From residential care to residential care — the case of Hong Kong

Permanency planning has been a major concern in the child care field in the West for almost two decades. The first comprehensive study on residential child care in Hong Kong found that a substantial proportion of the children in care had been transferred from one residential facility to another. Their parents suffered from more health, economic and social maladjustment problems than parents of the other children in care. Can this account for the length of time these children were to spend in care? Comparison made among the children involved in four types of movement reveals significant differences in age at admission and parenting deficiency. This reflects the implicit yardstick employed in placing children in different care settings, and the systemic function of institutional care. The concept of permanency planning is reexamined in the Hong Kong context.