flame in the limelight", the Children's Protection Association will certainly promote the reform, but the question is how long it can last, whether there will be a review every year in the future, and whether the reform results can be followed up.
He believes that half a year has passed since CNOPE's consultation reform. He mentioned that the biggest problem is the lack of manpower. The staff are generally inexperienced, and there is no training provided. As a result, the staff are not caring and patient enough for children, and eventually a tragedy occurs.
Tian Beichen mentioned that there have been various reform proposals for the above-mentioned issues, and he believes that regular inspections should be carried out, and an independent agency should be invited to conduct regular reviews, so that the reform can be continued.
In terms of the continuity of supervision, Tian Beichen pointed out that it is difficult for anyone to watch CCTV videos for 24 hours, and there may be unreported information, and believes that artificial intelligence (AI) needs to be used to assist in supervision.
In fact, similar monitoring technology has been adopted in other places. Regarding Tong Leju, he said that there are plans to use AI to monitor. Tian Beichen said that the committee will follow up and ask questions next time.
Tian Beichen believes that the reform of Tongleju requires long-term monitoring and regular evaluation of the effectiveness by an independent agency.
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Lin Suwei: There is a shortage of manpower in the industry, and the institutions are even more stretched
Staff quality and manpower is a major focus of Tongleju's reform.
Lin Suwei said that Tongleju has younger employees during the day to sing and play games with the children, and women work night shifts to take care of the children at night.
The staff expressed to the councillors that they hoped to attract staff to stay on the job in terms of contract completion gratuities, rotation allowances, and promotion ladders.
Lin Suwei, who is a registered social worker herself, admitted that the treatment and sense of belonging of employees are important factors for whether they will stay in the job. She also said that the social welfare industry is understaffed. People will choose more challenging residential services, which will make the already understaffed institutions even more stressed.
In terms of manpower, Tong Leju has increased the manpower ratio during the reform. The ratio of front-line workers has increased to 1:5, the number of social workers has increased to 4, and there are 2 registered medical doctors and 1 registered nurse. The service includes visits by doctors from the Hospital Authority every week. In addition, it cooperates with PolyU. In the future, there will be internships for masters in family therapy. I hope that in addition to taking care of children, I can also do more work to assist parents.
Lin Suwei specifically mentioned that Tong Le Ju has also added a child protection specialist to supervise the staff of the institution to do a good job in protecting children.
At present, most of the child caregivers of Tongleju have attended child-related courses. Lin Suwei believes that requiring all employees to have relevant qualifications can become the target of future employee training and recruitment, but believes that there is no need to be one size fits all, and it can also provide flexibility to accept unemployed persons. Those with relevant qualifications will enter.
Lin Suwei believes that emotional health should be assessed when recruiting front-line staff, and believes that those who take care of young children especially need patience.
(File photo/Photo by Wu Jinghua)
Lin Suwei pointed out that the patience of employees is very important. Deng Jiabiao agrees to strengthen the cultivation of values
After inspecting Tongleju, several councillors put forward suggestions on the system and personnel, and the character of the staff also deserves attention.
Lin Suwei also pays attention to the psychological quality of the staff, and hopes that the frontline staff can be more caring and empathetic. She also believes that it is very important to have professional knowledge in caring for children.
She said that there is currently a sexual crime review for applicants to work with young children. She hopes that the agency or the department will formulate standards so that employees can assess their emotional health before joining the job.
Lin Suwei mentioned that many children in Tongleju are only one or two years old, so the patience of employees is more important.
Tang Jiabiao also agrees that the character training of caregivers needs to be strengthened: "Of course, I hope that all of them are gods and angels, but not so much. The only way to do pre-employment training is to strengthen the training of values and (parenting) skills to increase their interest. Ethics is the same as professionalism.”
Recently, it was revealed that a female employee of the Po Leung Kuk was involved in child abuse. Deng Jiabiao believes that this means that the results of the random inspection have demonstrated: "It was found in a short period of time, and it was only a single incident for the time being, which proves that the inspection is effective." Lin Suwei hopes that Tong Leju will be The post-event supervision and system reform can be used by the Po Leung Kuk, the Labour and Welfare Bureau and other relevant institutions for reference.
Child Abuse Case of Tongleju | The review report advocates increasing the number of children's dormitories and raising incentives to recruit foster family members to visit Tongleju Chen Hengpin said that after the rectification, Tian Beichen hopes to create a caring atmosphere Sun Yuhan interviews | Penalty regulation will change dramatically
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