A few days ago, a 9-month-old baby girl in Tuen Mun District was entrusted to the care of a community nanny, she had convulsions and fell into a coma, and after being sent to the hospital, she was found to have a blood clot in her brain and a swollen left eye. **The investigation of the incident is ongoing and the truth is still to be further ascertained, but as the incident involved community nannies under SWD's Neighbourhood Support Child Care Programme, there are any loopholes and deficiencies in the relevant policies, which is a cause for concern.
The baby girl who was in critical condition was cared for by a domestic helper and has been in good health. However, as the maid returned to her hometown on leave in January this year, the parents of the baby girl were too busy with work to be separated, so they sought respite service under the Neighbourhood Support Child Care Programme through Yan Oi Tong Community Centre and handed them over to a 33-year-old woman. However, on the 25th of this month, the baby girl was found to have convulsions and lost consciousness, and after being sent to the hospital, she was found to have a blood clot in her brain and a swollen left eye, so she called the police for treatment. **Subsequently, the woman who was responsible for caring for the baby girl was arrested.
The true circumstances of this incident are still under investigation by **. However, as the incident involved the Neighbourhood Support Child Care Programme, the community was concerned about the appropriateness of the various arrangements of the scheme, and hoped that they would be able to review.
The Neighbourhood Support Child Care Programme is a policy launched to provide flexible day child care services at the neighbourhood level for parents in need, while enhancing mutual help and care in the community. This policy has been in place for many years and has been covering 18 districts in Hong Kong since October 2011. In his policy address last year, Chief Executive John Lee made it clear that he would strengthen his services.
The project will be funded by ** and selected as suitable non-** organisations to operate the scheme, which will enter into an agreement with the relevant organisations to stipulate the content of the services provided, the standards and the training required, etc., and will be implemented by the operators. However, in reality, different operators have different implementation details and have their own practices and standards. Taking the recruitment and training of community nannies as an example, some operators do not refuse to come, and only need to complete 15 hours of coursework as a community nanny. The female nanny involved in the Tuen Mun incident had also just completed the training course, and the baby girl involved was the first baby she had served.
This situation raises doubts about whether there is adequate training in community nannies that meets the standards. At the same time, does it also put forward unified requirements and standards for operators? And is there sufficient monitoring of the implementation of the operating organisations? There are doubts.
There is also concern about the cost of childcare care for community nannies. In the incident, Yan Oi Tong Tuen Mun provided home care services in the form of home care services for children aged 0 to 9 years old at a cost of only $20 per hour. Service users with financial difficulties may also apply for fee waivers. Is the $20 per hour, which is even lower than the statutory minimum wage, reasonable? **Although it has been announced that the incentive for community nannies will be increased to $40 or $60 per hour from April this year, there is still a big gap between the average hourly wage of part-time workers in home services, and there is still room for adjustment?
In addition, there is concern that the number of community nannies under the Neighbourhood Support Child Care Programme is very uneven among districts. According to **, in 2021-22, there were 1,815 community nannies in Hong Kong, providing home care services for 3,085 children under the age of 3, but the number of nannies in different districts was uneven, with 515 in Kowloon City and 26 in Southern District, the least in Hong Kong. Is this situation in line with the needs of society? In the Chief Executive's Policy Address in October last year, he proposed to increase the number of community nannies from April this year, but in the face of the shortage of manpower in all walks of life, how to solve the problem of insufficient supply of community nannies?
The Neighbourhood Support Child Care Programme is a policy for the benefit of the people, which is an indispensable support for some families in need, and it is a good policy, and it is our responsibility to do a good job of this good policy. The incident of inappropriate treatment of a 9-month-old baby girl in Tuen Mun has exposed some problems and deficiencies in the implementation of this policy measure by the ** department, which deserves the attention of the ** department. ** Departments must re-examine every specific detail of policy implementation, including establishing uniform implementation standards, uniform service standards, and uniform training standards for operators, and strengthening support, guidance and supervision for operators to ensure that policies are accurately implemented.