Issue 45 (3/2020)
Table of Contents
The Code of Practice for Registered Social Workers was first gazetted on 16 October 1998, and the related Guidelines were issued on 7 December 2000. Both were revised in 2010 and then in 2013. To keep the code up-to-date, the Board has appointed a Taskforce on Review of Code of Practice (the "Taskforce") to initiate the review, and it had held a total of 25 meetings in between 2017 and 2019. During the period, the Taskforce has made reference to relevant professional codes of social worker organizations from overseas (including the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan), and reviewed in confidence the complaints cases against RSWs in recent years. By mid 2019, the Taskforce submitted its draft amendment version to the Committee on Professional Conduct (the Committee). The Committee commenced in-depth discussions and further revised the bilingual version of the draft. The Board endorsed the revised draft by end of the year and agreed conducting public consultation after legal vetting.
The draft is to combine the Code of Practice and the Guidelines into a single document. Besides the ease in reference, the legal status of the Guidelines will be uplifted. Content-wise, a new section "Ethical Practice and Decision-making" will be added, emphasizing the importance of the value system and its impact on social worker’s ethics and professional decisions. With regard to the section "Principles and Practices", the same categorization by five accountable target groups (clients, colleagues, employing agencies, profession, and society) of the current version is adopted, with a number of principles, standards and rules being revised with reordering, elaboration, updating or deletion.
The Committee aims to hold five public consultation sessions towards June and July for different stakeholders including frontline social workers, administrative or supervisory staff of social welfare agencies, social work educators, service users and members of the public. The Committee also welcomes opinions in writing. Details will be announced later.
Various forms such as application for registration renewal, and notification of changes to personal particulars have been in use for many years without significant changes. After an in-depth review last year, the Board considered that it was necessary to align the format of the forms, reorganize and simplify the information to be filled in, making it more user-friendly for RSWs. The latest version of the forms has been launched for use since 1 January 2020, and has been uploaded to the Board’s website. If RSWs are still keeping any copy of the old forms, please note that they are no longer regarded as a legally specified form due to their obsolescence.
In recent years, the Board has been concerned with potential abuse of the mechanism for complaints against registered social workers. After in-depth discussions, it was decided that when submitting the complaint forms, complainants are required to file also statutory declaration to the effect that contents of their complaint are true and based on their best knowledge, hoping that would pull off any fabricated or hearsay complaints. In addition, the Board has also reviewed and updated the disciplinary procedures and the related forms, which has been taken effect on 1 January 2020. For details, please visit our website.
4. Phone recording service
Phone enquiry is the main bridge of communication between the Board Office and RSWs. To improve the service quality of the Board Office and avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding, the Board has installed the automatic phone recording service since the end of last year. The vocal records will be kept for one year only.
5. Cessation of the $20 refund scheme
To encourage RSWs to apply for renewal of registration within the “Renewal Window”, so as to save the mailing and administrative expenses of sending the “Notice of intention to remove name from the Register” by registered mail, the Board has been running a refund scheme since January 2018. For RSWs who successfully submit their renewal applications within the "Renewal Window", the Board Office will send them each a refund cheque of HK $20 together with the issue of the new registration card.
The scheme has been implemented for more than 2 years, but compared to that prior to the launch of the scheme, there is no improvement in the ratio of whom the Board is to send the Notices by registered mail; meanwhile, the additional administrative work and expenses for the scheme implementation are escalating .
In view of this and having consulted the Labour and Welfare Bureau, the Board will terminate the refund scheme after its full three-year implementation, and the last batch of RSWs eligible for refund will be those with registration due to expire on 31 December of this year.
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Photos taken in Jan 2020 at 159th Full Board meeting
1. Gazette of Disciplinary Committee Panel
2. Promotional Work
- Hong Kong Community College of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University(Year 1)：76
- Hong Kong Baptist University（final year）：100
Our colleagues visited different tertiary institutions and introduced the functions of the Board to students.
- The purposes pertaining to an address is in accord with the spelt-out purposes of the Ordinance (Cap 505 Social Workers Registration), which is said in its long title, to be “an Ordinance to provide for the registration and disciplinary control of professional activities of RSWs and for any related matters”. Hence one address serves a three-fold purpose: registration, disciplinary controls and any related matters. The common law will rightly add that addresses are crucial for the purpose of the administration of due processes of law of professional bodies whose decisions will affect its members and the public in very significant ways.
- Registration matters: under Cap 505, an address is a required piece of personal information to be put in the Register which is open for free public inspection (s16(1)(a)(i)). Anyone whose name is NOT on the Register is disentitled from calling himself a social worker; or from passing-off as a social worker (s.34(1). There are hefty sanctions under our civil and criminal laws (ss.34(2); 35(h)).
- Obtaining registration via misleading, false or fraudulent personal data (including an address) can be an offence punishable by imprisonment (s.35(d)).
- An address is needed to send postal notices of intention of removal of RSWs from the Register by the Register (s22(4)). It is the duty of RSWs’ to update their personal data (including addresses) within three months of change. Otherwise, the Registrar is under duty to remove their names from the Register (ss.16(3), 22(f)).
- Disciplinary matters: an address is needed in disciplinary procedures to serve pertinent documents on the parties. Whether a RSW wishes to complain or he is being complained against, an address is needed for service including face to face personal service (s31(1)).
- Related matters: in the specified forms stipulated in the Ordinance (ss.18, 20), addresses are stated to be used for communication, and residential addresses for statutory declarations etc. (see registration form 1-1-2020; renewal form 20200101).
- An address should be a postal address in form (paragraph 6 above ; s.22(4)); true and correct in substance (s 37(3)(a)(ii). Except for statutory declarations, it need not be residential addresses. But it must be a true and correct address that pertains to the holder. Furthermore, untrue or disingenuous addresses, if provided, (aside from paragraph 3 above), will further contradict the true and correct declarations given by RSWs (when they register or renew), in the above-said specified forms.
- Email addresses will not do as it contradicts the Ordinance (paragraphs 6 and 7 above; (ss.16(3); 31(3)). Post-office box address contradicts the common law. In common law, persons who sue providing only post box addresses; and defendants who only provide postal boxes will be reprimanded by the Court with costs consequences. In exceptional circumstances and only upon application to the court, would substituted service be allowed (substituted by say post-office box addresses). This is for the sake of due processes of law to clamp down evasiveness.
- If RSWs insist on providing untrue or fake addresses, or resorts to email and post-office box addresses, the Registrar is under duty to take steps including removing the names of the RSWs from the Register. Of course if RSWs can rectify in time, removals would not be necessary.
Statistics
Gender distribution
Male：7,471 (30.57%)
Female：16,964 (69.42%)
Total：24,435
Qualification for Registration
Recognized degree：16,161 (66.13%)
Recognized diploma / associate degree：8,194 (33.53%)
Others：80 (0.32%)
Total：24,435
Total cases received：582
Total cases for disciplinary inquiry：114
Total established cases：：32