EMPLOYMENT OF PERSONS FROM SOCIAL WELFARE INSTITUTIONS

Mr J. F. Conceicao asked the Minister for Social Affairs what efforts have been made to find employment for persons who have been discharged from approved schools and homes of the Social Welfare Department or who are under probation.

The Minister for Social Affairs (Inche Othman Bin Wok): Mr Speaker. Sir, the Social Welfare Department operates 12 residential institutions. However, as the Member's question is concerned with employment, consideration need not be given to three of these institutions, namely, Perak House, the Welfare School for Boys at Keppel Road, and Woodlands Home, as the residents therein are either too young or too old for employment. Of the remaining nine institutions, one is an approved school (Gimson School) for young male offenders up to 19 years old; three (Toa Payoh Girls' Home, the Muslim Women's Welfare Home and Mount Emily Girls' Home) are approved homes and places of safety for women and girls up to 21 years old; three (Bukit Batok Boys' Hostel, Pasir Panjang Boys' Hostel and Canning Rise Girls' Hostel) are hostels for youths who have no proper home to go to after they are discharged from Social Welfare institutions or placed on probation by the Courts; and two (Bushey Park Home and Woodstock Home) are homes for destitute persons.

The Social Welfare Department employs three Aftercare Officers and other ancillary staff to look after the welfare of discharged residents. During the past five years, some 611 persons discharged from Social Welfare homes were placed in gainful employment. The number of such persons who found employment has increased each year, from 96 in 1966, 101 in 1967, 112 in 1968, 146 in 1969 to 156 in 1970.

For the youths and boys, the main type of work found for them is manual work, which includes casual labourers, shop assistants, hawker assistants, petrol kiosk attendants, sweepers, lorry attendants, factory operatives, etc. A few have been placed in semi-skilled jobs such as welders, greasers and motor mechanics.

For the women and girls, the two main types of work found for them are domestic help and factory operatives. Other types of work found for them include seamstresses, clinic assistants, building labourers, eating-stall assistants, clerks, police trainees, telephone operatives, petrol kiosk attendants, hotel and cafe waitresses, salesgirls, book-binders, etc.

For the destitute adults, our officers have encountered difficulties in placing them in employment because of their poor physical and mental condition. Many of them are also quite indifferent or unwilling to work, and the Social Welfare Department is doing everything possible to motivate them and to get them accustomed to work by organising them into work squads.

With regard to the second part of the question on the employment of those under probation, the care and supervision of juvenile and adult offenders placed on probation are the statutory responsibilities of the Probation and Aftercare Department of my Ministry. The Probation of Offenders Ordinance provides the Courts with an alternative method of dealing with offenders who might otherwise have to be committed to a corrective or penal institution. This method involves the conditional suspension of punishment while the offender is released under the care and supervision of a probation officer. The probation system has over the years proved to be an effective method of rehabilitating selected offenders of both sexes and of all age groups.

I am happy to say that at any one time at least 80 per cent of the adult probationers are gainfully employed. In respect of the employment of juvenile probationers, the employment rate is very much lower, at about 40 per cent. More often than not, the juvenile probationer is too young for employment. In such cases every attempt is made by the probation officer to secure the probationer's connection with youth clubs and generally in useful pre-occupations.