Child Care Service Helps to Plan for the Whole Family

The birth rate in Hong Kong has been low in recent years. According to a recent survey released by the Census and Statistics Department, the number of births in Hong Kong has continued to decline over the past five years, with the latest number of births at around 35,000. Compared with the number of babies in Hong Kong's fertility trend in previous years, the number of births in the middle of 2022 will be a new low in 40 years. Ah Hong (a pseudonym) is one of the representatives of those who are hesitant to give birth.

Ah Kang and his wife have been married for four years. Ah Kang works as a hotel clerk and his wife is a beautician, both of them have stable jobs and incomes, and they originally planned to have a child one year after their marriage. However, after careful budgeting, he realizes that raising a child will cost a lot of money, so he is reluctant to give birth to a child. However, his wife wants to have a child of her own, and they occasionally quarrel over this.

"It is not easy to live in Hong Kong nowadays, everything is expensive, we have to pay rent and live in Hong Kong. In addition, during the previous epidemic, our parents-in-law had no income for half a year, and we were so scared at that time, but we were lucky that we had savings to cope with the situation. I love children, but after counting, the expenses are quite big, but the financial aspect is secondary, the most important thing is the care and education.

Both of our parents-in-law have to go back to work, the house is small and the budget is not enough to hire a laborer; my wife and I's parents are old and sick, they cannot take care of the child, so we are worried that even if we have a child, who can take care of the child? I was also worried that I would not be able to control the child, so I gave up the idea of having a child after thinking about it. But because of this, I always talk to my wife, she loves children, she always thinks that a family is complete with children, and we are not young, if we don't have children in a couple of years, it will be more difficult to have a baby, I am so conflicted, I don't want to affect the couple's relationship because of this, but I really don't know how to do it. Once I had a serious fight with my wife over this issue, I went to see my friend, Ah Ming (pseudonym), and I envied him for his happy and harmonious family life.

I told Ah Ming about my problem, he had tried the same thing before, but couldn't figure out what to do, so he told me to go to the Integrated Family Service Center of the Social Welfare Department. So he introduced me to the Integrated Family Service Center (IFSC) of the Social Welfare Department (SWD), and he said, "I will help you there!". So I went to the family service center near my house.

After receiving our case and understanding my wife and I's situation, she knew that our core problem was the care and education of our children, and then introduced us to the child care service under the Family Service Center, which has always been providing support to parents who are unable to take care of their children temporarily due to work or other reasons, and providing diversified child care services to meet the needs of both parents and their children. At present, there are day child care centers in Hong Kong, which provide day care services for children from birth to under 3 years old. The service hours of the child care centers are from 8:00am to 6:00pm from Monday to Friday, and from 8:00am to 1:00pm on Saturdays, which meets the needs of double-income working parents like us.

In addition, CCCs also include stand-alone CCCs and child care centers attached to kindergartens. In other words, when our babies go back to kindergarten, they can be entrusted to the school for childcare after school hours until we finish work. The service fee of independent child care centers is approved by SWD, while the fee of child care centers attached to kindergartens is approved by the Joint Office of Kindergartens and Child Care Centers of the Education Bureau, so we can rest assured about the fee. Ms. Fong is very kind and helped us to find some child care centers so that we can reorganize our family plan again. My wife and I feel that we are having a good day!

I'm so grateful to Ah Ming for this great introduction. It turns out that his 4-year-old daughter is in the care of the school, and she says she is so relieved because she is under the supervision of a teacher at the school, so they are so relieved that the child does not have to re-adjust to the environment and the supervisor (teacher), and she stays at the school after school to sing, sleep in, have refreshments, and do homework, and the daughter and they do not have to do homework at home, so they really enjoy the family fun."

Family Service Centers Enable Newlyweds to Re-engineer Their Family Plans

Ah Hong and Ah Ming relied on the services and support provided by the Family Service Center, which enabled them to re-plan their family and make it complete. If it were not for the childcare service provided by the FSC, they would have given up having children because of the worries about parenting and childcare. Fortunately, they took the first step to seek help from the FSC, which enabled them to build their own family and enjoy the joy of family life without any worries.

The daytime child care services provided by IFSCs can be classified into seven categories: Child Care Centre Service, Kindergarten and Child Care Centre Fee Remission Scheme, Occasional Child Care Service, Extended Hours Service, Mutual Help Child Care Centres, Neighborhood Support Child Care Project, and After-school Care Service for Pre-school Children. The services cover children of different ages, and the hours are flexible so that parents can entrust their children to the centers without worrying about leaving their children alone and the financial burden of child care.

In addition, social workers are also available in the centers to help solve various family problems. Therefore, if there are any family problems, all one has to do is to seek help from the family service centers. Family life education, parent-child activities, counseling service and referral service, and so on. Social workers will provide advice and assistance on family relationships and child care arrangements. 

Help-seekers can call SWD's 24-hour Hotline 2343 2255 Hotline's round-the-clock interactive voice system for callers to enquire about welfare services and request for information fax. Social workers are on duty during designated hours (Monday to Friday: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturday: 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.) to provide immediate counseling, supportive and advisory services to those in need, and to arrange appropriate follow-up services. Even in the middle of the night or when the lines are busy, the hotline will be redirected to Tung Wah Group of Hospitals' family services or related departments, so that helpers will not feel helpless. Upon receipt of a call for assistance, the staff will immediately refer the caller to the relevant social worker for assistance, which is a very efficient way to help the caller.

In addition, as IFSCs are approved departments of the Social Welfare Department or designated partner organizations, they are equipped with a complaint mechanism and a monitoring system. Therefore, as long as help-seekers take the first step to seek help, IFSCs' staff will not put up any excuses, and they welcome people in need to seek help, so as to enable them to co-ordinate more family relationships and build a harmonious society together.

If you find a friend in need of assistance, or if you are in need of assistance, please do not hesitate to approach the IFSC for assistance or feel free to leave a message to us for enquiries.

_{Related information:}

 _{Contact List of Social Welfare Department District Integrated Family Service Centers}

_{Day child care services}

_{After-school Support Services}

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