Policy Address

Assist Working Families in Childbearing

116. The Government will also strengthen support for working families in childbearing and unleash their labour force. We will:

  1. increase the Working Family Allowance – Starting from next April, the household and child allowances under the Working Family Allowance Scheme will increase by 15% to alleviate their burden;

  2. increase child care centre places and allowances – Over the next three years starting from 2024, 10 more aided standalone child care centres (CCCs) will be set up in phases, providing about 900 additional places for day child care services. Starting from next April, the Child Care Centre Parent Subsidy, which is applicable to all government-aided standalone CCCs and CCCs attached to kindergartens, will be increased from a maximum of $600 to $1,000 per month. The Social Welfare Department (SWD) will also provide information and assistance to private organisations applying for registration to operate CCCs to encourage their provision of child care support for their employees;

  3. extend the After-School Care Programme for Pre-primary Children to cover all districts – Over the next three years starting from 2024, the After-School Care Programme for Pre-primary Children will be extended in phases to cover all districts in Hong Kong. The number of participating centres will be increased from 16 to 28, and the number of service places from about 670 to nearly 1 200; and

  4. strengthen the home-based child care service – To encourage more people to participate in the Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project, starting from next April, the incentive payment at the standard rate of $25 per hour for home-based child carers of the Project will be increased. For carers of infants and young children aged 0-3 or children with special learning needs, the rate will be more than doubled to $60 per hour. For carers of children aged 3-9, the rate will be increased by 60%, to $40 per hour. From the fourth quarter of next year, the number of service places under the Project will be doubled to about 2 000, with the estimated number of beneficiaries to be doubled to 20 000.

Promote Family Education

117. Nurturing children present new challenges for parents, including issues surrounding children's education and maintaining marital relationship. The Government will launch a five-year Funding Scheme on the Promotion of Family Education in the latter half of next year to support community projects promoting family education. The new Scheme will consolidate existing initiatives, with the annual amount of funding increased to $8 million.