Day Care Centres for Persons with Special Needs

Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) how many day care centres are there currently for persons with special needs above 18 years old; (b) what is the current average waiting time before a person with special needs gets a place in the centre; and (c) what are the future plans to improve the quality of day care support for adults with special needs.

Today, there are 26 Day Activity Centres (DACs) providing 1,380 places for adults with disabilities.

The current average waiting time for admission is about three to six months. We anticipate this to drop with the increase in DAC places. There will be three more centres opening this year, and two more centres by the end of FY18. These new centres, together with expansion of existing centres, will add another 420 places, and we are on track to providing 1,800 places and reducing the waiting time to one to two months by the end of FY18.

My Ministry has also embarked on efforts to build the capability of DAC service providers and personnel. For example, personnel at the DACs have been taught how to use a common assessment tool that we developed to assess the daily living, social and community living skills of clients in the various centres. This better enables the personnel to draw up individual care plans with the caregivers for each client. Appropriate intervention programmes and activities supporting the developmental needs and desired outcomes for each client are also monitored and documented to enable the clients to achieve their full potential.

MSF has completed a study on the competency and training needs of the care staff in DACs in enabling them to provide better support to the clients and their families. We are also working with agencies, such as the Agency for Integrated Care, Social Service Institute and Workforce Singapore, to draw up a competency framework and training roadmap for DAC staff.