Determined to learn from the devastating CRH Incident last December and to rebuild its child care service to the front edge, the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children (HKSPC) launched in March a nine-month CRH Reform Project led by the Council of Non-profit Making Organisations for Pre-primary Education (CNOPE) with guidance and support from the Social Welfare Department (SWD). The conclusion of the CRH Reform Project on 20 December is celebrated on 15 December with a certificate presentation ceremony, recognising the exceptional efforts of the new team of frontline CRH Child Care Workers (CCW) who achieved a service quality certified as satisfactory overall according to the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS, for young children) and Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS, for children aged 3 and above). ITERS/ECERS is an instrument used internationally to measure the quality of childcare setting. By guiding frontline staff and showing how well their service meets children’s needs with quality improvement goals, ITERS/ECERS helps ensure that the service is child-centric and in the best interest of the child. It is not only a structural indicator to measure the features of the classrooms, but also a process quality indicator to scrutinise the quality of care, such as that of interactions between staff and children, interactions between children and the environment, with activities and daily schedule designed to facilitate children’s all-round development. Among the CCWs proudly receiving their certificates today were members of the seconded CNOPE team and CCWs re-deployed from other service units of HKSPC, who chose, in the end, to stay at CRH to join its staff. Partners in the CRH Reform Project, including Council of Non-profit Making Organisations for Pre-primary Education, Yew Chung College of Early Childhood Education, Department of Childcare, Elderly and Community Services of the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Sha Tin), Pacific Early Childhood Education Research Association – Hong Kong, and the Social Welfare Department, celebrated together on achieving positive change for CRH. Receiving visitors from LegCo and Executive Council We were also delighted to receive visitors from the Legislative Council (LegCo) Panel on Welfare Services and Executive Council (ExCo) to CRH on 28 and 29 September 2022 respectively. They got a first-hand feel of the changes introduced at the Home since March, including a new educare model. Visitors were briefed on the latest operation at CRH, and taken around the facility to interact with the children and their carers. (see RTHK’s report) Members of Legislative Council visiting CRH Members of Executive Council visiting CRH New educare model to provide best possible environment to children “It has been an exceptional reform journey at CRH symbolic of and supported by the drive to build a new culture and best practice in this highly complex and challenging service unit. With the help of the industry through CNOPE and their professional partners, the new CRH team has made very substantive improvements while under intense scrutiny to ensure we provide the best possible environment for these children in need. We have introduced a new educare model that aims to incorporate age-appropriate stimulation and education for the young children under our care, many of whom have developmental disabilities or special educational needs. Underpinning this is a substantially improved staff: child ratio, from typically 1:7 to 1:5, as well as revision to our staff rostering so that the children are in familiar groups with familiar staff. With a new management team in place, and an increased emphasis on child safeguarding and staff training, we will continue to improve,” said Robin Hammond, Chairman of the Executive Committee of HKSPC. “Work is also ongoing to improve the digital platform for the Home to reduce administrative work that used to occupy CCWs and the multi-disciplinary team at CRH. The enhanced platform should help to reduce human error and associated risks. We are immensely grateful for the help offered to us through this difficult time, showcasing the collaborative power of the sector and helping to address issues for the care sector in general. The road ahead is long and sustaining the positive changes will prove every bit as challenging as introducing them. Trust is difficult to earn, and easily lost. We will continue to do everything we can to regain that of the families we serve and all our stakeholders,” continued Robin. Subrina Chow, Director, HKSPC, remarked, “Working and learning to address the multi-faceted challenges together with the CNOPE team over the last nine months have been most inspiring. We’ve seen ups and downs, cried and laughed but we’ve never given up striving to do better to safeguard our children. The frontline team now knows they are not alone, and the back office team knows they are as responsible to ensure service quality as pledged at the delivery point. I am confident our new team will continue to work and improve as one. We shall also seek to contribute to the sustainable training and professional development by sharing HKSPC’s experience in a structured, step-by-step manner.” Children’s Residential Home after Reform Project Staffing ratio: Daytime staffing ratio of child care workers to children is improved from 1:7 to 1:5, which is the highest in the industry.Work allocation: New clerical and administrative staff are hired to give necessary support to the management so that they could devote their time to frontline supervision.Collaborative groups: Same group of child care workers and social workers are assigned to the 4 different age groups, so that they can build stronger bond with the children and with one another.Monitoring: CCTV monitoring is enhanced with random daily checks by authorised staff.Staff training: Since May, both frontline and management staff have received regular training on how to provide better care and environment for children.Staff benefits: Competitive staff fringe benefits like 5-day work and fixed shift work are offered to attract applicants, with a view to maintaining the enhanced staffing ratio.Clinical support: Since June, children diagnosed with developmental disabilities have received On-site Pre-school Rehabilitation Services by HKSPC’s Centre of Child Enlightenment. Doctors also visit CRH 3 times a week.External communication: Close coordination with the Social Welfare Department is maintained to strengthen governance and management.Education: Children reaching suitable age are enrolled in HKSPC’s nursery schools.

HKSPC is committed to continuously improving the quality and standard of our early childhood education and care services. We also actively exchange experience with other industry players to explore collaboration in light of our diverse yet complementary advantages. On 27 September, Ms Subrina Chow, Director of HKSPC, led our group of colleagues to visit the Child Care Home of Mother’s Choice to learn from their frontline experience in residential care for young children. Later on 28 October, Mother’s Choice was also invited to visit the service building of HKSPC at Portland Street to tour our different service units, including Children’s Residential Home, day crèche and nursery school, and to share and exchange their experience with us. As a charitable organisation dedicated to safeguarding disadvantaged children in Hong Kong, HKSPC looks forward to working hand in hand with our peers to promote the best practices and standards in the industry, as well as providing the best quality care and protection for our children. HKSPC visited the Child Care Home of Mother’s Choice in Sep 2022 Mother’s Choice visited the service building of HKSPC in Oct 2022

Safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility. According to Chapter 13 of “Protecting Children from Maltreatment – Procedural Guide for Multi-disciplinary Co-operation” published by the Social Welfare Department in April 2020, organisations should formulate child protection policies and measures, and provide staff with relevant training. As an organisation with over 95 years of history, HKSPC has an unshaken commitment to child protection, one that has not wavered despite various challenges and difficulties emerged over the years. We have newly established a Child Safeguarding Department before the commencement of the school year in 2022. With the leadership of Ms Subrina Chow, the Society’s Director, and the guidance of Dr Leo Chan, Executive Committee member and Paediatrician, I will join hands with colleagues to take a further step for the organisation’s mission of child protection. The Child Safeguarding Department has already initiated its work in three levels – policies, staff training and parent education. On policy level, we are currently preparing related documents with the target to set out clear policies and procedures, which comprise the mechanism of reporting and complaining. On staff training, we are on track with the schedule to train all our staff members for knowledge of child protection, so as to enhance their awareness to “put children’s welfare first” and confidence in handling related cases. As for parents, we will maintain communication with them about the organisation’s progress on policy implementation. We will also promote the message of child safeguarding and educate parents about their important role and responsibility in their children’s growth and development. Let us work together to help children grow up healthy and happy! Gloria Lau, Child Safeguarding ConsultantHong Kong Society for the Protection of Children

From the beginning of this year, HKSPC has carried out a series of reforms to uphold the “children-first” commitment and ensure our children are well cared for. We have already appointed the new Director of the agency and new Superintendent of Children’s Residential Home (CRH), and replaced the frontline child care workers at CRH. In addition, we have established new departments and positions comprising executives with extensive experience in the relevant fields in order to improve our governance and transform the agency’s overall culture, with a view to delivering the best services to the children we serve. Deputy Director (Child Care and Education) This new management role is held by Ms Mary Wong who has served in the social welfare sector for over 30 years, with broad experience in pre-school edu-care service development and management. She is mainly responsible for assisting the agency in further upgrading our pre-school edu-care services, including nursery schools, day crèches and CRH. She will work on enhancing the overall service quality, improving resources allocation and coordinating the collaboration between service units and teams. With regard to CRH, Ms Wong has been focusing on ensuring a smooth transition at the conclusion of the CRH Reform Project, particularly in providing professional inputs and support to enriching staff training in caring for children with special background and developmental needs, and implementing the ITERS/ECERS (Infant/Toddler and Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales). Child Safeguarding Department This newly established department is led by Child Safeguarding Consultant Ms Gloria Lau who has extensive experience in children’s work and law enforcement agency. Its mission is to develop new and forward-thinking policies and procedures. The Consultant, who is proficient at the SWD’s “Protecting Children from Maltreatment – Procedural Guide for Multi-disciplinary Co-operation”, will set out clear guidelines and carry out trainings to ensure that staff at all levels understand and follow the principles and practices of child safeguarding and protection. Comprehensive emotional support and guidance will also be provided to the employees, together with an enquiry hotline. For the public, the department will promote the principles and knowledge about child safeguarding. Ms Gloria Lau conducting staff training Risk Management, Compliance and Internal Audit Department (RMD) Reporting directly to the HKSPC’s Audit and Risk Management Committee, this new department comprises executives who have held key positions in multinational corporations, banks and the government. Their primary responsibilities include assisting the agency in developing and implementing a risk management and compliance assurance system, as well as conducting internal audits. Led by Audit and Risk Management Director Mr William Yue, RMD members are currently focusing on helping various departments assess their risks and come up with mitigation measures. We are excited to see our new management teams bring new inputs and perspectives to the development and governance of the agency, and all our staff members working together for a healthy, happy and safe childhood for our children.

I was invited to join the service of HKSPC early this year, initially on a voluntary basis. I assumed duty as Senior Deputy Director (Change Management) in early March, and after an open recruitment exercise, was appointed Director on 6 May. Given this important role, I pledge to do my utmost for our children’s wellbeing, together with colleagues and stakeholders, under the leadership of the Executive Committee. Since the Children’s Residential Home (CRH) incident came to light, the Society has been trying to identify problems and find solutions. In mid-March, the Chairman of the Executive Committee and I introduced the Society’s new measures and plans at a staff briefing titled “Change to Improve”. We sincerely invited all our colleagues to join the endeavour to transform the organisation’s culture and restore confidence in the Society among our service users, supporters, regulators and the general public. These few months with the Society have been the most challenging yet meaningful time of my work life. In collaboration with the Council of Non-profit Making Organizations for Pre-primary Education (CNOPE), we kicked started in late-March the 9-month CRH Reform Project to introduce fundamental changes to staff and facilities management to cater for the educare and developmental needs of the children in the Home. On top of government-subvented manpower, we now have 70% more child care workers to improve the staff-to-child ratio from 1:7 to 1:5. We have also deployed the same group of frontline staff to take care of a specific group of children, so that they can build stronger bond with each other. At the same time, we are hiring new clerical and administrative staff to give necessary support to the management so that they could devote their time to frontline supervision. The new CRH Superintendent (appointed in mid-March) and I, together with the Project Manager and Assistant Project Manager of the Reform Project, busied ourselves in tackling many big and small problems in the CRH operation, arranging intensive training for our new staff, and meeting to map out future development. It was hectic, and yet so rewarding. Through the Reform Project, we will explore a robust organisational structure and service model to build a loving, trusting and safe environment for our children. The hard work and devotion of HKSPC colleagues as well as the Reform Project team brought to us by the CNOPE, and the thought that our diligent and professional work will help grow the children under our care, spur me on. Most importantly, I can now feel a positive vibe in CRH, and the children’s laughters give us the strength to keep pressing ahead. Looking to the future, my colleagues at HKSPC and I will work hand in hand, learning from the past to turn crisis into opportunities. We must stay on course to serve the community at large, be it through residential or day child care, pre-primary education, school social work, pre-school rehabilitation services, or parental education and support. I want to thank you for supporting and walking with us through it all. May past sorrow and tears nurture a more healthy, happy and safe childhood for our beloved young ones! Director, Hong Kong Society for the Protection of ChildrenSubrina Chow6 July 2022 Biography of Ms Subrina Chow Subrina Chow was an Administrative Officer (AO) in the Hong Kong Civil Service for over 25 years, with experience in public policy and funding proposal formulation, programme design and assessment, project management, public relations and event organisation. She held 10 different positions in policy areas spanning civil service management, education, district administration, international trade relations and investment promotion, IT industry and e-government development, social welfare and labour affairs. In her last government assignment, she was the Assistant Director of Administration in the Chief Secretary for Administration’s Office, overseeing the Government’s liaison with the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and the Ombudsman, as well as the administration of the Justices of the Peace system. Subrina spent over a decade of her AO career overseas. From 2008 to 2011, she was Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Singapore. Her mission then was to enhance understanding and strengthen the economic relations between Hong Kong and the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). From 2013 to 2016, she was Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco, and led the efforts in bringing investments into Hong Kong from the 19 states in the western part of the United States. (She was also Deputy Director of the same office from 1998 to 2001.) Subrina worked twice in the former Education and Manpower Bureau. She was first involved in 1995 to 1997 in the drafting of a piece of legislation aimed at regulating the higher education and professional training courses conducted in Hong Kong by overseas and Mainland institutions. In 2002 to 2003, she was Secretary to the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR), and completed a major review of language education policy that covers pre-primary up to post-secondary education and training of working adults. Subrina gained exposure to the policy areas of social security, welfare and rehabilitation services, manpower development and labour affairs when she served as Administrative Assistant to the Secretary for Labour and Welfare in 2007 to 2008. Before joining the Government, Subrina worked briefly with World Vision Hong Kong as a project officer in its Christian drug rehabilitation service and helped to set up a new residential home for young women. She resigned from the Government in 2021 to join UNICEF Hong Kong as its Executive Director.