@¡¡¡The Government has completed the selection of District Services and Community Care Teams (Care Teams) in Eastern, Sham Shui Po, Wong Tai Sin, Tuen Mun and Islands Districts, and announced the results today (September 25). The number of applicant organisations and a summary of selection results are at Annex 1. The list of selected organisations is at Annex 2.
 
@¡¡¡The selection process of the Care Teams consists of two stages: (1) organisation selection stage and (2) service proposal assessment stage. Qualifications of applicant organisations are assessed in the first stage. In order to pass the first-stage selection, the applicant organisations must meet all the selection criteria set out in the application guidelines, so as to ensure that the organisations are patriotic and love Hong Kong, will support and follow the Government's leadership, have a certain level of district network and service experience, possess cross-district mobilisation capability, and are able to consolidate and will seek community resources. Organisations that have passed the first stage may submit service proposals for no more than three sub-districts in the second stage.
 
@¡¡¡Both stages of selection have to be vetted by a two-tiered structure, namely the District Assessment and Coordinating Panels on Care Teams chaired by District Officers and the Territory-wide Assessment and Steering Group on Care Teams chaired by the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, to ensure its transparency and fairness.
 
@¡¡¡The five District Offices informed the selected organisations respectively today (September 25) and will shortly enter into funding agreements with the selected organisations based on the accepted service proposals.
 
@¡¡¡The Government has completed the selection of Care Teams in 13 districts. The selection results for Care Teams in the remaining five districts will be announced upon completion of selection. 
 
@¡¡¡Moreover, the Home Affairs Department (HAD) has issued guidelines to Care Teams, setting out the points that they should pay attention to and comply with during public elections, including maintaining neutrality in elections, refraining from using resources of Care Teams in participation in election-related activities, refraining from involvement in all Care Teams-related work if a person affiliated with Care Teams becomes a candidate or an election agent, etc. The guidelines (Chinese version only) have been uploaded onto the HAD webpage
(www.had.gov.hk/tc/public_services/district_services_community_care_teams/relatedguidelines.htm).

Ends/Monday, September 25, 2023
Issued at HKT 15:30

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