Debated in Parliament on 5 Mar 2020.
Debate in Committee of Supply resumed.
Chairman, I thank the Members for their valuable suggestions and continued support of my Ministry's work. I would like to start with a few words in Malay.
(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] The Malay proverb – bend a bamboo while it is still a bamboo shoot – underlines the importance of educating children while they are still young. Quality early childhood education helps to provide them with strong developmental foundations to succeed in life. The Government is committed to ensure that every child has a good start in life regardless of their background. We have implemented various measures to enable more families to place their children in affordable quality pre-schools.
More Malay/Muslim families are now enrolling their children in pre-schools. The cohort enrolment of Malay/Muslim children aged five to six years old in pre-schools is comparable to the overall pre-school cohort enrolment for children aged five to six years old. This is an encouraging trend. I hope that more Malay/Muslim parents will enrol their children in pre-schools. Through the various measures by the Government to improve access to affordable quality pre-schools, cost should not be a barrier for children from low-income families to receive quality early childhood education.
To help low-income families further, we will streamline subsidy support under Special Approval for children living in public rental flats or receiving ComCare Short-to-Medium Term or ComCare Long-Term Assistance. From August 2020, these families will qualify for maximum pre-school subsidies automatically until the next fixed point of assessment, regardless of the mother’s working status. This is because they had already been means-tested for those schemes. For new enrolments from these families, we will also speed up the processing of Start-Up Grants. This grant helps to defray the initial costs of pre-school enrolment, such as uniforms and deposit.
We will extend more upstream support to children from low-income families, even before they enrol in pre-school, through the KidSTART programme. We have received positive feedback on the KidSTART pilot. Thus, we are expanding KidSTART to another 5,000 children over the next three years. We will also raise the KidSTART income eligibility criterion from a monthly household income of $1,900 to $2,500 from April this year, so that more families can benefit from it.
My Ministry works with many agencies and community partners to give every child a good start. One example is our partnership with M3. Under Focus Area One of M3 to support marriage, parenthood and early childhood development, we partner MENDAKI on the Preschool Outreach Programme. Apart from promoting awareness about the importance of pre-school, this Programme also helps Malay/Muslim families to enrol their children in pre-school. I am happy to share that two-thirds of children enrolled in pre-school with MENDAKI’s help are now attending pre-school regularly. Last year, MENDAKI and M3 partners also launched the KelasMateMatika@CC programme to help Malay/Muslim parents learn techniques to support their children aged four to six years old develop skills in Mathematics.
Chairman, I have shared about the efforts by us and our community partners to provide a good start in life for all children. The responsibility of developing and educating children is a shared duty of the whole community. We will become stronger if we help each other and stay united as the Malay proverb goes – like the bamboo and the river bank . So, please come join us in creating a better future for ourselves and our future generations.
(In English): Quality early childhood development helps our children build strong foundations for life. The Government is committed to giving every child a good start in life, regardless of their background.
At the National Day Rally last year, the Prime Minister announced that the Government will continue to make quality pre-schools more affordable and accessible.
Since 2012, we have doubled the number of full-day pre-school places to 180,000 today. This will increase to over 200,000 by 2023.
Today, 50% of all pre-school places are provided by Government-supported pre-schools. We aim to increase this to 80% by 2025.
Over the medium-term, we aim to lower fee caps at Government-supported pre-schools so that working families with a child in full-day childcare will pay around $300 per month. This is the equivalent of primary school fees plus after-school student care fees. After means-tested subsidies, families will pay less.
Let me explain how we will get there. First, we have enhanced pre-school subsidies. From January this year, we have raised the monthly household income ceiling for the Additional Subsidy from $7,500 to $12,000, and increased subsidies across all eligible tiers.
Second, we will be extending the Partner Operator (POP) scheme for another five-year term from 2021 to 2025 and lowering the fee caps. We aim to appoint more POP childcare centres in the new term.
They will have to meet lower monthly fee caps of $760 for full-day childcare, compared to $800 today. With this, we expect industry median fees to go down. Fee caps for infant care will also be lowered.
Mr Darryl David asked how the Government intends to enhance support for pre-school operators. Besides expanding the POP scheme to support more quality pre-school operators, ECDA and IMDA will launch an Industry Digital Plan for the early childhood sector later this year to provide broad-based support to help pre-schools adopt digital solutions.
In addition, I am glad to announce that ECDA will extend and enhance the Support Schemes to help eligible non-Government supported pre-school operators defray various expenses.
First, the "Kindergarten Conversion Grant", "Enhanced Workplace Childcare Centre Scheme" and "Enhanced Social Service Agency Development Grant" help qualifying pre-school operators defray start-up costs of infrastructure development, and furniture as well as equipment. Moving forward, ECDA will enhance the funding amounts and streamline the three schemes into a single Infrastructure Support Grant.
Secondly, the Community/Sports Facilities Scheme (CSFS) incentivises building developers to set aside spaces for new childcare centres. Moving forward, centres under the scheme may also qualify for support to defray their start-up infrastructure and furniture and equipment costs.
We will also increase the funding amounts for the Portable Rental Subsidy and the Teaching and Learning Resource grants which help pre-schools defray rental costs and support their quality improvements.
Our educators are at the heart of quality pre-schools. Several efforts have been put in place over the past five years to attract more local educators and raise the quality of early childhood educators.
These efforts help to raise the resilience of our early childhood workforce. Mr Ang Hin Kee asked about the impact of staff on Leave of Absence due to COVID-19 on pre-schools. I would like to assure Mr Ang that educators certified to teach Chinese Language who were issued Leave of Absence or Quarantine Orders formed less than 6% of early childhood educators certified to teach Chinese Language.
We will continue to grow the pool of local Chinese Language Teachers, as part of our overarching strategy to make early childhood teaching a career choice. Today, locals can pursue the Early Childhood Chinese Language teaching track at NIEC at highly subsidised rates. Next month, NIEC will launch a new Professional Conversion Programme allowing mid-career entrants to complete the course in half the time.
We are also doing more to raise the standing of the profession. I am pleased to announce that we will make it mandatory for all pre-schools to close on Teachers’ Day from this year onward. So, from this year onward, it will be mandatory to close and teachers can have a good holiday. This move further signals our recognition and appreciation for our pre-school educators.
While we work to enhance the affordability, accessibility and quality of pre-schools for our children, we recognise that certain groups of children need additional targeted support. Mr Desmond Choo spoke about children with developmental needs. We agree with him and are doing more to support this group.
The Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children (EIPIC) provides young children at risk of moderate to severe developmental delays with early intervention (EI) support. The intensity of subsidised intervention is tailored to the child’s needs and is comparable to other developed countries. EI centres also provide care-giving training to family members so that they have the skills to ensure that intervention can continue for the child beyond the centre for more sustained outcomes.
Beyond EI centres, many pre-schools strive to adopt a more inclusive approach and enrol children with varying needs. To support inclusion within pre-schools, the Government has introduced various EI programmes at pre-schools. Currently, about 550 pre-schools, offer the Learning Support (LS) and Development Support (DS) programmes for children with learning and mild developmental needs respectively. Pre-schools that are DS-LS providers receive Government funding to train their Learning Support Educators and procure therapy services. The new DS-Plus programme allows children who have made sufficient progress under EIPIC to receive intervention within the pre-school setting instead.
Early childhood educators are also taught the basics of identifying and working with children with development needs during pre-service training.
The cross-sectoral Inclusive Pre-school Workgroup, which Minister Desmond and Minister of State Sam referred to, is co-chaired by Assoc Prof Kenneth Poon and I. We are studying how to better support children with moderate and severe developmental needs in pre-schools, including the need to enhance pre-school teacher training and the role of programmes such as EIPIC and the Enhanced Pilot for Private Intervention Providers (PPIP). We are more than halfway through our work and will share our recommendations by the end of this year.
Besides children with developmental needs, children from low-income families is another group for whom we are providing additional targeted support. We have the Pre-school Outreach Programme to reach out to low-income families to encourage them to enrol their children in pre-school. We will also be doing more in three ways.
First, we will ensure that pre-school fees is not a barrier. Our recently enhanced subsidies will enable more low-income families to pay $3 per month at Anchor Operator (AOP) childcare centres, or $1 at AOP or MOE Kindergartens. We also made applying for subsidies easier.
Mr Darryl David asked about support for non-working mothers. Last year, we enhanced support for non-working mothers under Special Approval. Under the scheme, mothers who are not working for reasons such as taking care of a younger child, studying, undergoing pregnancy, or medically unfit to work, can receive the same subsidies as working mothers. Mothers who are looking for work can also qualify for Special Approval as a transitory measure.
Mr Seah Kian Peng also asked if we can do more for non-working mothers from low-income families. I am glad to announce that with effect from August 2020, we will streamline subsidy support under Special Approval for all children from low-income families living in public rental flats, or receiving ComCare Short-to-Medium-Term or Long-Term Assistance.
As these families have already been means-tested, we will automatically qualify them for maximum pre-school subsidies under Special Approval. Families will not have to submit additional documents when they apply for Special Approval. The subsidies will also remain unchanged until the next fixed point of assessment, as opposed to the current process where they may have to re-apply for support every few months.
For new enrolments from these families, we will also facilitate Start-Up Grants, which defray the initial costs of enrolment such as uniforms and deposit.
Allow me to illustrate how this supports families. Consider Lisa, who lives in a public rental flat. Her husband is the sole breadwinner and they have a son, Caden, who recently turned two and enrolled at an AOP pre-school. As Lisa is looking for a job, ECDA provided her with working mother subsidies for six months under Special Approval, and she only pays $3 per month for childcare. Previously, Lisa would have to re-apply for subsidies once her Special Approval expires in six months. With our enhanced subsidy process, Lisa will receive maximum subsidies and continue to pay $3 per month until Caden completes Nursery 2. With this, Lisa can have peace of mind while she seeks employment. She will not have to worry about her subsidy support expiring.
Mr Chairman, this also demonstrates the Government’s efforts to better coordinate the delivery of social services, by linking assistance schemes across pre-school, housing and social domains for families.
Second, we want to ensure that children from low-income families can access developmental opportunities at their pre-schools. These activities, such as field excursions, may incur some costs to families. All AOPs are required to set aside funds to help low-income children access such opportunities. For all other pre-schools, I am pleased to announce that ECDA will extend the Pre-school Opportunity Fund (PSOF).
The PSOF provides funding support for children from low-income families to participate in these developmental activities. The number of children who had benefited from PSOF has increased from about 900 in 2014 to 2,400 in 2019. Over the next three years, we expect this to go up to about 2,700 children per year.
Third, as Minister Desmond shared, we will extend more upstream support to children from low-income families, even before they enrol in pre-school, through KidSTART.
We have received positive feedback. Parents felt more confident in parenting. Health and development issues were detected earlier, and younger children on KidSTART enrolled earlier in pre-school.
This is why we are expanding KidSTART to another 5,000 children over the next three years. We will first expand to the Woodlands and Bedok regions this year, which have ComLink sites. From April onwards, we will also raise the household income ceiling from $1,900 to $2,500 to benefit more children.
As the Government increases support for children from low-income families, we have also received active interest from many community and corporate partners wanting to do their part. This was why my Ministry launched the "GROWING TOGETHER with KidSTART" initiative together with ComChest last September. This will enable us to deepen partnerships with interested parties to provide support in a more impactful, meaningful and sustainable manner.
Dr Tan Wu Meng and Ms Rahayu Mahzam asked for an update on the partnerships that we have forged thus far. Allow me to share some examples.
Since we launched the "GROWING TOGETHER with KidSTART" initiative last September, we have received over $800,000 in donations. This includes a sum of $600,000 which the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (REDAS) had collectively raised from its members. Singaporeans such as Ms Joanne Lim, Founder of the Right PerspectiveSG, have also stepped forward to raise funds for KidSTART with the launch of her children’s book.
Last year, Kimberly-Clark Corporation sponsored about 12,000 diapers for 420 KidSTART families. Over the next three years, they have pledged another 100,000 diapers for families on KidSTART.
Besides donations, we currently have about 250 volunteers from all walks of life. They partner our officers in running activities for KidSTART families.
One example is Mr Simon Loh, who is the Risk Management Director and the Chairperson of SP Heart Workers – H-E-A-R-T Workers – which is Singapore Power’s Corporate Social Responsibility Committee. Beyond stepping forward to volunteer when he heard about KidSTART, Simon also mobilised 30 Heart Workers to volunteer weekly at our KidSTART group sessions over four months. Besides assisting with programme delivery, they provided some very helpful suggestions to improve our activities, which we took in.
We appreciate the strong commitment by all our partners and welcome more to join us.
When children enter Primary school, we recognise that some parents may require after-school care. Mr Ang Hin Kee spoke about enhancing the accessibility, affordability and quality of student care centres, or SCCs in short.
Overall, fees for registered SCCs, including those in the community, have remained stable. The current median fee is about $295 per month, close to the median of $290 per month in 2015. So, it has been quite stable.
For school-based SCCs, MOE puts in place measures to keep fees affordable. Operators are selected via a competitive procurement process where they are required to state any proposed fee increases throughout their six-year contract upfront. This is taken into account as part of the bidding evaluation criteria. Contract specifications also limit the types of fees that operators can charge.
We want to ensure that student care remains affordable, especially for low-income families. Therefore, I am pleased to announce that we will increase the amount of subsidies under the Student Care Fee Assistance (SCFA) scheme from 1 July 2020. Eligible families will receive up to $60 more subsidies each month. To benefit more families, we will also raise the income criteria from $4,000 to $4,500, and the per capita income from $1,000 to $1,125. Around 9,000 students will benefit from these enhancements this year.
Currently, SCCs registered with MSF provide sufficient capacity to meet public demand. Moving forward, we want to make sure that we regulate the sector in a manner that is conducive. And we feel that needing to regulate the sector more tightly will have to be weighed against the increased cost and manpower requirements, on the part of both Government and SCC operators, of doing so. Nevertheless, we have the framework in place.
We will continue to monitor the student care landscape and review the requirements for SCCs as needed to ensure that they remain relevant and appropriate.
As Members of Parliament, we might have encountered families with children who have been abused or neglected. They need strong intervention to ensure that they have the best shot in life. This is why Parliament had passed amendments to the Children and Young Persons Act or CYPA last year.
Mr Melvin Yong had asked for an update on the implementation efforts. I am pleased to announce that from second quarter this year, the Court will be able to grant Enhanced Care and Protection Orders, or ECPOs in short, so that all children facing abuse and neglect can benefit from enhanced protection.
With an ECPO, MSF and designated care-givers can make day-to-day and more substantive decisions for a child whose family struggles to provide a safe environment. An ECPO will minimise disruption to the child, as it can last till the child turns 21 years old.
We had earlier announced that childcare leave benefits will be extended to foster parents. Today, I am pleased to share that from second quarter this year, these benefits will be available to 530 foster families. Foster parents will be able to use the leave when they, for example, bring foster children under their care to visit a doctor.
We hear Prof Lim Sun Sun's concerns about the need to safeguard the digital rights of children. There are various legislative, regulatory and public education measures in place. For example, new offences related to the distribution and advertising of child abuse material were introduced through the Criminal Law Reform Act. Another example is the Personal Data Protection Act which all organisations must comply with when they collect, use or disclose personal data, including that of children.
We will not be able to completely insulate our children from online dangers. It is therefore important that children learn to use the internet safely and responsibly, such as through Cyber Wellness programmes in schools. Parents also play a role in keeping their children safe.
Assoc Prof Walter Theseira asked if the Break the Silence campaign could be more inclusive. We recognise that it is not easy for persons facing violence to seek help. Their concerns are varied, such as whether it would lead to the arrest of the perpetrator who might be a loved one, and the stigma or fear about being judged.
The Government’s stance is very clear. Violence against any person – LGBTQ or not – should not be condoned. We are very clear about it. The Penal Code and the Protection from Harassment Act protects all victims from domestic violence, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identities or marital status.
As a policy, social services must be accessible to all, without discrimination. For example, our Family Violence Specialist Centres have supported LGBTQ persons who faced violence after "coming out" to their families. In fact, I have spoken to a few of them and it is heartening to note that even when we engage the social work community, increasingly, they talk about it and see how they can look at the needs of everyone, including the LGBTQ community, friends and families in Singapore.
The Singapore Association for Social Workers has a Code of Professional Ethics, which is covered and reinforced throughout a social worker's training and practice. This code binds social workers to strive towards a culturally sensitive practice that acknowledges all diversity, including sexual orientation and gender identities.
We will continue our efforts to be inclusive and make social services available to all persons who require them. For example, MSF is exploring the setting up of a one-stop dedicated national hotline to make it even easier for victims to seek help, regardless of the type of abuse or violence they face.
A new inter-agency taskforce, which I co-chair with Senior Parliamentary Secretary Xueling, will address domestic violence regardless of family and social forms.
At the same time, we continue to encourage social service agencies and social workers to deepen their capability to support all victims with empathy and sensitivity.
Chairman, my colleagues and I at MSF will continue to work hard to build a society of opportunities for all Singaporeans, at every stage of their life. We will continue to transform our social safety net. We will enable Singaporeans of all abilities to participate fully in our society. We will give every Singaporean a good start in life.
We cannot do this alone and must continue to partner Singaporeans in this national journey. Together, we are stronger than the sum of our individual parts. On that note, I thank Chairman and all the Members here for working with us at MSF to make life better for all Singaporeans. [Applause.]
Clarifications. Mr Seah Kian Peng.
Mr Chairman, just a short clarification to Minister of State Sam Tan. I know he has been leading Government's effort in engagement of the disability sector. Just want to ask him what is the community's feedback to this engagement? And secondly, are there any specific areas that the Government is focusing on and looking to improve?
I thank the Member for the clarification. In the course of almost four months, MSF, together with partners and also the two co-chairman of the Enabling Masterplan 3 (EMP3) workgroups – Ms Denise Phua and Ms Chia Yong Yong – together we have engaged, we have conducted 13 engagement sessions with more than 200 persons with disabilities, the care-givers as well as the social service agencies from the disability sector.
Through these sessions, we had the opportunity to really hear for ourselves first-hand information and sharing from them. To many of these participants at this engagement sessions, they told us that this is the first time where they really sit down with a Ministry, Senior Management, Ministers, Mayors and all that to share their inner feelings, their frustrations, their aspirations as well as the challenges that they face. They also told us what they want the Government to do in order to help them.
Through these engagement sessions, we have currently identified 12 new initiatives under the workgroup for Independent Living as well as 14 initiatives for the workgroup for Inclusive Employment. We now have 26 initiatives that we are working on together with 19 Government agencies and Ministries. Personally, I think this is a very useful engagement, very productive one.
Once we work out all the mechanics and schematics of all these 26 initiatives. We plan to go back to the community to engage them again to co-create and also to co-refine all those programmes and services, so that together all these activities and initiatives are not just merely coming out from the Government, Ministries and all, but it is a joint product between the Government, the people and the private sectors.
I think if we can do this, Singapore will truly be an inclusive society. I thank the Member for raising that question.
Ms Rahayu Mahzam.
Just building on that effort that MSF is doing that Minister of State mentioned, I wanted to just find out about the parent groups. Because I think that is another group that you may want to also continue to build on. Because I am part of some of these organic groups and they can, I believe, augment the support structure if you empower them and also be the ambassador.
So, I am just wondering with all the efforts of streamlining, having SG Enable as the one-stop point and also overseeing the See the True Me campaign, perhaps the parent groups could also be engaged and empowered to be the advocates.
I have a second clarification to Senior Parliamentary Secretary Faishal. He mentioned earlier that there is a sum of about $800,000 that has been donated to the KidSTART efforts through "GROWING TOGETHER with KidSTART". I am just wondering how would that donation be channelled through the beneficiaries as well as what are the volunteering opportunities? If we are able to share about this more, people would be more interested and we could scale up this programme.
On that note, what is the objective of actually growing aside from just getting the support because I think there is potential to scale up KidSTART and potentially help more families.
I thank the Member for raising this very important question. Care-givers, the parents, form a very important key pillar in holding a family together. To the question of what we do to help our care-givers, particularly parents with children with disabilities or special needs, SG Enable has set up a dedicated place called Care-givers Pod which serves as a meeting place for parents with special needs children or with disabilities to meet regularly.
So far, I was told that more than 1,600 care-givers have utilised a place to conduct sharing sessions, training and interaction sessions. So far, 222 care-givers have registered for personal access to the Care-givers Pod.
This is only the beginning, because if we can reach out to the parents, we are able to help them chart out the plans for their children for the future. Then, their children who either have special needs or disabilities will have a brighter future going forward.
Minister Desmond Lee and I have separately engaged, parents who are care-givers to better understand their situation, challenges and the needs that they need from the Government. So, all those engagements sessions proved to be very useful because they established trust and confidence between both sides. We will continue to organise such engagement sessions to make sure that parents of children with disabilities or special needs will not be left alone to fend for themselves.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim.
I just want to thank the Member for the Supplementary Question and thank the Member for the interest in "GROWING TOGETHER with KidSTART". The donations that we receive, we can use it for essentials such as milk, diapers as well as to help them with transport costs going for KidSTART programme as well as to pre-school. At the same time, there are also opportunities where we can help to top up their CDA account. And that is one area that we can also empower them to be able to use that.
With regard to the opportunities available, in fact, the first basic thing is, as part of the outreach to get them on board in KidSTART. So, that is very critical, we must get them on board first. Secondly, we can also look at how these volunteers can participate in some of the KidSTART activities like home visit, group sessions and they can become befrienders and also, at the same time, organised activities for the KidSTART recipients and their families.
So, beyond doing all this is not only about having that donation as well as the activities. It is also about developing the relationship between the donors, volunteers and the families as well as the children.
We want to give the best start in life for every child and when we invest in such activities together, we not only give them the opportunity to have a good future, but I feel more importantly, it is also how we can get closer and we do this as part of the Singapore Together movement – where we want to do things together and build Singapore together.
I am very happy that the Member is very interested in this and if any individual or donors who are interested can contact ComChest or can even approach Minister Desmond Lee, Minister of State Sam Tan as well as myself at any point in time.
Let us take one last question, Dr Lily Neo. Please keep it short.
Thank you, Mr Chairman. Yes, I will keep it short. Minister earlier said that MSF will proactively reach out to families in HDB rental homes to assist them, to possibly buy their own HDB flats. Many of these families lamented that they cannot afford it. How does the Minister plan to do it? And what are the schemes in place to help them overcome this challenge?
The Member is referring to Community Link or ComLink. We have set up Community Link in four locations for a start. In the north, Marsiling; in the south, Jalan Kukoh; in the west, Boon Lay; and in the East, Kembangan-Chai Chee. We have visited 650 families with young children door-to-door. We aspire to reach out to 1,000 in these four locations. We have a better understanding of the needs of each and every one of these families but also the assets and strengths of each family to pull themselves up, especially to make sure that poverty does not translate to the next generation. They have young children.
So, this programme is not in and of itself targeted at achieving home ownership, though that is one of the many indicators of progress in these families' lives.
When we identify that they have an aspiration for home ownership, then we will work with them to ensure that there is stability in family, stability in their work, support them with financial literacy if they wish to enhance their capabilities on that front, accumulate the savings; and then, when they are ready to pursue home ownership, there is a range of schemes available by HDB to support them.
Fresh Start, for example, is one programme, but the enhanced Step-Up Grant, recently adjusted last year, will also better enable these families to leave rental housing and get back into stable housing. There is a housing support team set up by HDB that will work closely with the ComLink agencies to support these families on the homeownership journey, when they make that decision.
Mr Seah, would you like to withdraw the amendment?
Mr Chairman, on behalf of all Members who filed cuts, I would like to thank Minister Desmond Lim, Minister of State Sam Tan and Senior Parliamentary Secretary Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim for their considered responses, which I found very assuring.
I cannot help but notice that I have been filing cuts to MSF and the former MCYS for the last 14 Committees of Supply. The number of cuts has been progressively coming down. It is a good sign. I think it shows that the Government has been resolving more issues even as new ones cropped up.
It leaves me now to thank all the men and women at MSF and all those in the social service sector for their good work, their consistent work all these years in our on-going journey to make Singapore more caring, more compassionate and a more inclusive society. With that, Mr Chairman, I beg leave withdraw my amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
The sum of $3,170,071,900 for Head I ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates.
The sum of $102,581,800 for Head I ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates.
Leader.
PAPERCUTS