Masagos Zulkifli B M M
Singapore
“Coordination between Early Intervention (EI) centres, families and preschools is important for the continuity of support for children with developmental needs.”
“The Taxi Subsidy Scheme supports persons with disabilities (PwDs) who are unable to take public transport, by providing means-tested subsidies to offset the cost of taxi travel to school, work and employment-related training supported by SG Enable.”
“The Skills and Salary Guidelines published by the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) guides social service agencies (SSAs) to pay their employees fair and competitive remuneration and maintain the sector's attractiveness. The Guidelines are adjusted so that salaries remain competitive with comparable roles in competing markets.”
“Staff turnover rates vary across social service agencies (SSAs). An individual's decision to leave an organisation is influenced by a myriad of factors, of which pay is only one.”
“Beyond the requirement of a structured daily programme, community-based SCFA administrators have the flexibility to offer programmes and additional enrichment activities that meet the needs of their students. MSF does not track staff salaries and turnover of SCCs in general nor those that administer SCFA.”
“Male preschool educators comprised about 1% of the early childhood workforce in each of the last five years. The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) has not issued guidelines pertaining to the rules set by preschool centres specific to the conduct of male preschool educators.”
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“We are making good progress implementing our Enabling Masterplan 2030 (EMP 2030). The goal set out under Area 5 of EMP 2030 on Inclusive Living is for persons with disabilities to have access to a continuum of services that enable them to fully and actively participate in community life. The Taskforce for Developing New Community Living Models for Persons with Disabilities has been established to study and identify housing and care models for persons with disabilities to live well in the community. The task force will be releasing its recommendations later this year. In addition to the work being done by the Community Living Taskforce, we are also working with community partners to build more inclusive neighbourhoods through the Enabling Services Hubs. These hubs foster inclusivity by developing an ecosystem of support for persons with disabilities and caregivers in the community. Following the launch of the first Enabling Services Hub last August in Tampines, SG Enable is launching two more Enabling Services Hubs in Jurong West and Punggol next year. We are also increasing capacity of services for persons with disabilities. As announced at the Committee of Supply 2024, we will increase the capacity of our Day Activity Centres, which equip persons with disabilities with essential daily and community living skills, from 1,800 spaces to 2,300 by 2030. We will also increase the capacity of our Sheltered Workshops, which provide vocational training and employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, from 1,700 spaces to 2,200 by 2030. We will continue to work with social service agencies, caregivers and persons with disabilities to enhance and co-create support options for individuals and families to achieve the goals outlined in EMP 2030.”
“Most persons with disabilities (PwDs) who are enrolled in Day Activity Centres (DACs) or Sheltered Workshops (SWs) are living with their family members. Of these PwDs, about one-third, or 1,000, have at least one caregiver aged 65 years and above. Caregiving arrangements change over time and depend on many factors such as family circumstances and availability of alternative caregivers as the caregivers themselves grow older. PwDs and their caregivers are encouraged to work with SG Enable and the Special Needs Trust Company to plan ahead on future care arrangements. For PwDs without alternative caregiving arrangements, they may be enrolled into Adult Disability Homes as a last resort. The Enabling Masterplan 2030 (EMP2030) Taskforce for Developing New Community Living Models for Persons with Disabilities has also been looking into alternative community living models to enable PwDs to live independently in the community. The task force will be releasing its recommendations later this year.”
“Single unwed mothers do not need to adopt their own children in order to qualify for or gain more from Government benefits and schemes. As mentioned in our earlier reply to Member of Parliament Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang, all Singaporean children have access to Government benefits that support their growth and development, regardless of their parent's marital status. These benefits include education subsidies, childcare and infant care subsidies, Child Development Account, including the First Step Grant and matched co-savings from the Government, healthcare subsidies, MediSave Grant for Newborns, MediShield Life coverage from birth, as well as the Foreign Domestic Worker Levy Concession. Likewise, single unwed mothers can also receive Government-Paid Maternity Leave. There remain some laws that differentiate based on a child’s legitimacy status, such as illegitimate children having a lower priority for inheritance of parents' assets. These reflect our prevailing social norms of the family as the building block of society, and parenthood within marriage. Notwithstanding this, the law provides that it is the duty of parents to maintain their children, regardless of their legitimacy status. Single unwed mothers may choose to legitimise their child by marrying the biological father or through adoption. Should the mother choose adoption, she should be mindful of the implications. For example, adoption by the mother would terminate the duties, obligations and liabilities of the biological father and the child would no longer be able to seek maintenance from the father under the Women’s Charter.”
“The Member can refer to statistics published by the Department of Statistics on its website. These include statistics on household income, such as household income from work of resident employed households, per household and per household member, and by deciles.”
“The Members may refer to my Ministry's reply at the 6 August 2024 Parliament sitting for our response to these questions. [Please refer to "Findings from Trial of Giving Unconditional Cash Aid to Lower-income Families", Official Report, 6 August 2024, Vol 95, Issue 138, Written Answers to Questions for Oral Answer not Answered by End of Question Time section.]”
“Children from lower-income families can benefit from the Student Care Fee Assistance scheme, or SCFA. SCFA is a tiered subsidy scheme which provides monthly subsidies of up to 98% of student care fees, up to a maximum amount of $290 per month. SCFA beneficiaries can also receive a one-off grant of up to $400, to offset enrolment costs. After subsidies, lower-income families can pay as little as $5 per month for the child to attend student care. The scheme has been designed such that families co-pay an affordable amount according to their means, rather than have fees waived entirely. This is so that we preserve a sense of individual responsibility, which is a key tenet of our social compact. The Ministry of Social and Family Development will continue to review SCFA regularly to ensure that student care remains affordable for lower-income families.”
“For example, CaringSG, a caregiver-led initiative for special needs caregivers and the community, which is supported by SG Enable, runs programmes, such as CAREconnect and CAREbuddy, where caregivers can participate in inclusive social events for family bonding and journey with fellow caregivers, and 3,900 caregivers have benefited since CaringSG’s establishment in 2021. In addition, the Enabling Services Hubs work with community partners to reach out to persons with disabilities and their caregivers and bring community-based support closer to home for persons with disabilities and caregivers through inclusive activities and programmes. We will continue to assess trends and review the options to better support caregivers, as part of the Enabling Masterplan 2030.”
“We recognise the importance of supporting caregivers of persons with disabilities who may face higher levels of stress, compared to the general population. During our engagements as part of the Enabling Masterplan 2030, caregivers have given feedback on the need to improve awareness and navigation of available caregiver resources and more streamlined and timely access to services, such as respite care. Caregivers who need information and support may access the Enabling Guide on SG Enable’s website. The Enabling Guide serves as a first-stop online resource to help persons with disabilities and their caregivers make informed decisions about the schemes and services that best suit their life stage. Within the Enabling Guide is the Caregiver Learning Roadmap, a companion guide for caregivers to gain relevant knowledge, skills and resources to care for themselves and their loved ones based on disability type, specific caregiving area or stages of their caregiving journey. Caregivers who need more information on caregiver support services can contact SG Enable’s caregiver support team. Caregivers who are distressed and need someone to speak to may call the Institute of Mental Health’s Mental Health Helpline or the Samaritans of Singapore for support. Apart from disability services for their care recipients, SG Enable also worked with the Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD) to pilot the Take-A-Break respite programme from 2020 to 2023, offering short-term home-based respite services to about 200 families. Following some enhancements, the second run of the programme began in April 2024. Peer support for caregivers is also critical.”
“The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) work closely to support inmates and their families during their incarceration as strong family support is key to promoting long-term desistance. For example, SPS has Family Resource Centres (FRCs) that are located at Prison Link Centre (Changi), where families have visits with their loved ones. The FRC was set up by SPS in 2006 to provide interim social assistance to inmates and their families. Trained social workers from FRC help to assess the inmates' and their families' needs and refer them to Family Service Centres (FSCs), Social Service Agencies (SSAs) or other community resources for longer-term support, as needed. The social workers are mindful to take a family-centric approach when supporting inmates and their families, including the importance of addressing family relationship issues at hand. There are also structured family programmes delivered in prison by SSAs, such as The Salvation Army and New Life Stories. These programmes help to increase inmates' knowledge, skills and confidence in maintaining ties and building stronger relationships with their family members. During the programmes, parent-children joint activities and open visits are facilitated by the SSA workers. Counselling support is also provided by the Strengthening Families Programme@Family Service Centres, both during and post incarceration. Such counselling can help offenders and their families navigate marital and parent-child relationship issues. After their release, ex-offenders can also continue to strengthen their parenting skills by attending the Families for Life parenting programmes that are offered by community agencies to all Singaporeans.”
“Over the years, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) has significantly enhanced our measures to build a robust child protection system, collaborating with community partners, such as the Family Service Centres, Child Protection Specialist Centres, Protection Specialist Centres, Police and schools. There is now close coordination between case workers and community partners in terms of information sharing, reviewing and monitoring the safety of these children and their families. Personalised intervention plans are developed to address all aspects of the child and family's needs and risks, including interventions, such as counselling, trauma-focused interventions, parenting support, interventions to support healthy parent-child relationships; as well as educational and developmental support for the children. Regular safety checks and monitoring are also conducted at least once a month for 12 months or longer after reunification, with the specific frequency, nature of these checks and duration of support depending on the circumstances and needs of each family. If parents refuse to allow agencies to sight or access their children during safety checks, MSF will invoke powers under the Children and Young Persons Act to mandate access to the child when there are reasonable grounds to believe that the child or young person is in need of care or protection. Such measures ensure the continued safety and well-being of the children after they are returned to their families.”
“The Government recognises the importance of using appropriate language to promote inclusion and respect for persons with disabilities. We progressively review and remove outdated terms in legislation and official publications. For example, in the Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2023, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) removed outdated terms and phrases such as "handicapped spouse" and "suffering from". IRAS will also update their website and official communications to reflect these changes. The Ministry of Social and Family Development will continue to work with the respective Ministries to update outdated terms in older legislation at the next available opportunity.”
“The Government is committed to ensuring that Malay students in financially challenged families have access to higher education. No Malay student will be denied a tertiary education because of financial difficulties. The Tertiary Tuition Fee Subsidy (TTFS) scheme subsidises the tuition fees of eligible Malay students at local institutes of higher learning (IHLs), such as the polytechnics and universities, with students from lower-income households receiving higher subsidies. From 2020 to 2023, the Government disbursed about $65 million annually to MENDAKI for the TTFS scheme with more than two out of three Malay students, or more than 9,000 Malay students in total, in local IHLs, receiving TTFS each year. Most of these students received the TTFS subsidy for the full amount of their tuition fees. Any undisbursed TTFS funds are channelled to MENDAKI’s Education Development Fund (EDF) to support educational assistance schemes and programmes to advance the academic progress of Malay students across different levels. In 2023, more than 90,000 beneficiaries benefited from MENDAKI’s various programmes. Beyond TTFS, MENDAKI and the Ministry of Education, including the IHLs, also offer students other financial assistance schemes and study loan schemes to defray their education costs.”
“The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) does not set requirements for mandatory qualifications for staff employed by Student Care Centres (SCC). While we have issued guidelines recommending the minimum educational qualifications and training requirements, it is generally up to the SCC operators to decide what qualifications and training are needed for their staff to best meet the needs of their students. This is similar to other services that include provision of a basic level of care to children of school-going age outside of school hours, such as sports and arts activities conducted in the community. Some SCCs, including all school-based SCCs, are registered with MSF to administer the Student Care Fee Assistance (SCFA) scheme. These SCCs must comply with stipulated standards set by MSF pertaining to the care and supervision of children in the areas of safety, health and hygiene, supervision, physical environment and emergency preparedness. MSF conducts regular audits to ensure compliance with the requirements. Non-compliance with the requirements can result in a revocation of the SCC’s SCFA administrator status. All SCCs and their staff must comply with prevailing laws, including the Children and Young Persons Act and the Penal Code, and SCCs are expected to have policies and systems in place to ensure this.”
“The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) has taken immediate steps to recover the over-disbursed funds and issued stern reminders to operators with ineligible grant claims. ECDA expects to fully recover all over-disbursements by September 2024. As noted in Auditor-General's Office's (AGO's) report, ECDA has existing processes and controls across the various grant management and disbursement stages to ensure proper administration of the Anchor Operator (AOP) and Partner Operator (POP) schemes. These include internal standard operating procedures (SOPs) to verify the eligibility and accuracy of claim amounts prior to disbursements and annual audits by ECDA-appointed auditors to ascertain the accuracy of grant claims made by AOPs and POPs. ECDA has reviewed and tightened its SOPs to enhance verification of grant claims before disbursement. To strengthen controls on the detection of ineligible grant claims, ECDA has also expanded the scope of its commissioned audits. Earlier this year, ECDA updated its Funding Guidelines for AOPs and POPs to make clearer the eligibility criteria for claims. ECDA will also be leveraging data analytics to better detect ineligible claims as part of enhanced checks on disbursed monies.”
“Assoc Prof Razwana Begum asked what programmes or resources are available to help families identify and respond to early signs of financial distress. This is where our ComLink+ family coaches come in to help families better navigate social support services and help to coordinate support across multiple programmes where needed. Families requiring specialised support for debt relief, financial management and long-term employment will be referred to community and Government agencies that provide such support. Our system of social support will continue to evolve as new evidence presents itself. Where such evidence is robust, we will take these into account as we refine our national programmes like ComCare and ComLink+.”
“There was no clear evidence from the study that the cash transfers led to longer-term positive effects. Another recent study done in the United States also found that providing unconditional cash transfers led to decreased work hours, with the saved time spent on leisure, rather than capacity-building, such as upskilling or searching for better jobs. Positive effects on well-being and mental health also petered out after the first year. We are instead focusing on strengthening our safety nets and providing support in other ways. The Government currently provides financial assistance to lower-income individuals and families through ComCare, to help them meet their basic living needs. We review the quantum of support provided under ComCare regularly and will continue to do so. We are also providing additional support to lower-income families with children through ComLink+. Under ComLink+, dedicated family coaches work with families to assess their needs, co-develop action plans, and coach and motivate families as they work towards stability, self-reliance and social mobility. ComLink+ families who take active steps to secure a better future for themselves and their children will also receive further help in the form of ComLink+ Progress Packages. These are cash transfers that go beyond what is needed for basic living needs and will be disbursed when families take steps to improve their circumstances and prospects in specific domains, in line with the action plans that they themselves would have co-developed with their family coaches. We will work with local academics to evaluate the effectiveness of the ComLink+ Progress Packages in a rigorous manner.”
“My reply will also address questions filed by Mr Yip Hon Weng, Mr Ong Hua Han1 and Assoc Prof Razwana Begum Abdul Rahim together. If Members’ questions are adequately addressed today, they may wish to withdraw their questions for the Sitting on 7 August 2024. The Ministry of Social and Family Development appreciates the effort and initiative by Asian Women’s Welfare Association (AWWA) to test different approaches to uplift lower-income families. Their pilot and findings will give us a better understanding of how we can continue to improve our social interventions. The term “unconditional cash transfers” was used in this pilot initiative. Some had the impression that it was a Universal Basic Income pilot, where every individual receives a cash transfer regardless of their circumstances. But this was not the case. AWWA only provided cash transfers to clients whose per capita household income was less than $1,000 a month and whose total household income was not more than $3,600 a month. Furthermore, the transfers were not given purely on an “unconditional” basis. AWWA has clarified that the beneficiaries were, in fact, asked to meet with their case officers regularly, who would continue to actively help them with the challenges they faced. AWWA’s pilot found that respondents felt that the cash transfers helped to improve financial well-being and reduce mental stress, at least in the short term. We were also interested in finding out if the study achieved longer-term effects that could be easily and objectively measured, such as time spent in employment, income security or hours worked. But AWWA’s findings in these areas were inconclusive. On whether the Government will consider replicating or scaling up AWWA’s pilot, there are no plans to do so.”
“The median and average time for divorce cases registered at the Syariah Court in 2023 to conclude is within four months or less, if parties consent to the divorce and ancillary issues at the Mediation stage. If the matter is contested and goes to the Hearing stage, the median and average time for the case to conclude is within one year or less from the date of the acceptance of the Originating Summons.”
“The court process in the Syariah Court starts with the filing of the Originating Summons for a divorce. The divorce parties have to complete the mandatory Marriage Counselling Programme before they can file this Originating Summons. The court process comprises three main stages: (a) The first stage is Mediation, where the parties explore a resolution of the divorce and ancillary issues. If there is a settlement of all issues, the parties will enter into a consent order and the case is concluded; (b) the next stage is the Pre-Trial Conference, where the parties take directions, such as for the filing of affidavits, towards the disposal of the case. It is also during this pre-hearing stage that interim applications, if any, are filed by the parties and determined by the Court; and (c) the final stage is the Hearing, where the case is adjudicated upon by the Court President, who makes a decree on the divorce and ancillary issues. The case concludes with this decree. Parties can file an appeal on the Court's orders to the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore's Appeal Board. In 2023, one-third of Originating Summons for divorce filed in the Syariah Court were concluded at the mediation stage. The divorce parties are scheduled for a mediation session approximately 10 weeks after the acceptance of the Originating Summons by the Court. The parties may require more than one mediation session if one or both parties need time to file the required documents or to explore or consider the terms of settlement. For cases that are not concluded at mediation, the time taken for these cases to conclude depends on a variety of factors, including the complexity of the case and parties' compliance with the Court's directions and timelines.”
“The number of child mismanagement cases investigated by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) increased slightly from 137 cases in 2022 to 147 cases in 2023. The three-year average number of substantiated child mismanagement cases increased slightly from about 11 cases per 100,000 children enrolled in 2022 to about 12 cases in 2023. The increase in the number of investigations and substantiated child mismanagement cases can be attributed to increased vigilance and awareness of appropriate reporting channels among parents and educators. All educators are expected to provide a safe and conducive environment for children. ECDA has strengthened training programmes so that all educators are clear of their obligations to ensure child safety. Additionally, ECDA is also reviewing our regulatory framework, with a view to enhance the penalty provisions on errant operators. ECDA has introduced measures to improve the educators' well-being and working conditions so that they can better care for our children. This includes removing the requirement for childcare centres to operate on Saturdays from 2025 and designating Teachers' Day and Children's Day as preschool holidays, on top of six Development Days from 2024 onwards. This allows the educators to have more time to rest and focus on their development. ECDA is also looking to put in place a relief staff pool to better enable educators to take time-off. Parents also play a role in appreciating the work of our educators and having reasonable expectations on educators, such as when to expect replies to messages sent at night.”
“The Children and Young Persons Act was amended in 2019 to provide clarity and introduce examples of emotional and psychological abuse, including forms of emotional neglect, such as isolating a child. Since the amendments came into effect, the Ministry of Social and Family Development's Child Protective Service has investigated an average of around 340 cases of emotional and psychological abuse each year, making up approximately 16% of all cases.”
“From January 2021 to March 2024, about 10% of applications for Student Care Fee Assistance (SCFA) were unsuccessful. Of the unsuccessful applications, only about 0.4% were late requests for SCFA to be paid retrospectively. Student Care Centres (SCCs) that are registered with the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) assist parents in submitting the SCFA applications to MSF. This can be done as early as four months in advance. In the rare event that SCC fails to submit an application in time, MSF will consider appeals for retrospective payments. However, these must be substantiated with sufficient facts about the circumstances contributing to the delay.”
“The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) has worked closely with preschools for the recent launch of the preschool search function on LifeSG. With monthly updates on preschool vacancies, this function facilitates parents' search experience and allows them to directly contact preschools with vacancies to secure a place for their child. Post-launch, some parents have provided feedback to ECDA on mismatches in certain preschools' vacancy information, between what was posted on LifeSG and what they received directly from the centres. ECDA's checks showed that most of these cases were due to inaccurate representation of the preschool's vacancy status and has worked with the operators to rectify the issue. ECDA will urge operators to update their preschools' vacancies regularly and accurately, so that parents can make informed decisions on which centres to approach and secure a place for their child. ECDA will also continue to explore ideas to make the Preschool Search function more useful for parents. The Early Childhood Development Centres Act and Regulations already cover areas regarding preschool capacity and enrolment. These include the licensed capacity for each centre and requirement for preschools to provide enrolment information to ECDA. ECDA has no plans to impose additional regulations on operators regarding the reporting of vacancy information.”
“As of April 2024, there are about 660 infant care and 8,110 childcare places licensed for operation in the Toa Payoh Planning Area, which includes the Bidadari estate. These places have not been fully subscribed, with a utilisation rate of about 70%. To ensure that future demand is met, the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) has been building infant care and childcare places in tandem with new Built-to-Order (BTO) housing developments. Over the past five years, infant care and childcare places in Toa Payoh have increased by about 130% and 90% respectively. The majority of which were sited in new BTO developments, such as Bidadari. This is notably higher than the national rates of 60% and 20% respectively over the same period. By 2025, ECDA will build another 150 infant care and 920 childcare places in Toa Payoh, with the majority in the Bidadari estate. These places are mostly offered by anchor operators and do not include additional places that may be built by other preschool operators.”
“Contractual or informal arrangements between the parents and the childminders or childminding service providers are not regulated. Childminders are subject to the relevant law under the Children and Young Persons Act or the Penal Code, no differently than any other adult responsible for a child. Anyone who suspects child abuse should report the incident to the police for investigation. There is no indication that the public lacks this general understanding.”
“Under the Child Care Financial Assistance scheme, eligible families may apply for additional financial assistance for their childcare fees and a one-time grant of up to $1,000 to offset preschool enrolment costs and out-of-pocket expenditures. Families that require financial assistance for basic living expenses may contact the Social Service Offices. We regularly review our schemes to ensure that there is comprehensive support for our lower-income families to give their children a good start in life.”
“I thank the member for his question. The Government is committed to giving all children a good start. Today, lower-income families receive significant assistance for preschools. With existing support, such as fee caps at Government-supported preschools, broad-based basic subsidies and means-tested additional subsidies, lower-income families can pay as low as $3 per month for full-day childcare in an Anchor Operator (AOP) preschool or $1 for half-day kindergarten in an AOP preschool or Ministry of Education Kindergarten. From the fourth quarter of 2024, more families will qualify for the maximum childcare subsidies for their income tier. Families with a monthly household income of $6,000 and below will be eligible for these maximum childcare subsidies. We will also lower fee caps for Anchor and Partner Operator preschools in 2025 and 2026, to make childcare more affordable for more Singaporean families. We will soon provide additional support to supplement the efforts of lower-income families that prioritise their child’s preschool education. The ComLink+ Progress Package for Preschool will be launched in the second half of this year. ComLink+ families that meet enrolment and attendance requirements under the package as part of their action plan will receive financial top-ups in their child’s Child Development Account (CDA). Parents can use the CDA funds to defray child-raising expenses, such as preschool fees, medical expenses and assistive technology. Some families may face more difficult circumstances and require more assistance.”
“I thank the Member for raising this question. Domestic violence, including child abuse, can happen to anyone and anywhere. Unfortunately, child abuse can be difficult to detect as it often happens behind closed doors. A whole-of-society effort is needed to be vigilant, to intervene and report suspected domestic abuse cases, especially child abuse, as children are more vulnerable. This means that family members, neighbours, community partners or members of public can each help to watch out for potential victims. Members of the public can call the National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Hotline at 1800-777 0000 or make an online report via the Ministry of Social and Family Development's (MSF's) website or call the Police if there is imminent danger. From June 2024, members of the public can also report child abuse via the LifeSG App, the integrated Government e-service mobile application. MSF has run annual public awareness campaigns since 2016. This year’s “Break the Silence” campaign was launched in June. To maximise reach, we have tapped on free-to-air TV channels, social media, out-of-home platforms like digital display panels, bus stop shelters and table-top stickers in hawker centres and coffee shops.”
“Childhood Developmental Screening (CDS) serves to identify children at risk of developmental delay for early intervention. CDS is not compulsory but has been streamlined to be conducted together with recommended childhood vaccinations. Not attending CDS, in itself, does not mean the child is vulnerable or that the child is at risk of neglect or abuse, as there could be other reasons for non-attendance, such as parental work commitments. ComLink+ family coaches and preschool outreach workers also work with lower-income families to encourage them to bring their children for recommended vaccinations and CDS checks can also be done at the same appointment. The Government works with community partners, including health institutions and social service agencies, to watch out for signs of neglect or abuse. Protocols are in place for agencies to contact the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s Child Protective Service if such signs are detected. Community partners and members of the public can also call the National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline to report suspected cases of neglect or abuse.”
“The assessment for ComCare Short-to-Medium Term Assistance (SMTA) is based on the applicant’s total earnings for the month, other sources of income and savings. This is compared against what is sufficient to cover their basic daily living expenses. For two households with the same monthly expenditure for basic needs, the household with lower monthly income will get more cash assistance. This is regardless of whether household members are employed or self-employed, and also regardless of the number of hours worked.”
“The Enabling Masterplan 2030 (EMP2030) covers areas across the life stages of persons with disabilities, and efforts under EMP2030 will continue evolving to meet the support needs of persons with disabilities. This includes efforts in improving the accessibility of financial services. Financial institutions have made improvements to enhance the accessibility of financial services for persons with disabilities. These include infrastructure, systems, procedures and staff training to assist persons with disabilities. For example, financial institutions have installed ramps and lowered counters to enhance accessibility for customers in wheelchairs. Banks have also introduced “Talking automated teller machines (ATMs)” with Braille instructions and audio guidance to help customers with visual impairment perform basic ATM transactions independently. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has also recently updated its Guidelines on Fair Dealing on 30 May 2024. The Guidelines formalise, amongst other things, expectations for financial institutions to ensure that all customers’ applications for financial products and services are assessed objectively, based on relevant and reliable information or data.”
“I thank the Member for the supplementary questions. To answer the second question, yes, indeed, we look at the density of where young couples live and the potential for them to have children, have families, and those are actually where we would roll out the earliest next tranche of Family Nexus centres. I hope that this can give the support to improve our TFR because this is part of the programmes that we want to put in place to help make Singapore that is "Made for Families", and to know that we will do everything and anything to support our mothers, particularly, in raising their children and having families. On the issue of antenatal and postnatal care, the prenatal mental health guidelines for women of childbearing age were developed by KKH, together with the College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists (OB/GYN) and have been launched in February last year and are already disseminated to healthcare professionals and the general public. So, there is one for healthcare and there is one for the professionals; and there is a consensus statement published in the Annals of the Academy of Medicine, summary of the guidelines and they are all available on the KKH website. So, it is already available to all OB/GYN specialists and hospitals, and I believe that within the fraternity, they are referring to this for their practice.”
“Just getting children to chew more while they are growing up and not swallowing everything does affect obesity rate. Simple things that parents can do. Instead of us always trying to address the issues when they are in primary and secondary school, growing obese, actually there are things that we can do to address these issues as they are growing up. That is why Family Nexus, the polyclinics, the interventions we are making with our mothers as they give birth to their children, other than lactation and so forth, these are important ideas, concepts, findings that we hope can help our children grow and develop their potential as much as possible by addressing and helping them far up and downstream as much as possible.”
“In the very early years, a child may be watching TV, totally captured and enamoured by what is happening on TV, and we think, "Oh, the child is enjoying the show." But what GUSTO has found is that it is stimulating the brain with lights. All the child is looking at is light. He does not understand what he is watching, and the stimulation on the brain is not good for the child. It is actually detrimental to the brain. Therefore, when we look at other kinds of screen use, we have to understand whether it is for interactive purposes, which is recommended, but still must be regulated for different age groups; whether it is passive, where the child is watching and nobody is interacting; or, even worse still, in the background; where nobody is watching but it is in the background. So, all these are kinds of screen device use which our parents must know about, more so because of social media and the ability of digital channels, like YouTube and so forth, so that we are aware about what we are exposing our children to and how their brains are developed and, in fact, even how their social behaviours are shaped. So, please read these guidelines. They are very well thought out and easy to use. We do not need regulations to get these things understood. We do not need lawyers to understand what they are. Just read them and they are very easy to use. Remember three things: need for interaction; avoid passive watching; and, worse still, do not have background screen use. Finally, on obesity, I agree there are still many things we need to do and continue to do in addressing obesity in children. But a lot more effort ought to be done upstream. GUSTO studies also showed that there are things that we can do with our children that can prevent obesity setting in. For example, chewing time.”
“When we designed the four Family Nexus centres, we considered a few models to try out. One model is like the one in our Tampines Hub, a community point where the community comes together naturally, regularly and makes a place where everyone is familiar with, but there are no medical facilities available, not like a polyclinic. We have another where it is actually a polyclinic and then we infused social services, so that if they come for medical attention, they can be referred to the social service agency. Another one is where the polyclinic has a small unit onsite together with the social service agency, which is a hybrid. So, we are still looking at the various hybrids and the various configurations and then evaluate within, say, two years to see what best, how best and what suits where, in terms of the impact that we can provide for our mother and child dyad. But for now, what we are looking at is what is the density of the mother-child dyad like and that will be our priority on when we will roll this out, when the pilot is proven and chosen in terms of whether it is a hybrid type, community type or polyclinic type. On screen time, it is a guideline right now. At the end of the day, to legislate something for the service providers is going to be really difficult because it is a complex issue involving both the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and MOH. And everywhere in the world, we are trying to address this issue and looking for solutions to them. But we can put this control in the hands of our parents to understand the different kinds of screen time that they are exposing their children to, especially when they are very young. Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO), for example, talked about television (TV) time.”
“But at the same time, our community nurses currently are only trained mostly for senior care, and we do need to train them to address maternal and child issues, which will also need a little time for us to keep up with.”
“I would say this is the first time we are actually trying to bring that many agencies across three domains: education, health and social support. Already, it is complicated because while everyone can do their work well, coordinating with one another in ensuring the support is done holistically is something we need to learn to do better. But I would say that at the initial stages, the referrals that are designed into the programmes are being done properly. So, when a social service agency, for example, sees some health issues in the family, they do not just report; they make sure that it is addressed. If it is very complex, they ensure that the community nurses, for example, will attend to them and vice versa. A health point like Family Nexus may find, during the interview, that they have other issues than just medical attention needed. That, too, has helped coordination among these agencies. Co-location is one solution so that when they come, they may be going for a particular issue to be addressed. But during the interview and triage, we also find out that there are other issues, and the agencies are already on hand and onsite to address the issues, if they want it to be done that way. In fact, I also see that sometimes the mother needs more help than the children they bring to the Nexus. The children then get support and playing time, for example, while the issues of the mother are being addressed. I agree that we can do more to help the community provide support as we scale up the support. I will consult with HPB on how this can be done, whether the Community Health Points, for example, can be used as one of the areas where we can rally our community to come together.”
“Dr Wan Rizal asked about the challenges we face. Let me touch on this briefly before I end. There is still much to be done and many of these initiatives require close coordination among multiple partners and stakeholders. We also need to raise awareness of the importance of anchoring healthy behaviours as early in life as possible. I encourage everyone to share the report and resources such as Parent Hub more widely to families, during programmes and healthcare appointments, and via schools and Government platforms, so that more families can benefit and we can better help the next generation to grow well and realise their potential.”
“We are tapping on these pilot sites to test out different models of bringing together partners to offer co-located programmes and services. MOH will study which elements of these models are most effective and explore how they can be scaled to residents in other regions. Mr Speaker, having access to integrated services is especially important for lower-income households and vulnerable groups. I mentioned Project HOME and HEADS-UPP earlier in my response. MOH works closely with MSF, MOE and community partners to provide holistic health and social support through these two initiatives. Social workers and preschool educators are equipped with skills to identify and refer preschool children who are at-risk of health, developmental, behavioural and dental issues to KKH for Project HOME or NUH for HEADS-UPP for further assessment. Home visits are made to families who have more complex needs to provide additional support to the parents and to enable fast-tracking of referrals for medical appointments as needed. To improve access, we have expanded community-based services to support children, adolescents and women in the community. They can now access services such as antenatal classes, breastfeeding and lactation support and screening for maternal mental health at polyclinics and Family Nexus sites closer to homes. Our community nurses and other frontline colleagues play a key role in ensuring that services in the community are integrated and delivered well. They support families and children with their specialised skills, such as growth and developmental assessment and counselling on common childhood illnesses and allergies. In addition, they help to link and direct families to other related services. We will need to continue to count on them to care for families.”
“The four Family Nexus pilot sites are actively engage parents on screen use habits of children. Over the past months, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) have been discussing the need for more decisive and effective measures to shape the habits of device usage. MOH and MSF oversee the key touchpoints for children up to six years old through healthcare and preschools touchpoints. We will make our advice clearer and more definitive, deliver them consistently across all healthcare settings, with more reminders, put them into practice in preschools and find ways to encourage their adoption at home. We will share more about these efforts in coming months. Finally, let me turn to addressing the questions around integrating health and social services, and how this is being done via the Family Nexus concept. Family Nexus brings together the health and social support services that families need. We have so far introduced the Family Nexus initiative across four sites to improve coordination and make it easier for families to access the support they need. There has been positive ground feedback received on Family Nexus, from both partners and families. For instance, FamNex@Bukit Canberra has attracted more than 1,500 participants since it began operations in November 2023, reflecting a keen interest among parents and caregivers to engage in educational and wellness building activities with their children. In terms of referrals, FamNex@OTH had received more than 380 cases from community nurses since its soft launch in November 2022, while FamNex@Punggol had referred more than 500 cases to social service agencies from December 2023 to May 2024.”
“The programmes at KKH and NUH have benefited over 2,200 women. Let me now turn to how the CAMH strategy is addressing childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is a significant risk factor for developing obesity and other chronic illnesses later in life. Proper diet, sufficient physical activity and sleep, and balanced screen use can minimise sedentary lifestyles and reduce obesity. Multiple agencies across the health, education and social domains have worked together to introduce various measures to tackle childhood obesity. In the area of nutrition, we put out a set of guidelines for feeding and eating in infants and young children in February 2024. The Health Promotion Board (HPB) is working with preschools and mainstream schools to provide healthier meals for students. To ensure children have sufficient physical activity, preschools and schools are catering time for physical activities and raising awareness of the need to remain physically active. The Government and schools cannot do this alone. Behaviours still and will need to be sustained both in and out of school-time to be effective. We will continue to engage parents and encourage partners to improve access to healthier choice meals and physical activities in the community. To help families better manage screen use and encourage balanced screen-time in children aged zero to 12, we issued the Guidance on Screen Use in Children in March 2023. The advisory has been disseminated to medical associations, polyclinics, general practitioners (GPs) and preschools, and are available as resources on Parent Hub and Parents Gateway for parents of Ministry of Education (MOE) students. Some polyclinics have also incorporated screen use check-ins and education as part of child health visits.”
“Dr Wan also mentioned some areas for improvement, which the Taskforce had identified – rising age of mothers at childbirth, low birth weight and maternal mental health. We have addressed these in three ways. First, we make more information available to all as early as possible. We do this by increasing access so that everyone can self-help, by publishing guidelines and providing bite-sized information on Parent Hub and other websites. The guidelines also help frontline providers in their work in supporting families. Second, we are introducing more accessible programmes, such as community antenatal education programmes at Choa Chu Kang by the National University Hospital System (NUHS) and at Family Nexus sites by healthcare clusters. Third, our public healthcare system proactively identifies those who are at-risk or need more help and offers additional support as needed. Across KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) and National University Hospital (NUH), all pregnant women will be screened for mental health conditions and those who need help will be provided follow-up care. KKH provides a Psychological Resilience in Antenatal Management (PRAM) programme to provide antenatal mental health screening, materials on mental health during obstetric visits and follow-ups with women at risk of developing postnatal depression. NUH runs the ProPEL programme, which stands for Promoting Parental Emotional Health to Enhance Child Learning, and similarly identifies patients to ensure timely follow-up and care. NUH has also extended their Women’s Emotional Health Service programme to women receiving care at NUH up to six years after their children are born, up from the follow-up period of one year previously, to ensure mothers receive adequate support.”
“Thank you. The Child and Maternal Health and Well-being (CAMH) Taskforce published its Strategy and Action Plan report on 14 June 2024. In the report, we set out action plans to help keep mothers and children healthy, tackling challenges such as the rising age of first-time mothers and incidence of childhood obesity. The various initiatives are designed to serve families better by wrapping both health and social services around them. Of the 48 initiatives, 28 have been rolled out and the remainder will be progressively implemented over the next two years. Dr Wan Rizal asked about the progress and evaluation of various initiatives. As the 28 initiatives have only been rolled out over the last two years, we will evaluate them from 2025 onwards, based on their effectiveness in achieving their intended outcomes and other dimensions such as participation rate. In particular, Dr Wan Rizal asked about the reach of Project HOME, which stands for HOlistic Management and Enablement, and another project, HEADS-UPP or HEAlth and Development SUpport in Preschool Partnerships. As of mid-2024, Project HOME has enrolled more than 100 families in the North-East region, while HEADS-UPP has onboarded 147 children in the West. Just to remind Members, these are pilots and therefore small cohorts are involved. On how we are evaluating the key initiatives related to mental health screening and support for mothers, we will obtain feedback from participants and monitor the percentage of pregnant women identified and who have received appropriate follow-up care as well as improvement in their postpartum mental health. Let me move on to the progress of other maternal and child health initiatives.”
“My response will also cover the matters raised in both the questions for oral and written answers by Dr Wan Rizal,1,2,3,4,5 which are scheduled for subsequent Sittings. If he agrees that the questions have been addressed, it may not be necessary for him to proceed with the questions for future Sittings, Sir.”
“Adoption is a legal process where trusted adults become the legal parents of a child, to make crucial decisions in the best interests of the child and the child's welfare. The trusted adults have to be committed to fulfilling all duties, obligations and responsibilities of a parent. This includes making decisions for the child's day-to-day care, education and maintenance. This legal arrangement is necessary because we recognise that the child often lacks the maturity or life experience necessary to make significant decisions or care for themselves independently. As the child matures into adulthood, they naturally gain the capacity to make decisions for themselves. At this stage, the need to have a trusted adult to make decisions on their behalf loses its relevance. Consequently, the legal process of adoption no longer applies after the child achieves adulthood. Accordingly, the Adoption of Children Act makes clear that the Court may only make adoption orders in respect of an individual below the age of 21 years.”
“The Ministry of Social and Family Development works closely with the Protection Specialist Centres to support survivors in safety planning to reduce the risk of violence recurring, facilitate alternative safe accommodation, assist survivors through the Personal Protection Order application process, as well as referrals to legal aid where necessary. Beyond addressing immediate safety needs, survivors may also be provided with counselling, psycho-social support and practical assistance, such as financial and employment support. Survivors seeking divorce support and counselling will also be referred to the Strengthening Families Programme@Family Service Centres. The Workforce Singapore (WSG) offers an initiative called herCareer, which provides employment facilitation programmes and services to support women with varying skills and qualifications to re-enter the workforce. These include physical and virtual career events which are designed to help them secure job opportunities or connect with hiring employers. WSG also offers the Career Conversion Programmes. All of these are applicable and relevant for stay-at-home mothers. Since 2018, the number of women successfully placed in jobs through WSG/Employment and Employability Institute, or e2i, programmes has nearly doubled, increasing from over 13,000 to more than 26,000 women placed annually. Support is also available to meet their childcare needs, as they move into the workforce. Mothers who are seeking employment and those undergoing training or skills upgrading can apply for Special Approval to receive preschool subsidy support equivalent to what a working mother applicant would receive.”
“The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) plans for preschool places to meet projected demand, based on the demographics, projected resident birth cohort, enrolment trends and existing supply in each Planning Area. From 2018 to 2023, we have added more than 40,000 full-day preschool places, or about a 25% increase. Today, there are over 200,000 full-day preschool places, which is more than sufficient to meet demand at both the national and Planning Area levels. Nevertheless, demand can exceed supply at the district level due to varying parent preferences. This occurs only in a very small number of districts. In such areas, ECDA works with the Housing and Development Board (HDB) and existing operators to activate available void deck and communal spaces for centre additions and extensions, where feasible. ECDA also works with operators to redeploy manpower to preschools in these areas. Where parents have an urgent need for preschool, we encourage them to broaden their choice of preschools where possible, such as by considering preschools with available vacancies in adjacent neighbourhoods, near parents' workplaces or in the vicinity of grandparents' homes. To support parents in their search, ECDA has designed a new preschool search on LifeSG, which allows parents to look for centres with available vacancies and contact preschools directly on enrolment.”
“Over the past five years, an annual average of 160 Care and Protection Orders (CPOs) included additional orders requiring parents or guardians to undergo mediation, counselling, psychotherapy or any other assessment, programme or treatment as determined by the Youth Court. This was about 97% of the annual average number of CPOs made in the past five years.”
“When deciding on locations for social service delivery, including services for persons with disabilities, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) considers various factors, such as the outreach to service users, availability of services in the area and accessibility of the sites. We do consider unutilised or underutilised common spaces within the community, such as Housing and Development Board (HDB) void decks, where appropriate. MSF also regularly invites social service agencies to participate in open bidding exercises where they may submit proposals to run self-funded social programmes in available HDB or the Singapore Land Authority premises.”
“Under the Women's Charter, marriages between persons either of whom is below 18 years of age are void. The only exception to this provision is where the marriage is authorised by a Special Marriage Licence issued by the Minister. Such marriages, authorised by Special Marriage Licence, have been falling over the years. In the last two years, there were no such marriages. While the Ministry of Social and Family Development has no plans at present to remove the option of a Special Marriage Licence, we will continue to closely scrutinise any application and ensure that approval is given only in meritorious cases.”