Chan Chun Sing
Singapore
“Since 2002, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) has worked with the autonomous universities (AUs) to establish arrangements that minimise disruption to National Servicemen (NSmen) who are pursuing full-time studies up to the undergraduate level, while meeting the Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF's) operational and training needs.”
“Secondments help to build up the range of competencies and work experiences of public officers to strengthen their longer-term employment relevance and resilience. The Public Service Division's guideline to agencies is to support public officers even while they are on secondment.”
“The priority of our National Servicemen must be their military duties and operational training, to meet the Singapore Armed Forces's (SAF's) operational requirements.”
“In January 2026, I had informed this House that the Government had convened an independent committee to conduct a review of the political salary framework that was laid out in 2012. The Committee has completed the review and submitted its recommendations to the Government in April.”
“All countries seek to develop mutually beneficial partnerships, and the United States-Indonesia Major Defence Cooperation Partnership is one such example.”
“Since the Singapore Armed Forces Volunteer Corps (SAFVC) was established in 2014, over 1,500 men and women have completed training and served as SAFVC Volunteers (SVs). Presently, there are about 1,100 in-service SVs, comprising 52% male and 48% female. About seven in 10 of our in-service SVs are new Citizens or Permanent Residents.”
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“Recipients of the Public Assistance (PA) scheme receive a monthly cash allowance, as well as other forms of support, such as free medical treatment at polyclinics and Government hospitals and subsidised access to a range of social services. They also receive supplementary support from community-based organisations. PA households with school-going children receive additional assistance. The PA cash assistance rates are reviewed regularly. Over the last five years, the rates have been increased three times – in 2009, 2011 and 2013. In 2013, additional tiers of cash assistance were also introduced to provide extra support for those with special or once-off needs, such as healthcare and hygiene consumables. The purpose of these adjustments is to help PA recipients cope with the rising cost of living and evolving needs. We will continue to review our financial assistance schemes to ensure that they remain relevant to emerging trends and needs.”
“The "We are Able!" campaign was launched by the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) in March 2013. The aim is to raise awareness of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which we have signed, as well as to encourage Singaporeans to pledge achievable actions towards building a more inclusive society for persons with disabilities. As of 2 July, 466 pledges have been garnered. Of these, 40 were pledges to support the employment of persons with disabilities. I would like to assure Members that we will continue to work with the disability sector and employers to help promote employment for persons with disabilities. Beyond this campaign, we are implementing other actions under the Enabling Masterplan. For example, SG Enable – a dedicated agency to support the needs of persons with disabilities – will commence operations this quarter. One of its priorities is to enhance the employment of persons with disabilities. It will work with agencies, such as MOE, WDA, Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) and training providers, to raise the employability of persons with disabilities and expand the work options available for them. We will also continue to review schemes and programmes aimed at facilitating the employment of persons with disabilities.”
“Over the last three years, adopting a child from overseas, including a foreign step-child, takes an average of seven months. This includes the time needed for applicants to undertake the Home Study Report, obtain the Dependant's Pass for the adoptive child, and undergo the Court procedures in Singapore. It does not, however, take into account the time required for applicants to fulfil the legal requirements from the child's source country or to identify the foreign child. The process and time needed for these activities vary from country to country. MSF regularly reviews the adoption processes within MSF and across Government agencies. A few years ago, MSF took over the issuance of Dependant's Passes from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority so that prospective adopters only need to deal with one Government agency. More recently, we revamped our adoption portal to enable applications for adoption briefings and Home Studies to be made online. The portal also provides comprehensive information on the adoption process and information workshops. We will continue to review and streamline our processes, while ensuring the interest and safety of the children are protected.”
“Since the Home Ownership Plus Education (HOPE) scheme was introduced in January 2004, a total of 2,967 families have benefited from the scheme. Over the last five years, an average of 303 families joins the scheme each year. Since joining HOPE, families have in general, shown improvements in their circumstances. The majority of families have seen an increase in their household income. The employment rate of the mothers increased from about 30% to 60%, while about 50% of parents have tapped on the HOPE training grant to upgrade themselves. HOPE families receive mentoring support from professionals in appointed Social Service Agencies. Besides individual mentoring sessions, families also attend support group sessions to motivate and facilitate the family to take up skills upgrading to enhance their employability, improve their financial resiliency and improve family relationships. Regular surveys are carried out to review the effectiveness of the mentoring programme. In the latest review, over 70% of beneficiaries were satisfied with their mentors and indicated their mentors motivated them to undergo skills upgrading and seek better employment.”
“Mdm Speaker, let me thank Miss Penny Low for her suggestions. Yes, indeed, we are actively working with the land agencies and HDB to see where we can expedite the building of some childcare centres at vacant plots in Punggol and Sengkang particularly. On the second issue about teacher ratio, let me explain that we have started to work on the pipeline about two years back, ever since I joined the Ministry. So, the pipeline will be coming onstream soon. The other matter that I must also share with Members of this House is that we have already reviewed that particular suggestion and, indeed, we have implemented that. For example, some of the classes used to be one is to eight, that is, one teacher to eight students. We have since reviewed that last year where we gave the option of one-plus-one is to 12, that is, one qualified teacher plus one para edu-carer, so that the para edu-carer can perform some of the care functions that are not directly related to teaching. With that, we have also increased the capacity for many of the childcare centres that have the available space. Through this approach, whereby we give 50% extra by employing the para-personnel, we increase the capacity and, at the same, we also provide more employment opportunities for part-timers who may not be fully trained in the profession. But over time, some of these para-personnel, once they are in the industry, can also be attracted to upgrade themselves and become a full-time teacher. We have tried these methods since last year.”
“The other prong of the manpower approach has to do with increasing the number that we can recruit from the mid-stream recruitment. This could be part-timers who want to return to work. This is how we try to increase the overall manpower. I will be making more comprehensive announcements in a few months' time on the various tracks that we are tapping on to increase the manpower. But we are certainly aware that manpower is a critical issue.”
“Mdm Speaker, let me thank Dr Lim for his questions and comments. Yes, we have Sembawang as we have everybody on our radar screen. In fact, I think some of you may have received letters from my Ministry. We are going through town by town to meet the respective community leaders to discuss with them on the local solutions. So, it is not macro planning. We are actually meeting all the community leaders, estate by estate, to address their needs. There will be need even in the older towns because some of the parents will leave their children with the grandparents. So, we fully understand that. On the issue about relaxing the manpower criteria, I just like to provide the other perspective, which is that the numbers are there for a purpose because we want to give the parents an assurance on the quality. So, if the childcare providers are able to give us the assurance, and also give the parents the assurance, that the quality is not compromised, we can look at it to see how we can adjust some of these issues. But many of the childcare operators have also come back and share with us that they do not want to have too high a ratio, meaning that one teacher taking too many students, because it affects the quality of care. So, this is where we have to strike a balance. On the manpower side, we are continuing to increase the supply of manpower through two tracks. One is direct recruitment from the Polytechnics and the institutes responsible for training of childcare teachers. On this aspect, we do train many people. Our challenge is not so much of training them. Our challenge is to make sure that those who are trained come in and join the sector and also stay in the sector.”
“Mdm Speaker, I thank Ms Lee for the question. When we address the issues, we address them holistically as a town, not just Punggol East but the whole Sengkang town. While there might not be immediate sites available in Punggol East, we will try to look for other places within the Sengkang town so that the whole place can share the facilities together, in particular in Rivervale Arc where there will be a place that will be pre-built into the estate and that will be coming up quite soon.”
“Mdm Speaker, in response to Dr Lam Pin Min's question, yes, Sengkang and Punggol are on our radar screen. We know, as I have mentioned, that there is a high proportion of young families and many of these young families do not have grandparents' support. In catering to the needs of Sengkang and Punggol, we have catered for above what we provide for nationally, which is about one in three, or one in two. We also understand that some of the flats in Sengkang and Punggol do not have the necessary void deck spaces, which is why we are working with the community leaders to convert other places in an innovative manner. Some of the feedback and ideas that we have heard from community leaders include using temporary sites at empty plots of land by using temporary containers. We have also heard other ideas where community leaders have offered places in their community centres; other community leaders have suggested the use of under-utilised car parks. So, these are all places that we will look into and will work together with the community leaders to bring them about, if they are feasible.”
“Mdm Speaker, let me thank Ms Tin Pei Ling for the questions. The answer to the first question is that demand is determined by a few factors. We know that, generally, childcare places are sited either near their own homes, the parents' workplace or the grandparents' place. So, how we determine demand is based on the cohort size in the respective estates. We also take in feedback from the respective community leaders, if they see a demand for such a service. We also look at the queue at the existing childcare places in the vicinity so that we have a sense of what is the demand. As to Ms Tin's question that there will be some parents who might need childcare but may not have approached their community leaders, this is where we appeal to the various community leaders to work with us. If they know of such cases, do bring such needy families' children to the childcare centre and we will find some ways to support them. So, this is, in general, how we determine where to set up childcare centres. It is based on the numbers that we have on hand and it is also based on the feedback from the community leaders. For example, we also understand that in Sengkang and Punggol, generally the younger families there have less grandparents' support, so they will need a bit more childcare places. And we have catered for it accordingly. On the last issue, yes, we do provide grants to help childcare operators to retrofit some of the existing places and our aim is to make sure that we continue to expand the mass market options to provide affordable childcare services to those who need it.”
“For student care centres, MSF will continue to work with MOE to support schools in their collaboration with student care providers to provide additional support for students.”
“Mdm Speaker, Ms Tin Pei Ling asked about the siting of infant care, childcare and student care services. The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) monitors the demand for childcare services across various estates, including MacPherson, and initiates development of new centres or expand existing ones in high demand areas. Dr Lam Pin Min asked about the development plans for childcare centres in Punggol and Sengkang. Ms Lee Li Lian asked about the development of childcare centres in Punggol East. These are estates with a higher proportion of families with young children. Since 2008, 37 additional centres have been set up in Punggol and Sengkang. For Sengkang, 14 more centres will be developed within the next two years, and another nine centres are slated for development by 2018. For Punggol, 14 more centres will be developed within the next two years and another 12 by 2018. ECDA is working with HDB to pre-build childcare facilities alongside upcoming BTO projects. As part of this effort, there will be a childcare centre within Rivervale Arc which will be completed in the first quarter of 2015. Ms Lee asked about the setting up of childcare centres at school premises. In general, ECDA is open to exploring alternative premises beyond HDB sites for the development of childcare centres. For instance, to raise capacity, ECDA is looking into the use of other premises such as workplaces, disused facilities and integrated developments. Each specific site will have to be assessed according to feasibility, while ensuring that the development does not adversely affect existing needs. In the case of schools, the physical capacity of the school and educational experience of the school-going children would have to be part of the considerations.”
“The assistance provided to beneficiaries on the Public Assistance (PA) scheme is reviewed regularly to keep pace with their specific needs and cost of living. PA households with school-going children receive additional cash assistance per child. Those with healthcare needs would receive additional assistance for medical consumables and dietary supplements. Other forms of assistance include free medical treatment in polyclinics and restructured hospitals, free or highly subsidised social services, and supplementary assistance in cash or kind.”
“The Social Service Offices will deliver ComCare assistance, undertake local social service planning, and provide coordinated assistance to help Singaporeans with multiple needs, together with partner agencies on the ground. The staff will comprise mainly staff employed by MSF. Some of them may have social work training. The Ministry will provide the requisite training to enable all staff to perform their roles. The number of officers will vary across each location depending on the level of needs in the area.”
“Mdm Speaker, I beg to move, [(proc text) "In page 12, line 23, to leave out "84" and insert "84A". (proc text)] This corrects a typographical error under section 12(1), which unwittingly omitted section 84A when applying the provisions of the Employment Act to the maternity leave scheme under the Child Development Co-Savings Act. Section 84A of the Employment Act deals with the protection of the employee's right to maternity leave payment if the employee is retrenched Page: 125 during her pregnancy. It has been applied in the Child Development Co-Savings Act together with sections 77 to 86. The Ministry of Manpower has repealed section 85 in the current round of related Employment Act amendments, and section 12(1) was re-drafted to exclude section 85. However, it should be read as sections 77 to 84A and 86 instead of sections 77 to 84 and 86. [(proc text) Amendment agreed to. (proc text)] [(proc text) Clause 8, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill. (proc text)] [(proc text) Clauses 9 to 21 inclusive ordered to stand part of the Bill. (proc text)] [(proc text) Bill reported with an amendment; read a Third time and passed. (proc text)]”
“Mdm Chair, on Mr David Ong's first question, the frank feedback given to us was that the transnational couples did not like to be singled out. To them, couples are just couples. They are saying, "Why do you make an issue whether I am transnational or not?" We took their feedback and incorporated additional modules useful to them in the mainstream marriage preparation programme because most of the marriage modules will be relevant regardless of whether you are transnational or a Singaporean married to a Singaporean. This has given us a bit more success in reaching out to the transnational couples. On the second issue, for those cases that are a bit more complex, after the abortion, we do follow up with them because not all of them are at the same state of psychological health. For those who need a bit more help, the social workers do follow up with them to provide post-abortion counselling and outreach as part of our social care.”
“Mdm Chair, we note the point. Today, we have some shelters that allow some of our teenaged unwed mothers to carry the baby to term. We understand where the Member is coming from and we will see what more we can do together.”
“Mdm Chair, I thank Mr Png Eng Huat for his clarifications. On the first, we just have to be careful on the load for childcare centres. For simple cases, such as childcare subsidies, parents can apply directly at the childcare centres. For more complex cases that require some investigation of the social circumstances of the family, the childcare centres may be unable to do the investigation, and social workers or other professionals may do it instead. Most of the time, it is not just one particular problem that we are concerned with. It might be a symptom of a larger issue as to why they cannot afford the fees. We really need to go to the root cause to solve some of these problems. So, let us work with you on this. I do not have the specific details on the second case. You can let us know and we will see how we can support the child to make sure that we reach out to every child. 2.00 pm”
“Yes, I think we can make the information more available but as to how to do it sensitively and whether we call it promotion of the adoption culture – I am not so sure as yet. Let me give this some thought because I think the message on adoption has to be thought through carefully. I think the Member's intent is good. It is to let those people know that there is such an option available. To create awareness, that is alright. To create awareness is slightly different from an adoption culture, so I am just a bit careful Page: 68 in answering this. I agree that we should create awareness and let vulnerable families and women know that there is this option. We are in agreement on that.”
“Mdm Chair, I wish to thank Ms Lee. Yes, we will be working with the grassroots leaders on the siting of these centres. On the second issue, we note your point.”
“Madam, I thank Ms Ellen Lee for her four suggestions. These are rather technical in nature. I will take them back to my legal staff and we will certainly give them serious thought. But the Member's last point is most important – about the interpretation, and this is why we need lawyers to come and help us to interpret the LPA to those speaking other languages, such as Chinese, dialects, Malay and Tamil. Indeed, it can be quite daunting. Our elderly are not very comfortable with legal documents. To the elderly, they think they are signing away their right to make decisions, which makes them even more uncomfortable. Indeed, there are many cultural hurdles that we have to overcome. Page: 67 I hope everybody can do our part to help spread this message. The issue really is, by the time we need this, it is often too late for us to make that decision. We have the instruments in place and we hope to hit the correct part of the S-curve to take off like other countries. Our first two years' experience was similar to the UK – very slow take-up rate at the start. However, take-up rates rose quickly in the UK once there was a certain critical mass, a tipping point. We hope to get there soon.”
“Mdm Chair, I thank Mr Gerald Giam for his three clarifications. On the first issue, as the Member said, it is a complex issue, so there will always be some help that we give to married couples and there will be another package of help that we give to singles. We do not judge people by their status. We look at the person and ask if the person needs help. Even if scheme A does not fit, we will try scheme B; scheme B does not fit, we try scheme C. That is our operating modus operandi because we do not want to get involved in, as the Member said, all these complex issues. Even for single mothers, there are different types of single mothers. They need different types of help. Our job is to make sure that we give them the type of help that they need, rather than to pigeon-hole them or classify them very broadly, which sometimes does not work. On the second issue, the answer is no. I do not have any statistics or information that this package of help has anything to do with the abortion rate. I am not sure. For the third issue, let us consider this at a later point in time. Let me stabilise the work of ECDA, and then we can review. But rest assured that whether it is under ECDA or under MSF or under MOE, the after-school care Page: 66 service now is watched by both MOE and MSF together. If we want to build the facility in the school, we need to work with MOE, but you need the VWOs to work with the schools. So, no worries, we will work on this.”
“Mdm Chair, I thank Mr Ang Hin Kee for his clarifications and suggestions. The answer to the first clarification is, yes, we will want to do that, maybe in partnership with the Member. As I have said, it goes beyond pay and remuneration. It is also the image, the social status of our childcare teachers and the professionals in this sector. We should really see them as professionals in this sector, so we will see what we can do. On the second clarification, I fully understand that there are some, what I call "kinks" in the benefits curve whereby sometimes just because your salary increases a bit, you may lose certain things. We will continue to iron out some of these kinks in the curve. For example, yesterday or the day before, Senior Parliamentary Secretary Dr Maliki announced the changes to the rental charges so that you would not have a case whereby just because your income went up by $10, you get charged more for your rental income. These are welcomed moves. Where Members find that there are such kinks in the help assistance Page: 65 given, let us know and we will try our best to iron them out.”
“I must just add that in time to come, there will be also other elderly who may use such motorised chairs, not just for the disabled community.”
“Mdm Chair, I thank Miss Penny Low for her three clarifications. On the first point about the legal entity and the taxation on SEs, I will convey the suggestion to the Ministry of Finance. We will see how we can promote social enterprise. On her second point about working closely between MOE and MSF, that is exactly why we are setting up ECDA so that you do not have to run to two agencies; you just go to one agency and we will appoint a point man to make sure we have the equivalent of a customer relations manager to deal with the respective constituency. On the third question about the wheelchair-friendly vehicles, the plan is not to replace the Maxi cab. In fact, there were 10 London cabs. Now, they have a new model. We have brought in 15 and we will bring in another 15. These are essentially for the high-back wheelchairs, that means that the wheelchair is not collapsible and the motorised wheelchair is slightly different from the normal cabs. Most of the other cabs can take the normal wheelchair if they are foldable. They bring the person into the cabin and then they fold up the chair and place it in the boot. What we are particularly concerned about are those wheelchairs Page: 64 that cannot be folded; and also with the motorised wheelchairs, the motor takes up a bigger space than the normal wheelchair. From 10 London cabs, we have 15 now running on the roads; we will have another 15 to make 30. In the second part of this year, we will also invite proposals for private operators to operate a dedicated fleet – these are point A to point B dedicated fleet of vehicles, to expand the options available to persons with disability using such high-back wheelchairs and also motorised wheelchairs.”
“Mdm Chair, I thank Mr Yee Jenn Jong for his suggestions. I would like to take all three together. All the ideas that he has raised are indeed things that we have considered. I will not make a response today because some of them are commercially sensitive. When we announce the criteria for the new anchor operators, I am sure many of these issues will be addressed.”
“Like the Member said, as there are 3,000 of them, it not so easy to visit all of them at the same time, but progressively we will do so. From the initial conception of the scheme, we roughly know what percentage it is. Not all 3,000 of them will require Tier Two or additional tier. We will focus our attention this year on those that need it most first, and we will progressively check the rest. Based on our records, we know who are those who need a bit more help – they are already in our records − and those are our planning parameters on why we come up with the Tier Two and Tier Three assistance. But if grassroots organisations have anybody that they feel need Page: 62 such assistance, do let us know, that will help us in our work as well.”
“Mdm Chair, on the first clarification from Dr Lily Neo, in fact, this scheme is exactly what I talked about. I mentioned earlier today that the ComCare deals with short-term assistance, and the PA deals with very long-term assistance. Somewhere in between, those people require hand-holding from five to 10 years, or really for their children to get out of the difficult circumstances, to finish school and start life afresh − this is the group that we want to focus on in the coming year. We are developing a programme that provides what I call "the medium term assistance" that goes beyond the one to two years of the ComCare but may not be as permanent as the current PA. The main challenge for this, again, is finding the mentorship to guide these people in this journey. So, this is what we were referring. For the PA cases, we review them regularly now, especially the older ones. We expect our officers to visit them and we also expect to work with the grassroots because, like what the Member said, it is very difficult to visit 3,000 people and make the assessment. The sources of information can come from our social service professionals, or it can come from the grassroots or people who have identified that they need more help. They can also come from the medical side because when they visit the polyclinics, the medical social workers can also give us the information. For example, in the Tier Two where we talked about additional help, when it comes to medical and health supplements, actually much of this information is given to us by MOH, from the medical social workers who see them when they go to the polyclinic. As far as possible, we do not need and we do not want the elderly and frail to have to do these applications. We want to be proactive, go forward, and serve them.”
“We call it a Social Service Office and not a financial assistance office because in time to come, if other agencies feel that there is a need and they want to come and join us, we welcome them to come and join us. These can include employment centres and also other types of help. At the same time, the Social Service Office may also be co-located with one of the existing CDCs or FSCs so that we do it together rather than separately. So, this is work-in-progress, and we will continue to refine the model as we go along.”
“Where Page: 60 services are already provided by the VWOs, whether it is FSC or other VWOs, they will continue to provide these services. But what this Social Service Office can do is to better integrate the different types of services required. I will give an example. Supposing now someone wants to go to Toa Payoh and set up another senior activity centre − in the past, it used to be that they would put up some proposals to MSF and then they would see whether or not we would fund them for that centre. But we want the Social Service Office to be the first point of contact for these emerging VWOs. We will go and talk to this local planning office, very much like the HDB office in the town, to see where the needs are, identify the locations and work with the local community to bring that about, so that we do not have an over-provision of certain services and an under-provision of other services within that community. So, whoever is providing the existing services will continue but, instead of having to go through the HQ, we will deploy the Social Service Offices in the town to make sure that they harmonise the kind of work that is required of them. Of course, the other thing that the Social Service Office will do is financial assistance, which is currently accessible at the five CDCs across the island. So, instead of accessible points, we will increase from five to 20, so that will allow the people who need help to actually not travel such long distances and to have one in every town. It will not correspond exactly to all the current GRC boundaries because we work on the current township boundaries so that people have a natural focal point for services. In time to come, we will see whether other services would like to co-locate with us. There is always this possibility.”
“Mdm Chair, on the first point about communications, we agree that we need to do more, and we will need the Member's help to reach out to people with special needs. Indeed, she is right, many of them are not aware of the plans. Sometimes, we have so many initiatives that it is difficult to digest. We intend to roll out the initiatives one at a time so as to constantly remind people of the services, for example, whether it is taxis, SPED schools, and so forth. We will need her help to see how we can do better. For the drop-in centres, we are starting off with those with are mildly disabled. We recognise that there is a need for services that cater to the more severely disabled ones. At this point in time, I must be frank that we are building up our capabilities and capacities to serve this group. It is not easy because they require much more help than the mildly disabled ones, both from a medical perspective and also from a social perspective. But, in due course, we will try to ramp up this as soon as we gather the relevant experiences. For the mildly disabled, we are also able to incorporate some of the centres as an extension of some of the other activity centres. It is probably a bit easier for the people there to accept them. For the severely disabled, we will really need the community's help to be open to the idea of having day activity facilities to be established in the community. So, we will work towards that. We are not there yet. On Social Service Offices, we already have five that we will convert from the existing CDCs, and we will have 15 more, one in every town. The Social Service Office will not duplicate the role of the FSCs or the CDCs and CEL.”
“I would love the day when I open my street directory, it does not just show me the roads, the block numbers, but it also shows me where all the social service centres, all the Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs), all on the map. Today, I am not there yet. Today, I have petrol kiosks on my street directory but not the Family Service Centres (FSCs), VWOs on the street directory yet. So, I will work towards that.”
“We have codified everything from the number of trees to the width of the footpath and in everything that we build. Going forward, MND has been very supportive in that we not only need the hard infrastructure, we also need to build social infrastructures into all the new flats and new towns that we build. So, it is not just about competition for void deck spaces but, instead of competing for void deck spaces, to in build some of these things into the new buildings. For example, we all know certainly a new town will require childcare centres. So, instead of having it at a void deck, it could be in built into the buildings and the precinct. Anyway, it will never go to waste because while the space was used for a childcare centre today, it could be used for a senior activity centre later on. So, it will not go to waste; we will not waste resources. For senior group homes, these are meant for seniors who are already staying in a certain community. What we try to do is to group them together so that they do not have to be uprooted to another place, we want them to stay within the community – what we call "ageing in place" – so that they do not have to move from Bedok to Jurong when they need a different support system. Only as a last resort, when they have to go to an institutional home, they may have to be uprooted. I think so long as the elders can continue to remain active in their community, it actually keeps them active and healthy for a longer period than if we were to uproot them and take them away from the community. So, indeed, we are going ahead with working on the plans with MND to make sure we in build all these social infrastructures into our new towns as we build them for the coming years. These must be codified into the way we think and the way we plan.”
“Let me thank Mr Seah Kian Peng for his supplementary clarifications. For manpower, indeed, there are a few things that we are doing. I will touch on social workers first. First, we need to look at the way that we do the work. We want to make sure that the social workers and the social service professionals devote most of their time to the front-end case management. What we want to do is to lighten the backend administrative work. This will help us to improve the productivity and streamline the processes, so that we can make better use of the available manpower. As I shared just now, we hope to increase the number of people who can make mid-career switches to join the social service sector. Many of these people are also very mature and they have gone through life's journey and can become a valuable part of the social service profession. These are things that we can try to do to attract more of them. Of course, we must make sure that the career opportunities and the pay scales keep up with the market. On childcare teachers, there are a few things that we are doing. First, we are trying to increase the number of part-time staff who are prepared to come back and join the sector. We will also be sourcing for some foreign staff if it is opportune and appropriate. Again, we try to attract some of the mid-career entrants to join us. There is potential to attract the pool of part-time staff and maybe even some of the retired or relief teachers, because they are already in a sector that is associated with the care and education industry. Page: 58 1.30 pm On the second clarification, indeed, that is what we are doing. We are very good at building hard infrastructures.”
“Let me thank Mr Alex Yam for his support. If anyone of us come across people who can perform the role of youth mentors, do let us know, because there are various youth groups started by the youths themselves who are organising this youth mentorship to reach out to the youths-at-risk. There is certain confidentiality in the entire process. I do not think we want to identify the youths-at-risk. We just want to befriend them and, through the process, help them to get onto the correct path. So, if there are youth members whom Members of this House know, let us know, and we will put them in touch with the appropriate agencies. On the idea of having a clearing house for adoption, we will see how we can do this well, because there are certain confidentiality issues in relation to this whole issue. As mentioned, every year, the average number of child adoptions in Singapore is about 400. It has been so for the last five years – on average, about 400. Half of the adoptions are Singaporean parents to Singaporean children. The other half are Singaporean parents to foreign children. There are some cultural differences. There are some personal preferences. It is very difficult to get an exact match but, where possible, we always try to match up. Like what Members in the House said, every one child saved and every one child matched with a proper family is one more happy Singaporean.”
“On the other hand, today, I am in a comfortable position because many Members, through their own networks, have stepped forward and joined the circle of support for all our weak, our vulnerable, and our needy. This is not easy. We want to sustain this. We do not want to end up in a situation where everybody is only looking after themselves – a "I-me-myself" mentality – and not caring for my fellow men, my fellow neighbour, my fellow person in the community. So, today, whether it is budgetary resources or social network, I think we are in good shape, but let us not take this for granted that it will always be so. And I look forward to walking this journey with all Members of the House.”
“Finally, if I may just take the remaining two minutes to conclude on the family portion. At a very personal level, having a family goes beyond financial calculations. It always bothers me when someone takes out a financial sheet to calculate the pluses and minuses of having a family. I think that starts us off on the wrong track. The tangible calculations cannot measure the intangibles of family life – the source of support, the purpose to our life, the anchor for our life's direction. Much is a leap of faith. Married life is about a determination and a compact to walk life's journey together. It does not come without challenges, the Page: 55 destination may be unknown, but for those of us who have walked it, I think the journey is definitely worthwhile. Finally, it leaves me to thank all Members of the House who have spoken during the various "cuts". Actually, I never understood why they are called "cuts". I was told that it was called "cuts" because, in normal parliamentary proceedings, people usually try to cut your budget, so, it is either you have it or I have it. Today, we are in a comfortable position on two counts, at least for MSF. Today, nobody in this House has stood up to say that they want to cut our social budget. All of us want to do more, and we will want to do more, but we must also bear in mind that this may not be the happy situation that we will be in forever. As economic growth slows, the competition for scarce resources intensifies. I hope to have your support to continue this journey together and that, year after year, we can come back here and have "adds" and not "cuts", but we must be realistic.”
“Social service agencies that have provided abortion counselling tell us that adoption is one of the hardest options to raise to these women. It is very difficult for a woman to consider going through the pregnancy only to give the child away at birth. It is not easy. We will work with social agencies to provide more information and support to these women, so that they can make informed choices. However, the decision to carry a baby to term or to abort a baby is ultimately a deeply personal one, influenced by many important and unique factors to the individual, which we must respect. Discouraging abortion and encouraging adoption should not be seen as the solution to our TFR challenge. Rather, we should enhance support for such vulnerable families and women for them to make informed decisions. For every successful case, we rejoice but we must also appreciate that this is something deeply personal, and there are many considerations that we must respect. Mr Ang Hin Kee talked about foreign spouses and the challenges of transnational couples. We acknowledge this. Forty per cent of our Singaporeans marry someone who is not Singaporean. In 2011, MSF piloted a marriage preparation programme for transnational couples. It did not work. It was not very popular because the transnational couples did not want to be singled out. So, we incorporated the topics into mainstream marriage preparation programmes, and MSF provides some support for couples to attend such programmes, regardless of whether they are transnational marriages or not. We hope that Members in this House will continue to help us reach out to such couples because many of them face very difficult challenges settling in a new land. There is much that we need to do for these transnational couples.”
“Single unwed parents will also enjoy six days of unpaid infant care leave a year if they have a child below age two. This will come into effect on 1 May this year. We will continue to strive to provide better support for our families under duress. Dr Intan, Mr Christopher de Souza and Ms Foo Mee Har have talked about adoption. Yes, we would like to encourage more adoptions where we can, but this is a serious undertaking about a child's life and a child's development. It is also a serious undertaking on how we want to build the family relationship. On average, we take about five months now to process an adoption case. We will see how we can simplify and strengthen this without compromising on the quality of assessment and care for the child. Adoption in other countries can take up to two years because of the rules and regulations of that country. Where we can, we will work closely with those countries and continue to learn from other countries' best practices. Ms Foo Mee Har and Mr Christopher de Souza also talked about abortion. Every year we have about 12,000 abortions. Slightly more than half of them are by Singaporean women. A quarter of the entire number are Singaporean women who are married. Twelve thousand is the whole number, about half of the abortions are by Singaporean women, and another half of the half, which is a quarter of the total, are Singaporean women who are married. Today, we have measures in place, such as counselling them on the risks and implications of an abortion. Written consent can only be given after a "cooling-off period". Social service agencies also provide counselling and support to these women, including guiding them on other options such as adoption. Page: 54 Having said this, I must say that this is a very difficult and tricky topic.”
“For example, today when we go around, many places have pro-family infrastructures – having just a simple gesture of extra car parking spaces for families with strollers and prams, makes a tremendous difference. I just visited the Gardens by the Bay and could not find a car park lot. Finally, I drove by this blue box that says that you are entitled to park here if you have strollers. I had two, so I qualified. Made my day. Small gesture. We will build a strong pool of educators and invest in their professional development. This is an acquired skill; it is not easy but we will do more. All these will be part of the $40 million programme in the next three years for us to push. We will make a big push on family education. Let me come to the last part where I talk about support for vulnerable families. We understand and we appreciate that many of these families need additional support, especially single mothers. But single mothers are not a uniform group – there are unwed single mothers, there are divorced single mothers, and there are widowed single mothers. I appreciate the push by Mr Seah Kian Peng, Dr Janil Puthucheary, Ms Janice Koh, Ms Mary Liew and Ms Page: 53 Lee Li Lian for speaking up on behalf of the single parents. 1.15 pm MND recently announced measures to support singles, divorced and widowed single parents − we are happy for that. To better support their caregiving responsibilities, the Government will extend infant care and childcare leave provisions to unwed single parents. This means that like other parents, single unwed parents will receive the same childcare leave support − six days of childcare leave a year for children below seven years of age, and two days for those aged between seven and 12.”
“At higher levels like JCs and Polytechnics, students do benefit from modules on relational and life skills, and we will continue to push to reach out to more people. Family Matters @ Work encourages companies to offer family education and bonding programmes, and this complements MOM's work-life measures. For example, many companies organise programmes for singles; many companies also organise programmes for married couples. I always thought Page: 52 that once in a while we should organise the two of them together; so at least the singles do not feel that they are being singled out, and they can at least appreciate the joys, the trials and tribulations of married life by the shared stories of those who have walked the journey before them. Hopefully, those who have walked the journey before them will inspire them to take that leap of faith because for all of us who have walked this journey before, married life is a leap of faith. You will never know the destination, but we can all enjoy the journey together. We will revamp the scheme to encourage more companies to join. Today, we have about 1,500 companies under our Family Life Ambassador Scheme. We will want to do more and we will encourage many more companies to come on board and join us. Likewise, we will leverage on the resources and the networks in the community – the People's Association, the NGOs, the public agencies, the Community Clubs, and Libraries – to promote Family Matters @ Community, so that we achieve a better work-life balance and better personal mastery, and be more confident in how we build our families. Finally, Family Matters @ Businesses. We want to encourage more pro-family infrastructure, products and services.”
“We intend to make a big push to spend $40 million in the next three years to reach out to more than two million participants in terms of family life education. We will be launching the Family Matters! Initiative. If I may show a diagram, Mdm Chair. We want to take a life-cycle approach – from the time when the children are young to how we inculcate in our children, our youth, the values of family life, the importance of families; to the time that they go on to work, and to the time when they become a married couple. Having gotten married is not the end of the journey and the end of education. At every stage of life, there are different stressors and strains. We need to support our married couples, our first-time parents and parents with young children. Over and above all these, and over and above parents with teenage children, we also have to take care of our children with elderly parents, many of them need to be supported. This is the entire life-cycle approach where every life stage matters in the family education and formation. We will synergise the family education effort more holistically. We will introduce four initiatives: Family Matters @ Schools where we have programmes for students and parents to talk about some of these issues. For example, at Princess Elizabeth Primary School, they regularly organise programmes to help children and parents bond; and through the whole process, understand and appreciate the value of family life and set the children on a foundation to love and appreciate the family in time to come. In response to Mr Seah Kian Peng, today about 800 schools and pre-schools offer programmes; but I think we can do more, and we will.”
“To round up the childcare portion, our mantra is still the three words: "Affordability", "Accessibility" and "Quality". That has not changed. We will support the operators in the sector to see how we can uplift their quality. We will support all the parents to make sure that we provide affordable options to the parents and provide peace of mind; they do not need to arrange for their child to attend the next higher-priced programme which, in turn, becomes an improper proxy for the quality of the programme. Most importantly, we want to make sure that as the sector develops, we continue to have affordable options for the middle and lower income groups. Now let me move on to the second thrust of MSF's work on the family this year, and that is encouraging a pro-family mindset. We agree with Mr Seah Kian Peng that family promotion and education goes beyond financial and material support. MSF takes a long-term approach to this and we want to focus on building the foundation and the values. It will not yield us results in the short term. But we think and we believe that this is important for us going into the long term. We believe that with this foundation, we will have better chances to Page: 51 have stronger families in the future. In the past, we have always sought to equip ourselves with family life skills and to lead fulfilling family lives. Ten years ago, our outreach in terms of family education was 200,000 participants. Last year, we reached one million participants in our outreach but we are not happy, nor are we satisfied. We know the changing socio-economic circumstances. We know the upcoming stressors and strains to the families.”
“These include people who might not be in the sector now and people who might be tempted to come back on a part-time basis to help out in the sector. And there is tremendous potential for us to do this. Page: 50 I have also asked ECDA to harmonise the rules and regulations between the kindergarten and the childcare sector. We do this to make sure that we provide greater ease of operation for the operators, and that we provide peace of mind to the parents, not just in terms of quality, but also in the continuity of services, from childcare to kindergarten and, in time to come, to afterschool care and beyond. We want parents to have the peace of mind so that when they have a child, they need not worry about the quality or cost of education. Finally, children is at the centre of everything we do. We want quality programmes. We want diversity in the childcare options for our children because we recognise that not all children learn by the same way. Let me take 30 seconds to tell Members the story of why we called this agency ECDA. We chose this name after a long deliberation. Early childhood development not only encompasses Primary 1 and academic subjects. We want to remind everyone that we are developing the child, giving him or her the foundation for his or her life. And that requires many more skillsets. It requires a holistic development beyond the academic subjects. We are very concerned that this is perceived as merely pre-school development. If that was the case, then we would have failed in our mission. This is something that we have to join hands and work together on. It is a mindset that we all must embrace as we go forward and develop our children.”
“The niche service providers are able to meet the demands of the higher income group. We want to have an industry-wide support to ensure quality across the board. And this is where we need to focus on teaching and learning resources. If I may at this point deviate a little to clarify on what Ms Denise Phua and Mr Png Eng Huat mentioned about subsidies. Today, we have full childcare subsidy for full day open to all, including single moms. For mothers who are not working, we have – on appeal – approved more than 400 cases for exactly the same reasons that you have mentioned. So, if you know of anybody who may need such services, do let us know. Let me talk about the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) and the road ahead. ECDA will commence its operations from 1 April this year. They will do three things. First, they will do master-planning for the entire sector, town by town, division by division, constituency by constituency, to work with the local leaders to identify possible sites. In fact, we have already identified about 80% of the sites. But there is still another 20% to go. And we want to work with the local community leaders to make this happen. Second, ECDA will focus on capability building, on curriculum development, and manpower development. In terms of curriculum development, together with the effort from MOE, we want to disseminate best practices, whether it is from the AOP or the non AOP, to the entire sector and level up the whole sector. And this is the way we want to push up the quality for the entire childcare industry. In terms of manpower development, we will continue to source for alternative sources of manpower.”
“Despite the fact that the Government is helping the not-for-profit operators to expand for the mass market, we can see how fast the commercial operators are growing. Our fear and our concern is whether we have sufficient mass market options for our middle and low-income groups? That is our challenge. I am quite sure the number of operators will grow. My concern is how the sector will grow. Will we end up like some countries, where there are many commercial operators providing high-end care options, but are unable to provide the mass market options? In the UK, some studies have shown that the out-of-pocket expenditure for childcare services can take up to 30% to 40% of their household income. I do not think we want that. Today, in Singapore, for each child, the out-of-pocket expense is comfortably within the single digit range. We benchmark our subsidies to ensure affordable options for the mass market so that the lower and middle income families have access to child care services. Page: 49 Now, let me talk a bit about the AOP Scheme. The AOP Scheme has helped us expand the options for the middle income group. We have grown to about 130 centres and their fees are below the industry median. This is one of the criteria for the AOP Scheme. So, instead of chasing prices upwards, they can anchor the market. Fifty-seven per cent of the SPARK-certified centres are from the AOPs. This is a low number; and I think we can do better. The AOPs' large network and better economies of scale help them to improve their operational and human resource capabilities. We want to support more AOPs to come in to provide quality, affordable, accessible childcare services, in particular, to the middle income and the lower income groups.”
“When we are too small, each by ourselves, we cannot do that. When we are too big, we also have other challenges. MSF's main concern is how to provide affordable and quality childcare options to the mass market, to the people in the middle and lower income groups? This is not an ideological debate; there is nothing philosophical about Page: 48 this. We want practical solutions. Let me share on the envisaged structure. There will be a role for various private sector operators and they can contribute to the sector. They will try different approaches to early childhood development. They will meet different needs and different aspirations of parents. Some parents will choose this option and we will support private operators in improving their services. We want to uplift the whole sector, including some private centres. On the other hand, we will ensure that mass market options are of good quality and affordable for the low- and middle-income families. 1.00 pm If I may have your permission, Mdm Chair, to show another chart. This is our situation four years ago, prior to the start of our Masterplan. And four years since the Masterplan, from 2005 to 2008, there were only seven new not-for-profit centres to cater to the mass market. There were 52 new for-profit commercial centres. My first conclusion is that the private sector is doing very well on its own. We then implemented the Masterplan to give a big push to the not-for-profit operators and the entire sector. In the last four years, we have 135 new not-for-profit centres catering to the mass market. In comparison, there were 132 new for-profit commercial centres.”
“We also respect the dedicated educators who set up existing kindergartens and childcare centres with very innovative teaching methods. We should keep them in our system and, if possible, help them grow. On the other hand, some have called for privatisation with many small players in the sector, and to give equal subsidy to all operators. We are cautious because the experience of other countries has shown that this may not work out very well. In this unregulated market, what is most likely to happen, is that the top for-profit segment of the market will grow very quickly. And the middle segment for the mass market will grow the slowest. If we continue this trajectory, we will not be able to provide affordable options for the mass market. So, we welcome ideas, like Mr Yee Jenn Jong's suggestion, and we will consider them. We will announce more of these details when we are ready to call for proposals for new AOPs. The childcare sector is also quite different from some other markets. Information is critical. The question is how to assess the quality of a childcare service. There are no examinations, and we are not suggesting having examinations. But how do we assess which childcare operator provides better service? The unfortunate experience in some other countries is that, when people are short of tangible evidences, they look to price as a proxy. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. High-end operators attract people who can pay for the services and they produce quite good services whereas the mass market languish. The other question is, beyond looking at it from the child's perspective, how do we provide training and career development opportunities for the many teachers in this industry? This, I think, is critical.”
“When we have a very fragmented market like today with more than 400 operators running 1,000 childcare centres, it is very difficult for individual childcare centres and operators to provide a proper route of advancement and development opportunities for the childcare teachers. If you run one centre, you cannot afford one or two teachers to take time off to attend training or upgrading courses. These are challenges that we have to overcome. We also welcome suggestions from operators to maximise manpower resources in innovative ways while maintaining quality. We are talking to some of them and would like to share the best practices with the rest of the sector. I agree with Mr Ang Hin Kee that teacher qualities go beyond academic qualifications. Some may not have the necessary academic qualifications but they have a certain way with children and are able to bring them up with the correct values and the correct attitude to learning. This is what we want and we will be prepared to work with the operators to consider these deserving cases. Page: 47 Now the question is – what is the correct way to structure the childcare industry? Over these last two weeks, inside and outside the House, we have heard many differing views. Some call for nationalisation, others call for privatisation. Minister Heng spoke about some of the challenges of nationalisation yesterday. If we do nationalise, the question that we have to ask ourselves is whether we are able to provide the diversity required for the industry. We know that children learn very differently. A one-size-fits-all learning method will probably not work. We want diversity and we want to give choices to our parents.”
“They are in the profession because of their passion, because they like kids and because they have a way to bring up the kids. This is highly commendable. But, on the other hand, they do not wish to be seen as super nannies. They are professionals in their own right. Page: 46 They want to improve the image of early childhood professionals. I think all of us as parents can do more to help. When we send our children to the childcare centre, we could at least acknowledge the childcare teachers and show them our appreciation. Please do not deposit the child at the childcare centre and give the teacher a list of instructions, such as, "please make sure my child doesn't fall down or have mosquito bites". And when we collect our children at the end of the day, again we should thank the childcare teachers, instead of checking whether our children have mosquito bites or whether the child has fallen down. The childcare teachers have told me that they can take a bit less pay, but they should be given a bit more respect. And I think we can all do more to acknowledge and affirm the good work done by our childcare teachers. It is not an easy job, as all of us with children would know, especially for those who have had to take care of our child at home for 24 hours. To take care of many other people's children for at least eight to 10 hours a day is not an easy job. So, let us do our part to acknowledge the childcare teachers who work very hard to take care of our children. We will continue to work with WDA and training agencies to expand our manpower pipeline. And we agree that we need to raise the professional image of the sector. This is where the structure of the sector is very important.”