Present: Community College of City University. In attendance: Hong Kong Federation of Social Work Students (HKFSWS)

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1 Confirmed Notes of the 188 th Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Social Work Training and Manpower Planning (ACSWTMP) held on 13 January 2014 (Monday) at 3:00 p.m. at Room 918, Social Welfare Department Headquarters 9/F., Wu Chung House, 213 Queen s Road East Wan Chai, Hong Kong Present: Professor Thomas WONG Kwok-shing, JP Dr Phyllis CHAN Kwok-ling Mr KWOK Lit-tung, JP Miss LAM Tze-yan Mr Karl LAU Chun-chuen Mr Francis MOK Gar-lon Dr John FUNG Yat-chu Ms Rainbow CHEUNG Kam-hung, JP Professor Joyce MA Lai-chong, JP Professor LO Tit-wing Ms MAN Kam-yin Professor Petrus NG Yat-nam Professor James LEE Kin-ching Dr Joyce CHANG Sau-han, JP Professor Cecilia CHAN Lai-wan, JP Mr Wallace LAU Ka-ki Miss SHEA Wing-man Mr Pedro LEUNG Ho-yin Ms Loletta LAU Suet-wah (Chairman) The Hong Kong Council of Social Service Hong Kong Social Workers Association The Chinese University of Hong Kong City University of Hong Kong Community College of City University Hong Kong Baptist University The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong Shue Yan University The University of Hong Kong Education Bureau Labour and Welfare Bureau Social Welfare Department () (Secretary) In attendance: Miss Angel NG On-ki Ms Brenda LAU Tze-hung Ms Betty LEUNG Wai-ling Miss Carni HAU Lai-kuen Ms Priscilla YIP Wai-see Hong Kong Federation of Social Work Students (HKFSWS) In attendance for agenda item 4: Dr LAW Chi-kwong, SBS, JP Ms Cecilia CHAN Mei-ping Mr CHAN Yiu-ming Member, Joint Committee on Social Work Manpower Requirements (JCSWMR) Absent with apologies: Ms Marina WONG Yu-pok, JP

2 Item 1 Retirement Trend of Social Work Profession (Paper ACSWTMP/1/2014) 1.1 Members noted the Paper which provided information on the retirement trend of the social work profession from to with relevant data retrieved from the Social Workers Registration Board (SWRB) website, and the possible impact of it on the projected manpower requirements for social work personnel. Members views and comments were summarised below (a) A Member opined that since the wastage rate was estimated by using a three-year moving average under the existing Social Work Manpower Requirements System (SWMRS), the wastage figures projected by the SWMRS would not be able to reflect fully the rising retirement trend as revealed by SWRB s statistics. This situation would be particularly serious in the coming decade as there would be an upsurge of retirement cases and the demand for social workers would be driven up by the new welfare policy initiatives. In order to ensure that there would be an adequate supply of social workers to meet the service needs, she considered that a more forward-looking social work manpower requirements projection was required. (b) Some Members anticipated that a number of factors might affect the demand side of the social work manpower requirements projection, such as increasing number of retirement cases, rising demand for social workers working in the Mainland, increasing social service needs arising from the ageing population, government s new population policy, etc. On the other hand, the future supply of social work graduates might adversely be affected by the high tuition fees of the self-financing social work master degree programmes, personal choices of some Mainland master graduates not entering the local social work field, etc. In this regard, they considered that a target number of social work graduates to be trained by local training institutions (TIs) each year would be required as it would facilitate them to plan the training places. (c) Members noted that the SWMRS had all along served as an alert system to monitor the manpower situation of the social work field. However, some Members considered that it was not likely for the SWMRS to provide relevant information on the social work manpower requirements projection for the University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded TIs reference since the farthest available projection would not tie in with the - 2 -

3 triennium planning exercise which needed to be formulated in the second half of Notwithstanding that, even if a shortfall of social work manpower supply was envisaged in four or five years ahead as projected by the SWMRS, blister social work master degree programmes in two-year full-time study mode might be a possible option to boost up the supply of degree graduates. (d) A representative said that the parties responsible for the SWMRS were fully aware that the anticipated rising retirement trend of the social work profession was not being captured by the SWMRS. For the supply/demand projection analysis adopted by the SWMRS, the demand side comprised two elements, i.e. the net additional staff requirements and replacement for staff wastage (including both retirement and non-retirement cases). Since there was no separate breakdown for the retirement and non-retirement wastage components under the existing methodology, it was difficult to make reliable adjustments to the projected wastage figures. Inclusion of the anticipated rising retirement trend of social work profession would hardly be feasible under the existing projection framework. (e) A representative advised that an experimental attempt to project the social work manpower requirements had been made based on the past data kept by the SWMRS. However, in view of the various limitations, no valid conclusion could be drawn since the projection outcomes were highly dependent on which reference periods would be chosen for analysis. (f) A Member commented that participating organisations might be quite conservative in making projections for new posts in the SWMRS annual updating exercises. In order to enhance the accuracy of the projected figures in the demand side, the inclusion of potential new posts to be created in the projections should be considered, even though the funding applications were not yet approved. Some Members considered that the lack of long-term social welfare planning would impose difficulties in forecasting the future social work manpower requirements. (g) Some Members said that the anticipated rising retirement trend of Registered Social Workers (RSWs) might have implications on the succession planning of the social work profession, supply of quality teaching staff, provision of welfare services, etc. A representative - 3 -

4 commented that there were some 6,000 RSWs under the category of Others/No information provided as revealed by the SWRB website, it might help ease the pressure imposed by the retirement trend if they would enter the field to practise the profession. (h) Given the increasing intake of non-local social work students and their choices of working or not working locally after graduation might have implications on the social work manpower requirements projection, a representative advised that relevant information had been collected on this since the 2011 SWMRS Annual Updating Exercise. Indeed, both non-local social work graduates who returned to work in the Mainland and local graduates who switched work from Hong Kong to the Mainland had been suitably accounted for in the manpower requirements projection analysis of the SWMRS. The trend would be closely monitored to assess the implication on the long-term supply of social work graduates in Hong Kong. (i) (j) Some Members raised concerns on the drop in the number of social work conversion progammes which would limit the chance of sub-degree social work graduates in pursuing higher qualification and inevitably affect the delivery of quality welfare services and the development of the profession. Other Members were also concerned about the removal of the specific manpower requirements of the social work discipline. In order to ensure that there would be sufficient supply of social workers to meet the increasing welfare service needs and prominent students would be attracted to enroll in social work degree programmes, a Member considered that it was imperative to secure the number of UGC-funded first-year-first-degree social work training places. Another Member also considered that there would be a need to re-instate the specific manpower requirements for the social work discipline starting from the triennium so that there would be sufficient lead time for local TIs to train up social work graduates. The HKFSWS representative said that an adequate supply of social workers to meet the local service needs was most important irrespective of how the manpower requirements projection was drawn up. She also opined that apart from assessing the supply of social work manpower and examining the related wastage problem, the quality of social workers was another issue to be addressed to for the long-term development of the profession

5 (k) A representative advised that while the existing SWMRS had its own limitations, it had been well developed for years with ongoing enhancements. It could be considered very mature and quite reliable for making social work manpower requirements projection. Apart from drawing reference from the recommendations of the Strategic Review on Healthcare Manpower Planning and Professional Development, he considered the Committee might form a task force to explore whether there would be possible ways to enhance the social work manpower requirements projection. (l) After discussion, the Chairman concluded that a task force would be formed to explore whether and how the existing social work manpower requirements projection could be enhanced by studying and reviewing the parameters of the current supply/demand projection analysis adopted by the SWMRS; considering the possibility of incorporating other factors such as the retirement trend of the profession and changes in welfare service needs/demands in the manpower requirements projection; and making reference to other manpower requirements forecast models, where appropriate, for refining the current methodology. ACSWTMP Secretariat May