Debated in Parliament on 7 Mar 2019.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether the Ministry has plans to provide or to encourage the provision of night-time childcare beyond the three night-care centers run by the Morning Star charity, for low-income parents who have to work night shifts.
Mr Speaker, to cater to the needs of working parents, childcare centres are required to operate full-day services from 7.00 am to 7.00 pm on weekdays, and from 7.00 am to 2.00 pm on Saturdays. Childcare centres have the discretion to extend their services beyond standard operating hours, taking into consideration demand and resources. Currently, around 50 childcare centres operate beyond 7.00 pm on weekdays.
The current arrangement meets the needs of most parents. But for those working shifts or on weekends, many of them arrange for other care-givers such as grandparents and relatives to help out. However, some families may face difficulties in making alternate care-giving arrangements. We will assess the need and demand for night-time childcare and the possibility of offering such programmes, particularly in areas where low-income families reside.
The Member may also have heard us describe in the course of the announcing the roll-out of ComLink in the four areas where rental flats are, as a pilot. That will also look into programming that meets the needs of the residents in rental housing, who are mostly low-income households. These include certain kinds of care-giving that they may require. So, I think we look at requirements based on locality as well.
I thank the Minister for the reply. So, is it a confirmation that we are looking into providing more night-time childcare services in certain areas? Because I see that on the ground, that some of the parents who have to work the night shift, they leave their children at home, in fear of their safety and then, they go and work, especially for a lot of the single parents. So, I am just wondering whether we can help provide the night-time childcare in cases like these.
There are Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) that are running programmes as pilots to provide night care-giving support. We will look at the experience and study this further.
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