Childcare pros to air fears on mandatory abuse reporting

The SAR administration is inviting stakeholders to share cases or questions regarding its plan to introduce a bill on the mandatory reporting of serious child abuse, said bill committee chairman Bill Tang Ka-piu.

The next step will be forming an expert advisory panel.

A Legislative Council bill committee was set up after the Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Bill was gazetted in June, which came in the wake of a series of child abuse cases that sparked public outrage.

Among those required to report abuses under the June bill are people in 25 fields who have frequent contact with children be it in care centers and residential services and includes staff, doctors, nurses, and clinical psychologists.

They must make a report as soon as practicable if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a child has been suffering or is at risk of suffering serious harm.

Tang, from the Federation of Trade Unions, said stakeholders from the social welfare, education and medical sectors would raise concerns until December 19.

"Although the legislation itself is not complicated, it covers 25 fields of professionals and required them to bear responsibility [to report child abuse cases]," he said.

"Many of the professionals asked us how to define whether the children were being abused and at potential risks [of being abused], and they also raised many questions."

Tang hopes the law can provide useful guidelines for professionals.

He also welcomed the government's approach to handling the scrutiny of the bill while consulting views from professionals at the same time.

The bill was introduced to Legco for first and second readings on June 14.

It will take effect 18 months after being gazetted on June 2, which is no earlier than next December.

Tang added that authorities would set up an expert advisory panel later to facilitate the implementation of the Social Welfare Department's guidelines after the enactment of the legislation.

"The advisory panel will include members from the social welfare, education, and health-care sectors," he said.

He added that the bill committee had met in July and held a hearing session last month to hear opinions from social welfare groups.

There will be two more sessions next month for education and health-care sectors.

Alongside the mandatory report mechanism, the Legco paper also said public education will be enhanced at family, institutional, and community levels to improve society's awareness of child protection.

The department has already embarked on increasing residential child care places, and a new residential child care center with 48 places will open in the first quarter.