Number of Day Activity Centres for Special Needs Persons

Sir, Day Activity Centres (DACs) are community-based day facilities that provide long-term care support for adult persons with Disabilities (PWDs). DACs equip PWDs with skills to enable them to live as independently as possible at home and within the community. There are currently 30 DACs. As of August 2018, there are about 1,200 clients, of whom about 200 or 17% are young adults between the ages of 18 and 21.

Clients attending DACs are supported by a care team comprising professionals and direct care workers. The professional staff includes psychologists, therapists and social workers, and they formulate the care plans as well as supervise and conduct activities, such as behavioural modifications, therapy and counselling. The direct care workers, who are known as DAC training officers, support the clients and assist the professionals in their day-to-day activities.

There are a total of about 70 professionals and 250 direct care workers across the 30 DACs. Apart from being equipped with professional training and direct care knowledge, the staff working in DACs also attend courses to improve their skills in communicating with PWDs and understanding their needs.

I thank the Minister of State. I understand that a number of caregivers had previously experienced some form of challenges and difficulty in enrolling their children who are aged 18 and above into DACs after they have graduated from special education (SPED) schools. So, my question to the Minister of State is whether there are enough places to meet the demand and whether there are enough DAC professionals to attend to these young adults in the DACs. And what is the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) doing to ensure that parents and guardians are aware of the various options available for young adults aged 18 and above after they graduate from SPED schools. That is my first supplementary question.

My second supplementary question is whether there are plans to consolidate all the DACs into specialised centres for further training for such young adults to better prepare them to be work-ready, and if there are plans to ensure that there are targeted SkillsFuture certification programmes for them so that, ultimately, they can be independent.

I thank the Member for the very long and lengthy questions. Let me attempt to answer them. I shall try to answer the last question first. Consolidation of the DACs. Sir, there are now 30 DACs in Singapore and they are operated by 15 voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs). All these VWOs have their own background, culture, strengths, expertise and capabilities. So, I think it is not so feasible nor practical to try to artificially consolidate them just to make sure that they are able to deliver quality programmes and services.

What MSF does is that we issue guidelines and standards to all the DACs to ensure that they will follow a certain regime and protocol when they roll out the programmes and services to their clients. MSF also conducts periodical onsite audits to check on DACs to ensure that standards are met. For some of the DACs which fail to meet the standards, MSF officers will work together with the DAC management to identify the gaps to develop the service improvement programmes so as to make sure that they are able to meet the requirements and better serve their clients.

As to SkillsFuture training, this is, indeed, something that we are looking at. Under the Enabling Masterplan 3, MSF has been discussing and working with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and SkillsFuture Singapore to identify suitable employment-related training. We will conduct these training when the feasibility studies are concluded to make sure that the clients at the DACs will be given the opportunity for lifelong learning under the SkillsFuture Framework. For those who need to work, such SkillsFuture-certified courses will enhance their employment prospects.

So, this is work in progress. Once ready, that will be another step to give a leg-up to the clients at the DACs.

As to the Member's first supplementary question of post-18 transition, we are aware of the challenges faced by PWDs and also their caregivers. When they finish their SPED education at age 18, where do they go? We have been working with MOE and SPED schools to identify upstream orientation programmes. We have also been discussing and organising with the DACs to stage exhibitions, talks and sharing experiences by caregivers at the SPED schools and also to conduct orientation programmes for their caregivers before the age of 18. We are also working closely with MOE on this aspect. The purpose is to make sure that before they reach the age of 18, the caregivers are given the understanding and also to be better prepared for them to make a decision, post 18, which DAC to go to and so on and so forth. This is also work in progress.

There was another part of the Member's supplementary question, the different options. If I may invite the Member to elaborate on this.

The options among the different DACs if they wish to specialise in specific areas. It ties in with my other question on SkillsFuture certification.

Thank you. Different DACs offer different types of services and programmes so that they are able to offer a myriad of courses and training to meet the different and diverse needs of PWDs. There are quite a lot of options available. As mentioned just now, the important thing is to provide adequate information to PWDs and their caregivers so that they understand the range of services and programmes offered by the different DACs so that they will be able to make an informed choice of which DAC to go to when they reach the age of 18.

From my other life, which is running a DAC as a volunteer, I know that the cost of running DACs is very high. It can go up to almost half a million dollars of deficit each year for less than 50 people who have moderate to severe disabilities. I think the need will go beyond 21 years old.

I was wondering if MSF would consider assembling a small task force to look at the challenges facing this group of adults beyond 18, 21, and look at how to configure solutions that will involve not only the people sector, but also the public and private sectors, and other donors and foundations that can come together. This solution would not be easy and will be quite costly. And we need to get rid of some boxes of thinking to come to a better solution, because the needs are going to increase, going to be more costly, and there is no way that anyone, VWO, any kind person or organisation that can do it on their own. So, I would like to ask the Ministry to consider setting up a small task force just to specifically look at this very challenging area of the special needs community.

I want to thank the Member for that very passionate plea. We share the same passion. We also share the same commitment in wanting to uplift PWDs in our community. The Member has hit the nail on the head. To enable, to uplift this segment of our population, it needs to go beyond the DACs, it needs to go beyond the Government. It really needs the community to come together, working together with the DACs and with the Government to ensure that we would be able to provide adequate support, not just to PWDs but also the DACs running the services and programmes for them.

The answer to the Member's question is yes, we are open to discussing how we can work together with the community, the donors, the DACs to make sure that we will be able to provide adequate and affordable services to their clients. So, when we do, indeed, form a task force, I would be happy to invite the Member to serve on the task force so that we can work together and the Member can provide her perspective and insights on how we can work together collectively to make Singapore a more inclusive society for all, including those with disabilities.