Debated in Parliament on 5 Mar 2021.
Debate in Committee of Supply resumed.
[Mr Deputy Speaker in the Chair]
Head I (cont.) −
Chairman, I thank Members for their cuts and also partnering MSF through the years, in building a resilient and caring society together.
COVID-19 has plunged societies around the world into one of the most urgent social crises in modern times. For some time, fissures were already bubbling across many societies – exacerbated by new technologies, demography changes and consequent shifts in central gravities from traditional economic powers to newer ones.
COVID-19 made those fissures even more stark. Demonstrators occupied the streets. Many who already left, felt left behind, lost trust in their social systems. National solidarity was weakened at its core.
In Singapore, we are not immune. We must never allow such divisions to take root in our society, especially amid a crisis. It is tough times like these that will test the strength of societies, and the bonds that bind people together. Around the world, how quickly governments and their people worked together, determined whether they could get a reprieve or were overwhelmed. With your permission, Chairman, may I display a slide on the screens?
Yes, please.
There was a time when Singapore faced a similar crisis as a nation. When we became independent in 1965, we had barely $1 billion in reserves and were still negotiating for it to be in our control. We had no natural resources and hinterland. Our GDP was about $3 billion, a small fraction of what it is today. Unemployment was much higher. Few expected us to survive. Let alone prosper.
This did not deter our spirits. We had to find practical solutions to our problems of growth and development in our own context, as Mr Lee Kuan Yew said in 1960, even before our independence. Our pioneers knew that in order for Singapore to succeed, we needed the tightest economic and social discipline.
Our focus was on nation-building. With the scarce resources that we had, our priority was to develop a competitive economy, build up a sizeable defence force, and provide basic education, housing and healthcare to all Singaporeans. Social assistance at the time was very basic. Everyone was very much taking care of each other, taking care of themselves and taking care of each other in the family. That was our social compact. We relied on our strong work ethic and that drove economic growth for Singapore – creating employment for the masses. Leading to improvements in living standards for everyone.
This approach has largely served us well for the first fifty years of our independence. We uplifted an entire population and in one generation rocketed from third world to first.
About nine in 10 Singaporean children would have entered Primary 1 with at least three years in preschool, and 97% of Singaporeans and Permanent Residents' children would go on to post-Secondary education.
Around 90% of Singapore resident household own their homes, with the bottom decile at close to 85%.
We have also kept public healthcare costs affordable, especially for the lower and middle income groups. A quality and comprehensive healthcare has enabled our workforce to be up on their feet much of their lives and enjoy their downtime on holidays and not in hospitals.
Even among the advanced economies, we are one of the few where those at the bottom and in the middle have seen large increases of incomes in the past 20 years, even after accounting for rises in the cost of living. This means that families have more resources today than before.
We achieved these outcomes without having to go down the paths of other advanced countries, which had to heavily tax their populations to finance their burgeoning social systems, with one generation passing on their debts to the next. In Singapore, we keep our taxes low for a substantial majority of our population. We want workers to take home as much of what they earned, while at the same time achieving effective transfers for social equity.
We want to pass down an effective, healthy and debt-free social system, which we have enjoyed and owe this to our children, grand-children and future generations.
Today, our social compact continues to be one where:
One, the Government creates conditions for economic growth. Access to affordable quality education, housing and healthcare services, regardless of our background, becomes opportunities to flourish. Everyone can live with dignity and be self-reliant to do the best for themselves and their families.
Two, families continue to be the core of our society and our first line of support. Strong families in turn support the building of resilient individuals. Because they play a big part in caring and supporting one another through the ups and downs of life.
Three, the community plays an active role in helping those with less because we believe in a caring society.
Together, they form the foundation of our social compact.
Chairman, we will face a very different social landscape over the next 50 years. New challenges, different from what our forefathers faced. Even before COVID-19, we have more than doubled our social spending in the past 10 years. We needed to invest considerable resources into enabling our seniors to age with grace, as our population ages. This will be more challenging to finance, amid a shrinking labour force.
While our socio-economic strategies have uplifted broad segments of our population in the past, our current and future challenge would be to ensure that those at the bottom continue to progress upwards alongside the rest of the society on a moving escalator.
Today, many of these individuals and families face differing and complex needs. The tried and tested solutions of the past need revisiting. There will always be inequality in any society, in one form or another, sometimes even within a family. But we must keep opportunities alive for all Singaporeans to ensure social mobility. It cannot only be for those who have the resources, but for everyone, regardless of where they start in life and where they are today.
We must get this right, no matter how difficult. Because if we fail, Singapore will go down the path of becoming a fractured and disunited nation.
In essence, we want everyone in Singapore to be happy because they succeed in our society of opportunities that the Government continues to create.
At MSF, we will help those faced with transitional difficulties to bounce back and enable those with disabilities to participate, contribute where they can, and benefit from our society of opportunities.
We need those who have succeeded to give back for the betterment of society. Many have done well, not only through their own efforts, but from an enabling system that provided the opportunities.
We must also resist the natural tendencies for society to stratify, and actively encourage social mixing in our housing, National Service and public spaces that we all treasure together, like our hawker centres.
MSF's work contributes to uniting our people, across social classes, backgrounds and groups through their generosity and kindness, to give back, creating a stronger sense of togetherness in our society.
For those permanently unable to care for themselves and without other forms of support, we will help care for them. Enabling, uniting and caring – these are at the core of our mission in MSF.
I would like to sketch out our plans to build a stronger social compact in three areas: First, ensuring greater inclusivity and opportunities for all; Second, helping individuals bounce back from COVID-19; and third, enabling our preschool and social service sectors to emerge stronger.
Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration Desmond Lee, Minister of State Sun Xueling and Parliamentary Secretary Eric Chua will subsequently elaborate more on our other initiatives – and they all revolve around enabling, uniting and caring for each other.
Chairman, many Singaporeans, including Members of this house, have shared about their wishes for Singapore to be a more inclusive society, which provides opportunities for all. No one should feel that they will be at a disadvantage because of their life circumstances. We share the same vision.
While we have done well in some regards, we must continue to press on. We will strive to give every child a good start in life, regardless of family background. We will make our society more inclusive for Persons with Disabilities, or PwDs, including children with developmental needs.
During my earlier speech at MOH's Committee of Supply, I shared with members about the importance of the early years in building resilience. With this, MOH launched the Child and Maternal Health and Well-being strategy – with a focus on medically sound pathways. But the child's gift to the world can only be realised with a rich environment in which he or she grows up in.
Our pre-schools are an important enabler for this and within our broader strategy to support families with young children. We want to give every child a good start. As we enhance the affordability, accessibility and quality of preschools for all families, we recognise that children from lower income families may require more targeted assistance. Hence, we are scaling up KidSTART to provide this additional upstream support.
Evidence from local research like GUSTO, and our own practice and experience, tells us that intervening properly as early as we can, will in a big way prevent disadvantages from snowballing later in life. In the early years, our KidSTART practitioners focus on equipping parents with relevant knowledge and skills on child development, parent-child interaction, health and nutrition. When the child is older, about age three onwards, we focus our efforts on facilitating their enrolment into our quality preschool system. These will also be progressively implemented alongside the scaling up of ComLink which Minister Desmond Lee will share more on.
As strong and resilient families provide our children with a nurturing environment to row, we have put in place a continuum of family services to meet different needs. We will also continue developing the Families for Life, FFL, movement to help all families build strong relationships upstream and foster a community-based ecosystem of support. Minister of State Sun Xueling will elaborate further on these in her speech.
Chairman, during the Emerging Stronger Conversations, many Singaporeans shared with us about their desire for a more inclusive society for PwDs across life stages. Ms Rahayu Mahzam also asked if existing efforts to encourage inclusiveness have been successful and if more can be done. We have stepped up efforts to raise public awareness of disability issues and inclusion through campaigns, such as “See The True Me”, which reported more positive attitudes towards PwDs amongst viewers.
At the national level, we have three workgroups looking into key aspects of our journey to foster stronger inclusivity in our society under our Third Enabling Masterplan. They look into areas like employment, independent living and making our pre-schools more inclusive, and we will share their recommendations in April.
Over the years, MSF has worked with the sector to enhance early intervention support for children with developmental needs through our network of pre-schools and early intervention centres. We can do more. Starting by instilling inclusive values and mindsets from as early on in life as possible. This will lay the foundations for a more caring and inclusive society.
This will be beneficial for everyone. Studies show that both children with developmental needs and typically developing children can benefit from greater inclusion in pre-schools in areas like developing positive social attitudes and relationships, without compromising their development. Let me repeat. Without compromising their development. Building on existing efforts, we set up the Inclusive Preschool Workgroup to bring us closer to that vision. They have come up with some recommendations to bring us closer to that vision, which Minister of State Sun Xueling will share more in her speech.
The second key area that we will focus on is helping individuals bounce back from the setbacks of COVID-19, in a manner that builds resilience.
When COVID-19 first hit, the Government mounted a decisive response. We rolled out the Jobs Support Scheme to help businesses retain their workers and launched the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package to keep our workers economically engaged. To cushion the impact on incomes, we rolled out various financial support schemes. Together, more than $440 million were disbursed under the Temporary Relief Fund and COVID-19 Support Grant which provided a much-needed lifeline to many families.
While the situation in Singapore has stabilised, we recognise that the economic impact of COVID-19 will continue to be felt by many.
Mr Melvin Yong and Mr Seah Kian Peng asked for an update on the COVID-19 Recovery Grant (CRG) and how we are creating more jobs, especially in the social service sector.
We launched CRG in January. It provides temporary financial relief to lower to middle income workers impacted by COVID-19, as they look for new jobs or upskill to prepare for career changes.
One example is Mr Lee whose employment contract ended last year and received support under CRG. Since his job loss, he attended three courses to upskill himself. He shared that CRG helped to cover some of his living expenses, including transport expenses for job interviews and training sessions. He also recently secured a part-time job as a packer to supplement his CRG. He is confident that his training will put him in good stead to transit to full-time work soon.
We want to enable workers just like Mr Lee to bounce back from their setbacks and do well for themselves. Over 7,500 Singaporeans have benefited from CRG to date. This support is complemented by a national drive by the National Jobs Council to create new jobs to help those who are affected.
MSF, too, has supported this job creation initiative. We have worked towards creating around 4,500 jobs and skills opportunities by this year. Singaporeans can look forward to opportunities in the early childhood and social service sectors, as well as within the MSF family.
A key thrust is also the creation of opportunities for PwDs through the existing Open Door Programme and new initiatives including the Place-and-Train, Attach-and-Train, and Skills Development programmes. One example is Ms Kelly Ong, a graduate from APSN Delta Senior school who lost her job during the circuit breaker when her employer stopped operations. As part of SG Enable’s Job Placement Job Support Programme, a job coach helped Kelly with the job search process and prepared her for interviews. Eventually, Kelly found a job as a kitchen crew at a restaurant given her interest in the F&B industry. We will continue to support others like Kelly.
Together, these will put us in a good position to actively build resilience in our people and enable them to bounce back from the crisis even stronger.
Finally, we want to enable our pre-school and social service sectors to emerge stronger and become more resilient to future challenges. In response to Mr Shawn Huang and Mr Seah Kian Peng, I will share more about how we are doing so in three areas. Digital transformation, building organisational excellence and capability, and strengthening partnerships with the community.
Digital transformation. Digitalisation is a core pillar of our transformation journey. To this end, we are developing Industry Digital Plans for both the early childhood and social services sectors. They will provide structured frameworks to help preschools and Social Service Agencies (SSAs) optimise resources and business processes. This will improve efficiency, support professionals in their work and raise the quality of services.
Next, we will strengthen support for SSAs to drive organisational excellence. We rolled out the Transformation Support Scheme to co-fund SSAs to hire manpower in areas of transformation. We are setting up the Community Capability Trust (CCT). It is a new fund of up to $480 million, comprising Government funds and community donations. It will be made available next year to provide longer term support for SSAs’ capability- and capacity-building needs. In response to Ms Carrie Tan, the CCT will build on existing capability building efforts and expand them so that SSAs have continued support to transform themselves.
Mr Seah Kian Peng and Mr Xie Yao Quan also asked what MSF is doing to encourage more giving during these challenging times and to harness the power of the community.
MSF will continue to renew our social compact in a manner that builds a caring society with a strong sense of mutual help and giving back. Corporates and individuals have been giving regularly to Community Chest’s SHARE. To encourage greater giving, we will be extending the SHARE As One programme to provide dollar-for-dollar matching for another two years till FY2023.
As Deputy Prime Minister had earlier announced, Change for Charity is a new initiative to empower giving through everyday consumption habits. From FY2021, Community Chest will work with businesses to enable customers to donate through their transactions on payment platforms. This can be conversion of loyalty points to donations or even direct donations at point of payment. The Government will match 50 cents to every dollar donated through these platforms. We will increase this dollar-for-dollar matching, if businesses also match customers' donations, adding up to three dollars in total.
I was very glad to hear Mr Seah Kian Peng putting up his hand for NTUC Enterprise to be the first to come onboard and hope many other companies will join us. Corporates can receive a one-off grant to support the implementation.
During the Emerging Stronger Conservations, many Singaporeans expressed their desire to be more involved in efforts to care for those in need. We will continue to strengthen our partnerships with the community, in the spirit of SG Together. We agree with Mr Melvin Yong that care-givers play an important role in our social safety net. During my earlier speech at MOH’s Committee of Supply, I spoke about strengthening support for care-givers of seniors. At MSF, we will embark on a similar effort to support care-givers of PwDs. NCSS, SG Enable and community partners will form a Singapore Together Alliance for Action for care-givers of PwDs in the coming months. This will complement the Third Enabling Masterplan, which I spoke about earlier.
Ms Denise Phua also shared about a similar alliance for the Autism Enabling Masterplan. MSF will review the recommendations and is committed to working with friends from the autism community on this.
Chairman, if there is a partnership that we must build, it is between our men and women. All of us know women close to us – our mothers, our wives, our sisters, our daughters. They deserve our respect and to be celebrated. I would like to wish everyone a Happy International Women’s Day in advance.
As a whole, we have done well in many areas – enabling our women to access quality education and healthcare services, and higher labour participation. We have provided them with safe and secure neighbourhoods and streets, where women can be out late at night alone without worrying about safety. A luxury that is uncommon in many other cities and communities. Even among this House, women occupy close to 30% of the seats, which is higher than the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s global average of 25.5%.
The recent spate of sexual offences and violence against women are abhorrent. They somewhat reveal how some of our boys and men view women. We want to correct this. We must not allow such misplaced attitudes to fester because they have no part in our society. And we can do more to protect our women by reviewing the sentencing framework for hurt and sexual offences. And my colleague Minister Shanmugam has made a Ministerial Statement to this end.
But our partnership with our fellow Singapore women cannot stop there. We will also look into other areas that have been frequently brought up. An example is that of enabling the careers of our women – supporting their career development, even while they build their families and increasing the representation of women on Boards through our Council for Board Diversity, in a manner that is not perceived as tokenism.
The on-going Conversations on Singapore Women’s Development aim to explore how we can do better collectively for Singapore women at home, in workplaces, in schools, and in the community on these various issues. Minister of State Sun Xueling will elaborate more in her speech.
Mr Chairman, Sir, in Malay please.
(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] COVID-19 has brought about many challenges to societies around the world, thus becoming one of the most pressing social crises of this modern age. Those who have been facing challenges continue to be hit by problem after problem, as the Malay proverb goes "someone falls, and the ladder falls on him, too". Social divisions are increasingly felt.
At the same time, we will face a very different social landscape in the future, bringing with it various new challenges.
Previously, before COVID-19, we have more than doubled our social spending in the past 10 years.
Our socio-economic strategies have uplifted broad segments of our population. However, the challenge is to ensure that those at the bottom can continue to progress alongside the rest of the society.
We must ensure that opportunities are kept available for all Singaporeans. No matter how difficult, we must ensure that social mobility remains achievable within the established social structure. Because if we fail, Singapore will go down the path of becoming a fractured and disunited nation.
We must also not forget those close to us – our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters. We must ensure that women who need protection are protected, those less fortunate are given help, and those with career aspirations are given the opportunity to achieve it. They deserve our respect and are to be celebrated. I would like to wish all a Happy International Women’s Day which will be celebrated on Monday.
We will continue to partner you, help the less fortunate and support the aspirations of all Singaporeans.
(In English): In my previous Ministry, we did everything we can to save our planet. But leaving good children to take care of our planet is as important as leaving a good planet for our children.
In Singapore, we have progressively strengthened our social compact over the years and took a pragmatic approach, as our society evolved and our resources enabled us. We are now faced with an immediate problem to renew our social compact as we tackle the uncertainties of a future global economy scarred by the pandemic that can either deplete our resources or enable us even more. The long-term impact of climate change will severely tax our resources, too.
Our pioneers set the foundations of Singapore and painted our society with hope amid a crisis. In the background of the uncertainties of separation, we saw hope in building a metropolis together. Similarly, we must ask ourselves: what kind of society do we want to be over the next 50 years? What kind of society do we want to leave our future generations?
How we each decide to act in the face of adversity will shape our values and norms for generations to come. For us at MSF, the crisis presents an opportunity to build more resilient individuals and stronger families, with a more caring and resilient society, characterised by greater inclusivity and opportunities for all.
The Government cannot go about this alone. We need everyone, and a whole-of-society approach and effort to bring us closer to that vision of home. I look forward to our continued partnership with fellow Singaporeans and Members of this House to build a better future for ourselves and our children. Together, I am confident that we can emerge stronger. Thank you. [Applause.]
Minister Desmond Lee.
Chairman, Minister Masagos has just set out our social compact and laid out MSF’s key focus areas for the year ahead. Let me now expand on how we intend to integrate social services and transform our social safety nets in Singapore.
COVID-19 has had a profound impact on societies all around the world. But it has also brought out the best in Singaporeans. In the past year, many more Singaporeans stepped forward. Government, community and corporates partnered one another to support our neighbours, our friends and fellow Singaporeans.
At MSF, my colleagues have been working hard to strengthen and transform our social safety nets. This transformation is guided by our 3C principles. First, providing comprehensive support, not only downstream when issues occur, but also going upstream to identify and tackle root issues. Second, ensuring that help is convenient, by putting individuals and families that we serve at the centre and organising support around their needs. Third, coordinating ourselves by building strong partnerships and networks, anchored in local communities.
This foundational work served us well when COVID-19 struck, especially during the Circuit Breaker. One example was the PEERS Network, which stands for “Partners Engaging and Empowering Rough Sleepers”. With your permission, Sir, may I display some slides on the LED screens?
Yes, please. [Some slides were shown to hon Members.]
Thank you, Sir. The PEERS Network was officially formed in July 2019, and includes Social Service Agencies (SSAs), community groups and Government agencies. Some are befrienders. Others offer their premises as “Safe Sound Sleeping Places”, or S3Ps for short, and these provide localised interim shelter. Officers from MSF and MND join the partners’ outreach walks to offer assistance. They work closely with PEERS members to support homeless rough sleepers with housing needs.
Early last year, there was an urgency to provide shelter to rough sleepers because of COVID-19. For their safety, we needed to find rough sleepers safe shelter quickly. MSF called for more groups to open their premises as S3Ps. Over 40 organisations answered our call. And this was a six-fold increase from pre-COVID-19 times. We also worked with HDB to provide vacant flats as temporary S3Ps. d. The Network has sheltered about 900 rough sleepers since April 2020.
MSF also set up two new Transitional Shelters in January this year, and about 250 residents from Safe Sound Sleeping Places have moved into new Transitional Shelters. The eventual goal is to help them address their underlying social issues and achieve longer term stable accommodation.
Another example was the outreach effort to households living in rental flats, which commenced last June. We wanted to ensure these households were coping well with the pandemic, as they were much more vulnerable, and to offer support where necessary. We activated the SG Cares Community Networks to support this outreach. The local Networks were started in 2018 to bring together the social, health and community sectors in each town, to strengthen social, health and community integration.
The Networks were quickly mobilised. MSF, PA and MCCY rallied community partners, social service agencies, corporates and some 900 volunteers to reach out to 50,000 rental households. We managed to offer timely support, especially to households who were suffering but had not yet reached out to seek help. We referred 5,000 households in rental flats to various agencies for further healthcare support, counselling, employment and financial assistance and so on.
These examples demonstrate clearly how important networks of trust are during a crisis.
Ms Joan Pereira and Ms Denise Phua asked how we work with social service agencies and community partners to deliver social services in a coordinated manner. Our approach has been to organise our support around each family’s needs and practise what we called the 3Cs earlier.
And to achieve this, MSF has trained nearly 4,300 officers to assess underlying issues and to deliver more comprehensive support. Frontline officers can connect those in need to relevant support, if the families’ issues go beyond their own agency’s remit. This shift, which is a work-in-progress, emphasises a family-centric approach, instead of adopting an agency-centric lens. We will be training community partners and volunteers next, who are important touchpoints to render even more comprehensive support.
Besides building capabilities, we have also integrated processes. One example is the plan that Minister of State Faishal Ibrahim mentioned to strengthen information exchange between Singapore Prison Service and the FSCs – he described this during MHA COS. This enables offenders’ families to receive timely support from FSCs and community partners. Another example is Streamlined Assessment Protocols, or SAPs, that allow ComCare clients to access other forms of help schemes more easily. They now qualify for medical assistance at public healthcare institutions, childcare subsidies and MOE Financial Assistance without having to be repeatedly means-tested. MSF is working with other agencies to set up new protocols, so that clients can seamlessly access assistance via other agencies, beyond the SSOs.
Mr Don Wee had suggested making the help-seeking process more seamless for low-income vulnerable families by sharing data across Ministries and integrating the application processes. This is, indeed, something we are working on with the relevant agencies.
We will make better use of data and technology to improve our clients’ experience and our officers’ productivity. Today, some clients have to repeat their circumstances and submit similar documents repeatedly to apply for different schemes from different departments. Officers often spend time collecting information that is already available with another agency. This time can be better spent building trust and rapport.
The systems enhancements that we mentioned at last year's COS to improve data-sharing between agencies are coming on-stream this year. One platform is what we called One Client View, or OneCV, which was rolled out last month to officers from 12 agencies. In the past, the household who wanted to apply for rental housing, ComCare assistance and childcare subsidies, for example, had to submit income documents three times to these three different agencies. With One Client View, the family can do away with these submissions and simply give consent for agencies to retrieve the information through this platform. One Cilent View has multiple levels of safeguards built in to ensure that such personal data is kept safe.
Another platform, called Case Connect, will be rolled out in phases from June this year. Today, collaboration takes place over different modes – emails, phone calls, messages, handwritten notes. Valuable information can get lost when case workers change, or new partners come onboard, and you can imagine many, many agencies are involved. Case Connect will allow frontline officers and case workers to make referrals, share assessments and updates, and coordinate with other partners on a single platform. To reduce the administrative burden on frontline officers and our social service agency partners, we integrated the systems with single sign-in and will progressively build system linkages. So, not just focusing on our clients, but ensuring that our frontline, both in Government and in the social service sector, they find it meaningful, they find it seamless and they find it integrated for themselves, too.
Case coordination can become challenging with more partners involved. To drive integration, we will take a regional approach to organise key social services because, in reality, if you ask the different agencies, they tend to serve the same families, the same households in the same locality. Our aim is to have a common set of partners serve the same community in the same region. This helps to reduce coordination costs and promote better integration across agencies.
We have been organising many of our programmes with this regional approach in mind. These include KidSTART and Community Link or ComLink, which Minister Masagos had shared about earlier. We will also set up regional Strengthening Families Programme @ FSC to support early-risk and stressed families. Minister of State Sun Xueling will elaborate more later. These programmes will be organised along SSO regional clusters, so that agencies can easily work with the partners in the same region, build relationships among each other to convene case discussions and coordinate support. In turn, this strengthens the SG Cares Community Network in each town.
During the Emerging Stronger Conversations that we have had, many Singaporeans expressed their desire to build a society that cares even more deeply for the vulnerable and less privileged. Mr Seah Kian Peng also asked how we will build stronger partnerships with the community to support those in need. We will strive to achieve this through the SG Cares Community Networks. This is a Singapore Together Alliance for Action, or AfA, which focuses on prototyping new ideas to solve problems. The Networks also provide a platform where local partners in a town, with Government agencies, charities, social service agencies and other community groups get to know one another face to face, collaborate and, over time, build a relationship of trust in the local community. We have seen the collective impact of the Networks earlier. And we believe we are just starting to tap on its potential, and we call on more community partners and volunteers to join our efforts.
Community Link, or ComLink for short, is a flagship initiative that seeks to pull together the elements that we talked about earlier: achieving deeper integration, putting families at the centre of our work, being proactive, building strong local networks, and partnering the community.
Deputy Prime Minister Heng and Minister Masagos had announced the expansion of ComLink earlier. So, now, let me provide some details, which will also address Mr Mohd Fahmi's cut on ComLink's progress and future plans.
In 2019, MSF launched ComLink at four pilot locations: Boon Lay, Jalan Kukoh, Kembangan-Chai Chee and Marsiling. Since its launch, we have supported 1,000 families with children.
Ms Carrie Tan asked if ComLink is taking an asset-based community development, or ABCD, approach. Yes, elements of ABCD are in ComLink but ComLink is more than that.
Under ComLink, instead of waiting for households to seek help, we proactively reached out to families with young children who are living in rental housing to understand their needs, their fears and their aspirations, listen to their voice.
We pulled together data across agencies and used them to identify issues faced by families as well as assets and gaps in the community. Community partners came together to coordinate support for families with complex interlocking issues. We came up with common action plans and journeyed with the families to support them in achieving their goals.
You cannot rush this. It takes time. You have to journey with them. It might take months, it might take years, it might take even a generation. But we journey with them.
We also partnered about 30 corporates, donors and social service agencies, and 240 volunteers to mount some 60 ComLink programmes specifically tailored to meet the families' and the community's needs. So, data driven needs identified by our outreach to the families, hearing and listening to them, and tailoring those support.
Our objective is to systematically uplift families with children living in rental housing and support them towards stability, self-reliance and social mobility.
Let me illustrate with one example. Theresa is a single mother with two children and had difficulty holding down a stable job because of the difficulties she faced. Ever since the Social Service Office (SSO) knocked on her door two years ago as part of ComLink, Theresa gradually opened up to share her challenges and aspirations of becoming a childcare teacher and her hopes of owning her own HDB flat. Her social worker and community partners came together, provided her coordinated support and worked out with her a case plan, a progress plan, a roadmap.
Today, Theresa is a confident parent with stable employment who contributes back to her own local community. Her two children regularly attend ComLink programmes.
We want to empower more families like Theresa's. We will therefore scale ComLink across Singapore over the next two years to cover all families with children living in rental housing. We will do so by expanding from the existing four sites to 21 towns in the next two years to cover 14,000 rental housing families with children across the island.
The SSOs will continue to drive this effort with relevant Government agencies, social service agencies and community organisations through ComLink Alliances.
As we step up efforts to do more for vulnerable Singaporeans, we need to redesign the way we deliver services. This is a natural evolution of the social safety nets that Minister Masagos has set out in his opening frame. And what is this new way of delivering social services?
First, streamline outreach efforts so that families are not overtaxed by various agencies and interventions.
Second, align agencies to a common set of outcomes centred on the families so that families are not pulled in different directions by different agencies and charities.
Third, empower lead agencies such as our SSOs and Family Service Centres (FSCs) to exercise more leadership to stitch together interventions while other agencies support as part of one team.
Fourth, provide better signposting of ground needs to donors, to volunteers, to philanthropists and corporate social responsibility (CSR), so that their giving is not just meaningful but impactful, targeted and productive. Achieve social impact that many volunteers and donors yearn to see.
We are testing out these ideas at selected ComLink communities.
ComLink is an ambitious enterprise premised on the belief that Government, SSAs and the community come together at the national level, supported by resources and the right policies, we can make a much bigger impact in uplifting the low-income and vulnerable.
Social sector practitioners have told us that what we are trying to achieve is critically needed. In fact, we are doing this because of their sound advice and guidance over the years. They tell us this is much needed but not easy to achieve.
We must confess that with no precedent to rely on, we are feeling the stones as we cross the river. But I am confident that we can cross the river to the other side because of our common desire to build a society that cares more deeply for those who have less. We want to roll up our sleeves, make an impact and see the difference.
We need to do this together. So, Minister Masagos, Senior Minister of State Sun Xueling, Parliamentary Secretary Eric Chua and I would like to invite Singaporeans to be a part of this movement on the ground. Those who are keen to join us can approach a Volunteer Centre set up by MCCY in your town or sign up through Volunteer.sg portal. My colleagues and I look forward to working with more of you to build a Singapore where no one is left behind. [Applause.]
Minister of State Ms Sun Xueling.
Mr Chairman, Minister Masagos shared MSF's plans to strengthen our social compact, including strong families as our first line of support.
It is on these points that I would like to elaborate today.
First, our families are the foundation of society. We must support them to the best of our ability, across their differing needs.
Second, our women are key members of our families and society. We will support them so they have real choices, so that they do not have to choose between family and their careers, and can achieve their full potential.
Third, our children are our future. We will provide them with a good start in life so that they may grow up to be resilient members of our society and form strong families of their own.
Mr Chairman, to build strong, resilient families, we have in place a continuum of family services to support families with varying needs.
First, for soon-to-wed and married couples, we support them in building strong foundations in marriage and parenthood.
Minister Indranee announced the increase in the co-matching cap in the Child Development Account for the second child. We will also introduce Government-Paid Paternity Benefit and Adoption Benefit Schemes later this year. We will grow the Families for Life movement to strengthen family ties and bonds and we will promote evidence-based programmes for marriage preparation and parenting.
Second, Mr Melvin Yong and Mr Seah Kian Peng will be happy to know that we will help families who show early signs of stress.
In 2019, MSF piloted two Strengthening Families Programme @ Family Service Centres, otherwise known as SFP@FSC, with Care Corner Singapore and Fei Yue Community Services. SFP@FSC will bring together programmes and support services for marriage and divorce.
We will start a family counselling service, including for families with early signs of stress, so we can mend relationship fissures early. Some marriages need more support, such as those who marry before 21 years of age, or transnational couples. Tailored marriage preparation and support programmes will help lay a strong foundation for marriage. We will step up support for families undergoing divorce. Four existing Divorce Support Specialist Agencies, or DSSAs, will be folded into the SFP@FSC. Services will be more accessible as families may approach any of the 10 SFP@FSCs whereas the DSSAs may not be located as conveniently.
The SFP@FSC will adopt an integrated, regional and multi-disciplinary approach to family service provision. Bringing early-risk family services under SFP@FSC allows better oversight of family services and greater integration of support for families with multiple needs.
The SFP@FSC will be organised according to the 10 SSO regions. Upstream preventive measures for all families and downstream interventions for early-risk families and those with complex needs will be accessible in the same location.
To address multi-faceted and complex family issues, the SFP@FSC will bring together a multi-disciplinary team of professionals skilled in family counselling, financial counselling and psychology.
We expect to scale up to five SFP@FSCs, with three more social service agencies working with MSF by the last quarter of this year. The remaining five will be rolled out within the next two years.
On family violence, Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim asked what can be done to create a community of support. Minister of State Assoc Prof Mohammad Faishal and I co-chair the task force on family violence, which has studied the landscape and possible causes of family violence so that we can intervene effectively. We have conducted focus group discussions and we are currently reviewing feedback from partners and Members of the House.
The task force is developing recommendations to break cycles of abuse and offending under four broad thrusts: (a) increasing awareness and strengthening societal attitudes against violence; (b) making it easier for victims and the community to report violence and to get immediate help; (c) strengthening protection for victims to reduce their risk of being harmed again; and (d) increasing the burden of accountability placed on perpetrators and strengthening their rehabilitation. More details will be shared later.
I will next share how we will continue to support our women. Our women's contributions are integral to the Singapore Story and we must celebrate and support their continued progress. Ahead of Monday, I would like to wish everyone, both men and women, Happy International Women's Day in advance.
Mr Seah Kian Peng asked about the profile of participants and issues raised at the Conversations on Singapore Women's Development.
So far, we have conducted 37 conversations and engaged over 1,800 individuals, including youths, working mothers, homemakers and women leaders. Men make up almost a quarter of our participants, and I know that more will come.
Participants raised concerns ranging from challenges faced by working mothers to violence against women. During my Budget speech last week, I mentioned that participants from our Conversations on Singapore Women's Development raised concerns on the approach for punishment for hurt and sexual offences. I am heartened to hear the Minister for Home Affairs and Law present the Ministerial Statement on the review of the sentencing framework for sexual and hurt offences in Parliament today. It is a strong step to further safeguard the protection and safety of our women and girls.
Participants at the conversations also raised the need for mindset shifts and suggested establishing support networks in workplaces and the community.
Increasing representation of women in corporate leadership was also raised. We agree with Ms Mariam Jaafar that we need more women leaders for diversity in skillsets, experiences and perspectives, which leads to better decisions. The Council for Board Diversity encourages diversity in organisations and identifies and grooms potential board-ready women.
We will continue to gather and study the feedback provided and submit a White Paper to the Parliament in the second half of 2021.
Next, I would like to talk about how we ensure that every child has access to affordable and quality pre-schools.
Chairman, it is paramount that every child is provided with a good start. For families with young children, we have stepped up efforts to enhance the accessibility, affordability and quality of pre-schools. Two key moves were recently made.
Since January 2020, the household income ceiling for means-tested pre-school subsidies has increased to $12,000 a month, from $7,500 for childcare and infant care, and $6,000 for KiFAS. Subsidy amounts also increased across all eligible tiers. Around 78,000 children now benefit from means-tested subsidies, up from around 48,000 in 2019.
We enhanced the Partner Operator (POP) Scheme, from January 2021. In the new term, we lowered fee caps for POP centres from $800 to $760 for full-day childcare per month. We also increased the number of POP centres by 30%.
With the latest subsidies and fee caps, a Singaporean child enrolled in full-day childcare for five years with an Anchor Operator would benefit from about $50,000 in Government funding. Low- and middle-income families can additionally receive up to $28,000 in means-tested subsidies.
Ms Ng Ling Ling and Mr Louis Chua asked about accessibility and quality of pre-school places.
This is an important point that affects young families. I know this all too well. Many Members of Parliament have raised this issue. Back in 2019, together with my colleagues Cheng Li Hui, Rahayu Mahzam and Cheryl Chan, we pushed for more accessible and affordable quality pre-school places, especially in new towns with many young children.
The Government promised in 2019 that 80% of pre-schoolers would have a place in Government-supported pre-schools by around 2025.
We have significantly increased the number of full-day preschool places, from about 120,000 in 2015 to around 190,000 today – an increase of over 50%.
We are thus on track to grow the total number of full-day pre-school places to 200,000 by 2023 and achieve the Government’s promise by around 2025.
We have increased the number of early childhood educators from 18,000 in 2018 to over 22,000 last year. We support the professional development of our educators. One such effort is enhancing the capabilities of educators teaching Mother Tongue Languages.
ECDA partnered the National Institute of Early Childhood Development, or NIEC, in 2019 to introduce Certificate courses for Malay and Tamil language teaching. A course for Chinese language teaching will be introduced later this year.
Ms Joan Pereira asked how we will support lower income families with young children. In 2021, we plan to expand KidSTART, to Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Panjang, and Bukit Batok, on top of the regions already announced.
The community plays an important role. Under the Growing Together with KidSTART initiative, we forged new corporate partnerships with SP Group and The LEGO Group, and deepened existing partnerships with Prudential Singapore and Etonhouse Community Fund. We will tap on individual and corporate volunteers to build stronger, long-lasting relationships with KidSTART families.
Mr Don Wee asked about childcare services for shift workers.
Childcare centres can operate beyond standard operating hours. Currently, over 40 childcare centres operate beyond 7 pm on weekdays. This meets the needs of most parents. Others may arrange for care-givers such as relatives to help out.
As part of the Community Link pilot, we sought feedback from some 650 families and community partners, including on care-giving arrangements. We are studying the possibility of piloting night-time childcare at a ComLink site.
For children with developmental needs, it is paramount to identify needs early and provide the necessary support. Our children are precious and we must create environments where they can thrive, and they can feel included and accepted.
We, therefore, set up the Inclusive Pre-school Workgroup, or IPWG, which Minister Masagos spoke about. Through the IPWG, which I co-chair, the Government has worked with partners across the health, education and social sectors to study how we can better support children with developmental needs.
Ms Ng Ling Ling asked about efforts to strengthen inclusion in pre-schools. The workgroup will release its report in April. Ahead of this, let me broadly share the upcoming initiatives. With your permission, Mr Chairman, may I display a slide on the LED screens?
Please.
The workgroup has a tiered support framework, depending on the level of early intervention support required.
In Tier 1, we will work towards every pre-school appointing an "Inclusion Coordinator", or ICO, among existing staff, beginning in the second half of 2023. The exact timing will be announced later.
The introduction of ICOs will set a baseline for the sector’s support for children with developmental needs and signal that every pre-school has a role to play in strengthening inclusion.
ICOs will work with early childhood educators to flag children with potential developmental needs for further assessment. They will connect teachers and parents to early intervention support or resources, such as our Development Support-Learning Support programme (DS-LS).
ECDA will work with pre-schools to support appointed staff with appropriate training. ICOs alone are not the silver bullet and we urge all pre-school leaders and educators to partner ICOs in their pre-schools in this inclusion journey.
In Tier 2, we will expand the DS-LS programme and the Development Support Plus (DS-Plus) programme to more pre-schools, to support children requiring low levels of early intervention support.
In 2020, the DS-LS programme covered about 600 pre-schools which enrol over 40% of resident pre-schoolers aged five to six. We plan to expand outreach of the DS-LS programme to more pre-schools covering 60% of pre-schoolers by 2025, and covering 80% at steady-state.
In Tier 3, we will pilot a new Inclusive Support Programme, or I-n-S-P, at a few sites with selected providers to integrate planning and provision of both early childhood and early intervention services at pre-schools for children aged three to six, who require medium levels of early intervention support.
Under the InSP, pre-schools will be resourced with full-time early intervention professionals who will work with early childhood educators.
This will reduce the logistical strain faced by care-givers, of shuttling between pre-schools and early intervention centres, and provide more integrated support.
The IPWG recognises there are children who require higher levels of early intervention support and who remain best served in a separate specialised early intervention setting.
ECDA will follow up on IPWG’s recommendation to study integration opportunities for these children in Tier 4.
ECDA will also strengthen the capabilities of the early childhood and early intervention professionals in our efforts to make pre-schools more inclusive.
Ultimately, strengthening inclusion in our pre-schools will benefit both children with developmental needs, and typically developing children, with enhanced teacher training, and development of stronger social skills from a young age. Chairman, in Chinese, please.
(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Families are the foundation of our society. Hence, we have in place a continuum of family services to support families with varying needs. In 2019, we piloted two Strengthening Families Programme @ Family Service Centres (SFP@FSC) with two Family Service Centres, which will bring together programmes and support services for marriage and divorce. Based on good feedback from this pilot, we will expand to three more regions by the end of this year, and the remaining five will be rolled out within the next two years.
In support of women, the Government and community organisations have organised 37 conversations as part of the Conversations on Singapore Women's Development, engaging more than 1,800 people from various backgrounds. During the conversations, participants raised various concerns, such as challenges faced by working mothers and violence against women. We will continue to gather feedback and study the suggestions put forward by the participants and submit a White Paper to Parliament in the second half of the year.
In the area of pre-school education, we are stepping up our efforts to provide more accessible, affordable and quality pre-schools. We will increase the number of Government-supported pre-school places, to meet the target set in 2019, of 80% of pre-schoolers having a place in Government-supported pre-schools by around 2025.
At the same time, we will work towards every pre-school appointing an Inclusion Coordinator to provide early intervention support for children with developmental needs. We will also expand the Development Support- Learning Support Programme and pilot a new Inclusive Support Programme to help children who travel daily between pre-school and Early Intervention Programme for Infants & Children centres.
We will also further support low-income families with young children. We will expand KidSTART this year to benefit low-income families living in Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Panjang and Bukit Batok. An important part of the programme is to ensure that young children are adequately nourished. Under KidSTART, practitioners will work directly with parents to guide them on their children's nutritional needs. Our community and corporate partners will also come in to support families with food sponsorships where necessary.
Children are our hope, our future. Regardless of their family background and difficulties they face, we want to create an inclusive and warm school environment for them, so that every child can thrive, overcome the challenges in their lives and education, and develop to their full potential. This requires the concerted effort of all of us. Thank you!
Parliamentary Secretary Eric Chua.
Sir, building a strong social compact starts with building resilient and caring individuals. This begins from nurturing our youth to bring out the best in them.
All youths, including our vulnerable and at-risk ones, can be resilient individuals. We must support them well, so they too can realise their full potential. Mr Murali Pillai asked how we can do so.
The National Committee on Prevention, Rehabilitation and Recidivism (NCPR), which I co-chair with Minister of State Faishal of MHA, oversees national efforts to prevent offending, re-offending and to enhance rehabilitation of offenders. Through the Localised Community Network (LCN) pilot, we provide wraparound, coordinated support to children and youth with complex family circumstances or those who exhibit at-risk behaviours.
MSF also works closely with appointed agencies to run programmes aimed at reducing at-risk behaviours, such as "Youth GO!".
Over the years, we have made steady progress. The number of youths arrested has fallen by about 40% over the last decade.
Pre-court diversionary programmes have significantly contributed to keeping first-time youth offenders who commit minor offences out of the court system.
We will continue to work with our partners to build a preventive support system for our youths.
We will pilot a mentoring programme targeted at students who leave ITE prematurely. We have two main objectives:
First, to expand the youths’ network of positive relationships. We hope that the young mentees will find lifelong friends and role models in the mentors, pick up useful life skills, and gain access to a trusted adult that they feel comfortable reaching out to.
Second, to empower the youths to achieve their aspirations. We hope to broaden their exposure to opportunities and support them in building on their strengths and talents. We intend to gather mentors from various industries, to guide the youths to explore potential careers in areas they are interested in. Where possible, mentors will pave the way for internships, apprenticeships, or job placements for these mentees.
I am also pleased to update that from February 2021, that is last month, post-care support for our youths discharged from MSF Youth Homes has been extended from two months to one year for all youths discharged from the Homes.
Beyond this, we invest upstream in family and community resources to address risks and disadvantages as early as possible. And we also regularly review our legislation to better safeguard the welfare of our youth and children.
Ms Sylvia Lim asked about the impact of the amendments to the Children and Young Persons Act (CYPA) passed by Parliament in 2019. Most amendments took effect from July last year. Implementation has been smooth so far.
We extended protection to older children who are abused or neglected, by raising the age limit from 16 to 18. From July to December 2020, MSF investigated 25 such cases involving older children.
The shift from “Beyond Parental Control” to “Family Guidance Orders” emphasises the family’s responsibility in guiding their children. Now, parents and children must attend a family programme, before parents can apply to the Court for a Family Guidance Order. The intent really is to equip families with ways to resolve conflict and strengthen family relationships to avoid the need for the Court to intervene. The regime is still new at this point in time, and we need time to monitor its implementation.
We are also enhancing our capacity and capability to rehabilitate youth offenders. It would take resources, time to strengthen safety and security, before MSF Youth Homes are able to take in additional youths.
And on a related note, we are also reviewing the Adoption of Children Act (ACA); to seek public feedback on proposals to better safeguard the welfare of adopted children.
Our efforts would not be possible without close collaboration with the community. As Minister Masagos mentioned, we are strengthening partnerships with the community, and encouraging the spirit of giving and volunteering to uplift our vulnerable communities.
Mr Mohd Fahmi Bin Aliman asked how we are empowering our youths to contribute to building a resilient and inclusive society. Many youths have been leading and igniting change through community initiatives, and we are actively partnering them to channel their energy and ideas for good. And I will be sharing more examples later on in my speech.
Mental well-being is a pertinent issue of our time, brought to the fore by the pandemic. At the start of the circuit breaker, MSF and MOH set up a dedicated National Care Hotline, to provide psychological first aid to Singaporeans. The hotline has since managed over 40,000 calls since it commenced operations in April last year. And in the recent months, with the gradual lifting of COVID-19 measures, total calls managed has decreased and stabilised to 1,500 calls a month, including about 450 per month that needs emotional support. But beyond this, there is more that we must do as a society to promote mental well-being.
Mr Shawn Huang and Mr Xie Yao Quan asked how the Youth Mental Well-Being Network (YMWBN) will help support youths. The Network gives us a platform to brainstorm with the community and try out new ideas to better support our youths’ mental well-being. As Minister of State Xueling shared at MOE’s Committee of Supply, Network members have initiated over 30 potential projects to date. I took part in a brainstorming session in October last year, and was very heartened and inspired by the many good ideas exchanged.
One such initiative is Driving Resilience & Inspiration for The Incredible Next Generation, or DRIFTING in short. Led by Network members Ms Francesca Wah, Mr Caleb Tan, Mr Jerry Seah, Mr Pang Lim and Mr Chan Ming Hui, DRIFTING is an outreach programme that aims to provide positive peer support for at-risk adolescents. Tapping on the experiences of former youths-at-risk and informal community touchpoints such as hairdressers, mama shop owners, DRIFTING seeks to strengthen the social support network and introduce protective factors for at-risk adolescents. The team will soon be ready to recruit volunteers and conduct outreach.
Our youths are also actively involved in causes to help the vulnerable.
Seventeen-year-old Brendson Tan has been involved in ground-up initiative Mummy Yummy since 2013, when his grandmother started the initiative with three other mothers to distribute meals to families in rental flats. As deputy lead of the youth team, Brendson leads over 200 youth volunteers to distribute food door-to-door. And he also leads weekly house visits in Bedok to check on residents’ well-being.
Increasingly, youths also want to have a voice in the policy-making process. We constantly find ways to involve youths in our consultations. For instance, the Youth Advisory Group (YAG) provides their perspectives to the NCPR, which I co-chair with Minister of State Faishal.
In recent years, MSF, community agencies, and religious organisations have also joined hands to form various networks to address social issues.
The PEERS Network, for instance, has 35 partners who run Safe Sound Sleeping Places (S3Ps) and mobilise volunteers to reach out to rough sleepers. I recently joined the Catholic Welfare Services and the Homeless Hearts of Singapore on their night walks. On one walk, we met two uncles who shared their concerns about safety and about losing their belongings when they sleep rough. They were actually initially quite hesitant to move into a shelter, but upon our MSF officers follow up especially on the very next day, they went to engage the uncles again, giving them assurance that the shelter would be suitable and adequate for their needs; they eventually moved into the shelter. And they are now in touch with HDB and MSF SSOs to gradually work out their housing and financial needs.
Other volunteer networks which the public can join include the Vulnerable-in-Community (VIC) Network, which befriends and supports vulnerable individuals, including tissue paper sellers and cardboard collectors; the Charity Food Workgroup for instance, which coordinates charity food support to beneficiaries; and the earlier-mentioned ComLink, which supports families in rental flats.
We hope that more Singaporeans will join us in stepping forward to make a difference. Sir, in Mandarin, please.
(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Every youth has the potential to become an adaptable and resilient individual. In order to bring out the best in our youth, the Government will continue to work closely with our community partners to build a preventive support system for our vulnerable youth.
We will also pilot a mentoring programme targeted at students who leave ITE prematurely. We hope to guide them to build a network of positive relationships and also help them to find internships or job placements in the areas where they are interested in.
In recent years, we also collaborated with community agencies and religious organisations to set up many platforms to study and address various social issues, such as youth mental well-being, rough sleeping, vulnerable groups in the community, charity food support and so on.
We will continue to work with Singaporeans to build a society centred on resilience, care and inclusivity so that we can continue to thrive in the face of future challenges.
(In English): In closing, let me round back to the questions that Minister Masagos posed earlier: What is our shared vision for the future? What kind of society do we want to be, and what legacy do we want to leave for our future generations?
The future is ours to shape. From conversations with the public to spirited discourse with members of this House, we share a vision to build a society where all Singaporeans have access to opportunities to achieve their dreams and that no one is left behind.
MSF will continue to work with all Singaporeans to build resilient individuals, strong families, and a caring and inclusive society, so that Singapore can thrive no matter what the future brings. [Applause.]
We have some time for clarifications, if any. Mr Louis Chua.
Happy International Women's Day in advance. Just a quick one. I think we have the plans to have every household be within 10 minutes walking distance of a park by 2030, so similarly, one of the common feedback that my residents have shared in terms of pre-school is that they are facing difficulties having a pre-school near their place. So, I was just wondering if the Ministry will consider having such a plan whereby every household would be within walking distance of an available pre-school.
Minister of State Sun.
I thank the Member Mr Louis Chua for his clarification. Indeed, the point that he mentioned was exactly one of the points that myself and my colleagues, Rahayu Mahzam, Cheryl Chan and Cheng Li Hui, made in our Position Paper in 2019.
And thereafter the Government made a promise that we will look at making pre-schools more accessible, more affordable, and of course, that they are quality pre-schools. For new estates, like Sengkang, like Punggol, if you look at childcare's capacity, it has more than doubled in Sengkang and Punggol in the past five years from about 11,000 in 2015 to over 23,000 places today.
But I take the point that many young families would like to have a childcare as close as possible where it is logically and logistically possible because we also have to look at void deck space and the facilities that are available. But as a matter of principle, the Government knows the needs of young families and where it is possible, as we ramp up the total number of childcare places, we will have them in accessible locations for young families.
Any other clarifications? If not, may I invite Mr Seah to consider withdrawing his amendment?
Mr Chair, just on behalf of all the members who filed cuts, just like to take this opportunity to thank Ministers Masagos, Desmond Lee, Minister of State Sun Xueling, Parliament Secretary Eric Chua for your answers to all our cuts.
It is Friday and it is almost half past eight. It may be late. But to all the men and women in this space, the social service space, we know that they work very quietly, but very hard behind the scenes throughout the years. We want to thank them and appreciate their good work and to also assure that all of us in this House will continue to journey with them, so that collectively, we are one step closer to building a more caring, more giving, more compassionate and more inclusive society. With that, Mr Chairman, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
The sum of $4,035,035,800 for Head I ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates.
The sum of $98,938,700 for Head I ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates.
PAPERCUTS