“I believe that [the scale] of inspections can be expanded by delegating work to independent [individuals or organisations] that we trust to enhance our capacity and frequency.”

In August, a report compiled in response to an abuse scandal last year suggested the creation of “service quality groups”, consisting of community leaders, justices of the peace and professionals from the healthcare, education and social welfare sectors, tasked with carrying out surprise checks on facilities.

The Social Welfare Department said at the time it would strengthen its own checks at residential children’s homes, with nurses and former law enforcement personnel to participate in inspections to help identify any signs of abuse.

Social welfare legislator Tik Chi-yuen said the department’s inspections had improved significantly following the review and the team had started watching CCTV footage at residential homes.

“We can see the results of the stepped-up inspection,” he said. “But of course, it’s negative to find abuse cases during the inspections. We hoped the surprise checks could have a deterrent effect to nip the problem in the bud.”

He also suggested the department increase the frequency of regular inspections to once a month – double the six times a year the review report suggested. But he said the crux of the issue lay in the internal inspections by the service providers, urging authorities to step up monitoring of care home operators.

On Monday, police arrested a 33-year-old female employee of a home under the Po Leung Kuk’s residential childcare service on suspicion of ill-treating six children aged between one and three years.

She was found to have pushed a two-year-old onto play mats multiple times in a “rude and inappropriate” manner during a random check by the charity and Social Welfare Department on September 16.

A review of security camera recordings further found the worker had been “rough” on another five children, aged one to three years, mostly pushing them onto play mats at the Causeway Bay home.

The department on Tuesday said it would ask the Po Leung Kuk to provide a full report on the incidents and improvement measures, adding that authorities had conducted 86 surprise inspections across the city’s residential childcare centres between 2021 and 2022.

Stanley Li Sai-wing, lawmaker from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said he was furious at the incidents and urged the Social Welfare Department to speed up its review of the city’s residential childcare services.

“This is not the first incident. We cannot afford to wait any longer. We need to draw up appropriate policies to remedy the situation,” Li said, urging the government to increase the penalty for child abuse offences.

Both Li and Tik suggested the government compress the public consultation time for the law which makes it mandatory for professionals such as teachers and social workers to report suspected cases of child abuse and aim to finish the relevant legislation by end of this year, instead of early next year as planned.

In December, an abuse scandal broke, leading to police arresting 34 staff members of the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children for allegedly abusing 40 toddlers at one of the group’s facilities.

The employees were accused of yanking the victims’ hair, hitting them on the head, slapping their faces and tossing them to the floor.