Nanny initiative will need to be well-financed
I am very pleased to read the news of the proposal for a government-sponsored scheme for 'neighbourhood nannies' ('Pilot scheme to fund neighbouring nannies', March 6).
About 20 years ago the media and a couple of welfare agencies highlighted the dangerous and often fatal phenomena of 'unattended' children. Resulting from their concern the Hong Kong Committee on Children's Rights was born and the Hong Kong Family Welfare Society set up a 'neighbourhood nanny' type child minders service in Tuen Mun, a service for parents lacking support or a close community network. The service finds potentially caring families, assesses their suitability and introduces them to needy families. However the lack of specific legislation in respect of unattended children means that many families lack the motivation to seek safer local care arrangements, as a TV survey discovered in the New Territories some years ago.
Unlike the government support given to wealth-generating urban renewal, private housing and other infrastructural developments, support for needy families and the protection of children is often reluctantly provided at an incremental and snail-like pace. When legislation was mooted the administration objected, as did some women's groups who charged that such legislation would 'cage' them in their homes. A former legislator, Law Chi-kwong, claimed children could be at greater risk as mothers took them shopping in crowded street markets. Despite greater educational and publicity efforts there has been little improvement. Parents who leave small children alone are often either ignorant of the dangers, unable to manage on small household budgets, unwilling or unable to find willing carers or merely negligent. Unless there is specific legislation to highlight the dangers to 'unattended' children, proper assessment of neighbours to ensure the safety of the children from abuse, and adequate remuneration for the 'nanny angels of care', the children really in need of such service will continue to be neglected.
The flexible Residential Foster Care and Day Fostering services have much room for development but are held back by the lack of adequate support and the low incentives still paid to such caring families. I hope this will not continue to be the case and that Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung's initiative will be well-financed and successful.
Tom Mulvey, Wan Chai
Incinerator is not the answer
