Echoing on one of the Agency Directions, i.e. to achieve excellence in services that respond to the needs of society, in 2000 the Agency started to launch a bi-yearly event --"Seminar on Promoting Excellence and Innovation"--. The two major goals of this event are to promote excellence and innovation among the welfare sectors and to cultivate a sharing atmosphere among professions in order that they may join hand-in-hand in striving to provide responsive and effective services to the society.

In view of the increasingly high expectation on social welfare sector from the general public, to provide a more responsive and accountable service amidst the economic and social challenges Hong Kong had been facing ever since the economic down turn in 1997, the first seminar, "Social Services in the New Millennium", was organized in 2000. More than two hundred participants from different sectors attended. The seminar consisted of two plenary sessions delivered by guest speakers and 15 service presentations. A discussion on the way social service should be developed in the changing social context was deliberated thoroughly in the seminar.

2002 is the Agency's 50th anniversary when the next Seminar will also take place. To continue promoting service excellence and innovation, including in the celebrating events this year are two seminars that will take place in May and December respectively.

The first seminar will be held at the Science Museum on 29th May 2002. In view of the flourishing development of integrated service in various services such as the development of integrated family service centres, emergence of the integrated model for providing community day care service for the elderly as well as the rapid development of integrated team serving adolescents and children, the theme of this seminar is "rethinking service integration". It aims at stimulating the audience in the rethinking of the way a good service delivery model is to be. Well-known academics, governmental officials, service administrators and frontline staff are invited to comment on the trend of service development. In addition, experienced service administrators and frontline staff from a variety of integrated services will share their experience in service planning, innovative models in staff structure and staff development strategies.

The second seminar will be held in early December this year. This seminar will focus on sharing the Agency's experiences over the last two years instigating innovative and effective service projects. Details of the program will be announced later on this year.