The Government will launch a pilot scheme to provide a school social work service in pre-primary institutions next year to help identify child abuse cases.

Secretary for Labour & Welfare Dr Law Chi-kwong told the media today he hopes the scheme will help prevent child abuse.

A mother was jailed for 15 years by the High Court today for child neglect.

Dr Law said the sentence shows people will pay a huge price for neglecting their children.

He said the Education Bureau and the Social Welfare Department are exploring ways to improve their work in protecting youngsters.

"Most of the vulnerable children are very young. It is very important to improve the services we are providing both at the primary school and also the kindergarten level."

He said the pilot scheme will start in February.

"We will be providing a school social work service to the kindergartens in Hong Kong.

"Although it is a pilot, it will take probably three years for us to fully provide the whole service to all the close to 1,000 kindergartens in Hong Kong."