Plans to Convert Preschools to Senior Care Centres and Preschool Staff to Carers for the Elderly

Miss Cheryl Chan Wei Ling asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether there are plans to (i) convert some preschools to senior care centres as the population ages and (ii) provide career conversion pathways for preschool staff to senior care.

Both preschool and senior care services are seeing rising demand and will continue to require more space and manpower in the coming years. Demand for preschool has been growing and will continue to grow with more dual income families and working grandparents, as well as greater recognition of the importance of early childhood development.

To meet growing preschool demand, Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) has added over 50,000 full-day preschool places since 2017, a 30% increase in capacity; and will develop another 5,100 affordable, quality places by 2023. Nevertheless, if there are preschools that are no longer required, ECDA and the Ministry of Health (MOH) will work with service providers to release these sites so that they can be available to meet other community needs.

To support preschool expansion, the number of early childhood educators has grown by more than 30% since 2017 as well and more educators will be required in coming years. Nevertheless, for those who wish to join the community care sector, there are already existing career conversion pathways for all mid-career locals. For example, the Senior Management Associate Scheme (SMAS) by the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) supports the recruitment of PMETs and the Healthcare Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs) facilitated by MOH Holdings helps mid-careerists acquire relevant training to join the healthcare sector in selected disciplines.