Committee of Supply – Head I (Ministry of Social and Family Development)

MSF has a slew of assistance schemes in place to assist those in need. They are good but many do not comprehend them. There is also lack of coordination and sharing of information between stakeholders to help those in need. I want to illustrate this with the following example.

One 29-year-old resident came to my Meet-the-People Session (MPS) 10 days ago to collect her third ComCare cheque of $200. She proudly showed me on her mobile phone an interview, arranged by a local group, which she did last month.

I first got to know of her problems last December when her third husband with whom she had five children, aged four to 11, left her. The grassroots leaders visited her and helped her with food-ration vouchers and recommended her for ComCare Assistance. We recommended her to earn some extra income through our in-house Social Service Enterprise but she turned that down. Four of her older children, aged six to 13, had been attending our CATCH Plus programme, as mentioned by Mr Seah Kian Peng earlier. This programme provides for completely free day care with the provision of meals, tuitions, computer classes, music classes and other activities also supervised by full-time staff daily. Children who got sick were sent by staff to see doctors with no cost to their parents.

She was quoted at the interview saying that she could not make ends meet and she had not been able to afford asthma medicine for her second daughter who has been attending our classes for months. I referred her to MSF through the Social Service Office at Chinatown when she first approached us in December. May I ask MSF whether we can have a better system to know if one person is already being helped so that help can be more coordinated?

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Many low-income families are in chronic need of financial assistance due to many factors. Giving them ComCare assistance will only solve their difficulty for the short term. What they really need is micro-interventions to attain a longer-term solution. We need the system to better help them help themselves. This is particularly useful for the young families. Will MSF consider taking such an approach, especially for young families in need? This method will seek out the underlying root causes of poverty and then work with the families to change the course of their lives for the better. This may be more resource-intensive to micro-manage each case, but the possible positive permanent outcome of self-reliance will be rewarding.

MSF will need more staff, social workers and counsellors to carry out such a hands-on approach to diagnose, suggest long-term solutions and guide those in need to achieve the ideal outcome. Does MSF have enough staff capacity? May I ask MSF if there is still a shortage of social workers and how does MSF plan to solve this?

The Social Service Offices (SSOs) have been well received. My constituency has one in Chinatown and my residents find it very useful. They can visit the SSO more conveniently and receive help faster. How are the SSOs coping thus far? How fast are the response and assistance rendered to applicants? Are the remaining SSOs – 22 in total island-wide – on schedule to operate by next year?

Concerning those in poverty, especially the elderly on subsistence living, may I ask MSF if it has the figure on the number of them? I am referring to those retirees who are not eligible to receive Public Assistance and are receiving meagre monthly CPF payouts that are lower than PA amounts. How does MSF assist this group of people?

As an ageing population, many more seniors will grow older and inevitably many more will get weaker at their advanced age. For those who live in rental HDB flats with no family members to depend on, ageing at home will get tougher as they grow older and weaker. Noticeably, many prefer to live in their own homes for as long as possible.

Will MSF facilitate this group to age in their own homes gracefully with some form of home-help, such as food delivery, befriender service and homecare? Is there now any scheme to identify these cases, especially those living alone? Could MSF identify them and at least refer them for VWOs to assist them if MSF does not have homecare service provisions? I hope MSF can look into the expansion on this area to assist many more to live in their own homes

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for as long as possible in view of our demographic trend.

Sir, in January this year, I asked the Minister for information on the number of homeless families that are camping by the beaches and the assistance rendered to them. In his reply, the Minister mentioned that in the period between 2011 and 2013, support and shelter were provided to 565 individuals and 404 families. About 80% of them were of low income and had weak social support.

The Minister, in his reply, also elaborated that three out of four were previous flat owners who had sold their flats for reasons, such as settling financial or debt problems, divorces and cashing out to make a profit. After the sale of their flats, they find themselves unable to afford the purchase or rental of another flat, thus many of them ended up camping on beaches and in public areas.

The Minister also mentioned in his reply that his Ministry regularly patrols the beaches and public areas to identify and provide the necessary assistance to homeless Singaporeans in our midst. While I am heartened to note that the Ministry is diligently making efforts to ensure that the homeless in our society obtain the necessary assistance, I am of the view that the Ministry can take a more proactive rather than the reactive approach to the entire issue. Instead of allowing the problem to manifest, more preventive measures should be in place as forms of early intervention.

In view that many previous flat owners were forced by the respective circumstances to sell off their accommodation, I would like to propose that the Ministry initiate joint collaboration efforts with HDB and, in particular, the Credit Operations Department, to identify high-risk families and render the necessary and appropriate financial assistance to these families before they lose their flats. Early intervention would certainly go a long way in alleviating the complex problems of homelessness in our society.

Hubert Humprey wrote: "It is once said that the moral test of government is how the government feeds those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those in the twilight of life, the elderly; and

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those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped".

MSF has taken bold steps forward in pledging to improve service delivery in the establishment of the Social Service Offices (SSOs) to render assistance to families in need. I would like to get an update on the SSOs in terms of their roll-out. Specifically, I would like to know how the SSOs have improved service delivery for clients. What structures and processes are set up by the SSOs to work with partners on the ground and gather feedback for local planning of services for the community? Are there concrete plans of action to facilitate SSOs in carrying out their function to achieve the desired outcomes?

The SSOs are in a good position to serve as a focal point to provide targeted assistance to families in need, Hence, it is critical that they are well-positioned in the community as a centre to coordinate the assistance that can be rendered to families. An area that I believe the SSOs can also look into is families with multiple needs. For example, a certain family may require help in terms of financial assistance, employment, family issues and many others. What are the Ministry's plans to address issues faced by such families with multiple needs? Sir, in Malay, please.

(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Madam, MSF has taken steps to establish Social Service Offices across Singapore to improve the quality of service that is provided to needy individuals and families. I would like to ask about the latest development from the setting up of such Social Service Offices. What will the SSOs do to improve their service delivery for clients who come to get help, especially for families that face a multitude of problems?

Sir, MSF sometimes appears to be laden with dealing with the downstream consequences of social problems – like poverty, debt, juvenile delinquency, homelessness and suicides – which may be generated by root causes that come under the purview of other Ministries. How does the Ministry tackle problems holistically when it often may not have the upstream tools?

For example, dealing with gambling has three elements – industry, crime and social issues. MTI and STB have been the key proponents of welcoming casinos on our shores with its attendant tourist dollars.

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Most of the regulatory powers are in the Casino Control Act and they rest with MHA and the Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA). I do not doubt the CRA officers are trying their best to take a whole-of-Government approach, but they are ultimately accountable to their parent Ministry and crime would probably be its focus. And this seems to leave the downstream social issues to MSF and the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG). NCPG has some powers from the Casino Control Act and these pertain to exclusion orders and visit limits. But would using these be too little and too late?

Let us compare this with what happens in Norway. The Norwegian Gaming Authority, which is under the Ministry of Culture, regulates all forms and aspects of gambling and lotteries. This authority was established in 2001, taking over the gambling regulation once handled piecemeal by 54 different Norwegian bureaucracies. The Authority is considered an active regulator and may even appear to be a bit of a nanny state in their anti-gambling measures. For example, they banned slot machines in 2007.

Or let us take poverty as another issue. Tackling poverty and income inequality requires a strong cross-sector approach. There are the issues of low wages, employment and training – which are tackled by MOM and the Ministries implementing the Progressive Wage Model – and the issue of educating the young from less advantaged backgrounds, which is handled by MOE. Again, is MSF also having to deal with the issues downstream, where the tools are focused on financial assistance, which itself is not the most ideal type of help in the long term for these families?

In addition, is the help that we give too fragmented? The kueh lapis approach of 18 assistance schemes – perhaps more now – shows the extent of Government support and actions on the issue. But does this approach also create silos where more holistic interventions are needed?

Again, let us look at an alternative example. Hong Kong established a Commission on Poverty in December 2012, chaired by the Chief Secretary for Administration. The Commission has a very broad mandate. This includes six focused areas like social security and retirement protection; education, employment and training; societal engagement; special needs; the Community Care Fund; and the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund.

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I am not here to debate about the adequacy and effectiveness of anti-gambling or anti-poverty measures in Singapore – that is for another time. I am also not suggesting today that Singapore should have a gaming authority like Norway's or a poverty commission like Hong Kong's. Norway does not even have casinos. I am just using these as examples to ask whether we have a structural issue in the way our Government organises itself to tackle social issues.

More than 10 years ago, I was once a Director in the then Ministry of Community Development and Sports, many parts of which are now in MSF. Back then, there was an internal joke saying that the Ministry should be called the Ministry of Everything Else because it seemed to receive so many diverse, downstream pieces of work.

I am glad that the new Ministry has progressed well and been given new importance, delivering many critical functions of social policies and programmes. MSF continues to grow very substantially. For instance, it had 1,100 staff in FY2012 and is growing to an estimated 1,750 in FY2014. But the nagging concern that continues in my mind is whether MSF has sufficient tools and resources to do its work optimally and tackle each issue at its root cause.

Would MSF not be able to do its work much better if there was more of a whole-of-Government approach to solving important social problems? There has been good progress in regulating all early childhood agencies with the establishment of ECDA. But what if we had an agency looking after vulnerable families and the issues they face? Even better than the whole-of-Government approach, are we able to take a truly whole-of-society approach by involving the community even more deeply?

Let me just end by commending Minister Chan and his team for their dedication and commitment to developing the social sector. None of what I have just said should be taken as criticism in any way of any of his MSF officers.

I declare my interest as a volunteer in the social innovation sector. I wish to recognise MSF's support for social enterprises (SEs) which recognise the power of dignity and self-worth and leverage on market opportunities to unleash its value.

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Last year, the Social Innovators Policy Shapers Network (SIPN) was launched by the Social Innovation Park. Through it, we found that direct handouts are giving way to a global rise in social enterprise and social innovation as new strategies for solving significant and complex social problems. We also found that where market failure is eminent, the Government's role is pivotal to get more traction to accelerate inclusive growth. SIPN did a quick scan of the world and this is what we found.

In Hong Kong, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam launched a HK$500 million Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund under the Commission on Poverty, which she chairs, with a clear view to avoid and not just alleviate poverty.

In US, President Obama's Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation has disbursed more than half-a-billion dollars through the Social Innovation Fund to support bottom-up, collaborative social innovation.

In Alberta, Canada, very recently, a US$1 billion Social Innovation Endowment Fund will support collaboration and create opportunities for solution makers to come together to address complex issues, strengthen and renew Alberta's social and cultural sector.

In South Korea, its Ministry of Employment and Labour enacted a Social Enterprise Promotion Act that provides holistic support for SEs – covering regulation and assessment, infrastructural development, funding and public procurement for quality sourcing.

In the UK, the Social Value Act requires all public bodies to take into account the social value created in contracts which provide a market for SEs.

The world recognises the value of this social innovation wave. Sir, are we prepared to go big in SE and social innovation? Can we consider the likes of the Social Value Act? Can we include technological, artistic and creative innovations to this agenda of finding new solutions to unmet needs?

I will repeat my call to the Government to adopt a full industry incubation model, a whole-of-Government approach. Will the Minister consider investing into a park for social innovation or social enterprise for a start? It is not just about the money but about recognising intermediary organisations, about putting an ecosystem in place and boldly boosting the social economy to put people and social innovation at the heart of our development agenda in

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Singapore.

Sir, since July 2013, 10 Social Service Offices (SSOs) have been rolled out throughout Singapore to be nearer to those who need them. I am very pleased to have the services of an SSO in the Jalan Besar vicinity led by an excellent SSO General Manager and her team.

A recent encounter reminded me again of the need for a better overall system to better coordinate service providers and volunteers on the ground so that those in need will not be over-served, under-served, or worse, fall through the cracks and not served at all.

I had recently convened a meeting with more than 10 voluntary and Government social service providers. The goal was to adopt a more strategic approach to coordinate the many kind helping hands who, on their own, were providing some 300 to 400 free meals and free food vouchers on a daily basis. Most of the helping hands were unaware of one another's programmes or are reluctant to collaborate if left on their own.

Another phenomenon I observe is the common response of some fellow Singaporeans when they see other people who may be in need – be it an elderly person pushing a trolley of cardboards on the street or a destitute sleeping at a void deck. Instead of contacting parties that may directly and more effectively study the need and render the appropriate support, one common response is to take a photo or video and then send it to social or traditional media and lament how sad or bad the situation is. Whilst some people do this for reasons that are less than noble, I would like to believe that there are many kind Singaporeans out there who do not know readily who and how to contact in order to get more direct and timely help for those in need.

I, therefore, have three suggestions for the Minister.

(a) Clarify who and what the roles of the key players are now in the social service sector – the Community Development Council (CDC), the Family Service Centres (FSC), the Social Service Offices (SSOs), the People's Association (PA), the grassroots volunteers and other volunteer organisations and individuals.

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(b) Officially empower and resource the SSOs so that they can effectively work with the many key players to develop a social service needs analysis and delivery map to coordinate the many helping hands.

(c) To develop a more aggressive and user-friendly Communications Plan to inform helpful members of the public and persons in need so they know who, what, where and how various types of social help are available.

Mr Chairman, last year, the Government announced plans to provide 20,000 more childcare places by 2017, and to this end, 45 new childcare centres will be built this year. I would like to ask: can the Ministry provide an update on the search for locations? What are the challenges it faces in finding these locations? And do the childcare operators face constraints to ramp up and build these centres?

Secondly, with more childcare centres, we will need more qualified early childhood education professionals. How has the Ministry worked with operators to ensure that we have sufficient and quality teachers attracted into and stay in this profession? And what can parents and the rest of us do to support such a goal?

Sir, the Singapore Day 2014 will be held in London later this month. Catered by Singaporeans for Singaporeans, Singapore Day is organised by the Overseas Singapore Unit (OSU) to bring overseas Singaporeans together and celebrate the Singapore spirit. Inaugurated in 2007, Singapore Day is certainly an exciting fixture for many Singaporeans who yearn for a slice of home. But for many overseas Singaporean parents with young children, the Government may have to do more than annual events such as this.

Under the present arrangement, Singaporeans who are based overseas would not be able to enjoy the basic infant care and childcare subsidies that their citizenship has rightfully entitled them to enjoy. The privileges of citizenship should not be contingent on geography and, certainly, should not be restricted to the physical boundaries of the Singapore state.

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To overseas Singaporean parents, this is unfair as the present arrangement penalises them for riding the waves of globalisation which Singaporeans have all this while been encouraged to do so by the Government.

I would like to ask the Minister whether his Ministry would consider administering the basic infant care and childcare subsidies to overseas Singaporeans via a registration and reimbursement facility that the cost of childcare expenditure incurred in a non-Singaporean jurisdiction can be subsequently claimed back.

Mr Chairman, in new and rapidly growing estates, such as Punggol, there is an increase in demand for childcare and infant care. This is seen as long waiting lists persist at most centres even as new facilities are being opened; and we do welcome the new facilities.

As families relocate to new towns, access to assistive care arrangements, such as grandparents or extended families, can become problematic, especially for families that do not own a car. Many parents in the demographic in constituencies like Punggol are young and they are dual-income working households and many of them work irregular hours. There is an increase in demand, not just for childcare, but also for full-day childcare facilities.

Apart from distance, there are other issues that affect the ability of grandparents to assist in the care of their grandchildren. For some, the problem is that they are still working as the retirement age, both in law as well as in our social norms, goes up. There is another group of grandparents who have a very large age gap between them and their grandchildren. For these seniors, their own health and physical mobility limit their ability to help.

Overall, the number of grandparents who can effectively help in the care of their grandchildren may be significantly lower than we had planned for and may be a decrease in the proportion of families as we go forward. Some of the old social norms and social assumptions may be changing as our demographic is changing. This may need some new planning norms about the proportion of families for whom we have to provide subsidised childcare.

If I could just provide two examples, Mr Chairman. I have two families. One, the father is a regular in the SAF and the mother was a nurse who took some

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time off to bring up their newborn baby. Getting full-day childcare was a limiting step for her to return to work. We do not have enough nurses and here is a nurse that needs to go back to work. The longer she stays away from the workforce, the higher the chances that she is de-skilled and the more difficult she would be in reintegrating. The thing preventing that from happening was the provision of full-day childcare. Even as a new centre opened in her estate, there was just not enough teachers to ensure maximum capacity.

I have another family living in a rental block. This is the family I mentioned in my initial Budget debate speech where the father is quite unwell and is on dialysis and unable to work. The mother was supporting the family until she became pregnant and had a baby. This family, through the good work of various Social Service Officers, was receiving a lot of help. But if she could go back to work, so much less help would be needed and the long-term future of this family would be much more secure. Again, we found a place for the child, but it was not full-day childcare. This meant that she could not go back to the types of jobs she was skilled for as they require her to work longer shifts and have her child in full-day childcare. There is a real and urgent need for this provision.

We need physical spaces for childcare centres as it has already been mentioned. But we also need an increase in the number of teachers and staff and a model of support in subsidies to ensure that this service remains affordable for Singaporeans. I would like to ask what steps are the early childhood development agencies and the Ministry taking to achieve these outcomes.

One final point, Mr Chairman. It is not directly related to my cut, but I would like to record my appreciation and thanks to the Social Service Officers on the ground. They do hard frontline work and I have always been impressed that they have served with humility and a real sense of helping fellow Singaporean in need and being part of the society that they serve. I just want to take this opportunity to record my appreciation and thanks for these frontline SSOs.

I have 11 new BTOs in Nee Soon South. The lack of childcare and infant care centres is a pressing issue. If we are to encourage young Singaporeans to have children at an age when many of them are trying to make their mark in their careers, it is important to step up our efforts to cater to this inadequacy.

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Despite the Government's current efforts, wait lists for such centres are long, from personal observations and as observed by residents who have been sending me emails almost every week.

It is challenging to engage and retain suitable staff in the profession when centres do not offer much in terms of career to our childcare teachers. On the other hand, we expect our teachers not only to be professionally-trained in childcare with proper recognised qualifications but who also must have the right attributes for the job, such as good character, patience and be able to handle children well.

At MOE, teachers are offered comparatively much higher salaries – rightly so, as they teach at different levels. However, I think we have a lot to reflect on what should be done to grow our childcare industry and, in turn, groom and care for the little ones. More training and better benefits must be made available to childcare teachers and potential teachers and supervisors. And, until this is done, only then can we expect the quantity and quality of child service providers to go up.

I would also like to bring up the issue of special needs children, whose parents are having even greater difficulty getting suitable childcare facilities for them. I really empathise with the parents. Given the costliness of their medical bills, their parents have to work hard to relieve the financial burden and having to run about looking high and low for a childcare centre is really a pain.

In Nee Soon, most of the parents will turn to Rainbow Centre for help. I was told that the wait list at Rainbow is very long and sometimes they can wait for years. Childcare is essential in ensuring the children are well taken care of by professionals when parents are working. I hope more can be done to help these parents and children. We must get the sequence right. We have more childcare centres and we will have more babies, but not the other way round.

Sir, I refer the Minister to the KiFAS portion of my Budget debate speech. I am puzzled that after review, KiFAS can only be used on kindergartens operated by MOE and anchor operators. Those that qualify for KiFAS form less than half of the some 500 kindergartens here. More than 95% of qualifying kindergartens belong to

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just PCF. Other than PCF and MOE centres, are there actually any other centres that are KiFAS-approved today?

There are many good kindergartens, some with long history, like the ones my siblings and I attended some 40-50 years ago. KiFAS should apply to all registered kindergartens, just like its sister scheme, CFAC. CFAC can be used on all childcare centres. MOE also saw it fit to support aided schools with religious affiliations. This Government has prided our recent Budgets for being inclusive. I believe we can be more inclusive to allow more, if not all, kindergartens to be KiFAS-supported.

Mr Chairman, presently, Government subsidies for infant care programmes range between $220 and $600, depending on the type and duration of care. For childcare, the subsidies are between $110 and $300. I would like to request that the Ministry reconsider the suggestion to allow parents to claim these subsidies when their children are cared for by grandparents. My parliamentary colleagues had made similar suggestions over the years, the latest just last year, but have always been turned down for the reason that such care, although highly valued and appreciated, is not quantifiable and that there is already symbolic recognition in the Grandparent Caregiver Relief of $3,000 per year given to working mothers.

Sir, I do not understand why the Government is indirectly subsidising infant care and childcare operators, which are mostly commercial, but not the grandparents. I feel strongly that this important service should be recognised for what it is, regardless of the source and type of the service.

If the Ministry's concern is that the level of grandparent care is not the same as that provided by professional or institutional caregivers, we could organise childcare training courses at community centres for these grandparents. They can be certified on an annual basis, if necessary, before they can claim the monthly subsidies. Not only will this help to ensure that they are up-to-date with the latest healthcare and childcare information, such courses can also help ensure that grandparents and parents are on the same page on childcare practices today and reduce the potential for conflict. The training classes would also provide a wonderful platform for grandparents in a neighbourhood to interact with one another and strengthen community bonding.

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Actively engaging grandparents in this role promotes active ageing and strengthens family and intergeneration bonding. This will also help alleviate the shortage of caregivers for young children. Many areas, including Tampines, face a shortage of childcare and infant care services and capacity.

In fact, it would be even better if the subsidy could be extended to non-related caregivers, that is, babysitters. This will also help unlock the latent workforce in our heartlands: housewives whose children are grown up and for some reason are not taking care, or not yet taking care of grandchildren. There are housewives who could also cope even when their own children are still very young. My mother, for example, was a babysitter to our cousins when I was in primary school.

I guess an area of concern could be the difficulty of enforcement or checks that the grandparents are, indeed, the caregiver. I think as long as the child is below seven years old and both parents are working, we can safely assume that there will be an adult caregiver. For a start, we can disqualify parents who employ a domestic helper. It is quite certain the child would be under the care of a grandparent or babysitter if he is not already in an infant or childcare centre.

This change would recognise the contribution grandparents and babysitters make in bringing up the future generation and the hard work involved. I appeal to the Ministry to reconsider this.

Mr Chairman, let me first declare my interest as an Executive Secretary of the Education Services Union. Many early childhood educators that I spoke with are passionate about their jobs and want to do better in their roles. We need to quickly implement solutions to attract, develop and retain them. The Minister last year announced a Continuing Professional Development Masterplan for Early Childhood Educators to update their skills, knowledge, attain key competencies and gain experience. In last year's COS, I also proposed designing incentives for teachers who complete certain professional development courses. I am heartened to know that this component is included in part of the Masterplan. My question is: will the Minister be able to share more details of the recognition and incentive scheme, and its implementation dates?

My second cut is on stress management. Teaching can, indeed, be rewarding and stressful at the same time. For example, many childhood educators share that they face lack of resources at the workplace, not enough break time, tight manpower at the centre, lack of recognition at the workplace and having to deal with unreasonable demands from various individuals and groups. Can the Ministry share if there are better measures or new measures in place to help them better manage stress faced at the workplace? Of course, this should not be the sole responsibility or domain of MSF and I hope that whatever solution that the Ministry comes up with will involve the roles and participation of other stakeholders as well.

Sir, allow me to move on to children who are a little bit older. With changing demography, leading to smaller family sizes and the rising trend of dual-income families, the phenomenon of latchkey kids has once again become an area of concern. There has, therefore, been a corresponding increase in demand for care arrangements for school-going children as both parents are in the workforce.

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The transit from childcare to kindergarten now has another element, that of preschool to primary school. Childcare afforded the flexibility to parents to have a formalised care-giving arrangement while they are at work. Similarly, families using full-day childcare services today will likely also require student care for their children, to provide for homework supervision, as well as before and after-school care.

The current 407 Student Care Centres (SCCs) across the island cater to this growing need. However, I would like to know if the Ministry deems this to be sufficient capacity and if there are plans to further boost available places. How are standards being upheld as the industry is not required to be licensed? MOE has increased the number of school-based SCCs from 50 to 80, with 14 of the centres set up in January of this year. How does the Ministry and MOE plan to better engage the industry to provide for more SCCs and ensure that the majority of operators outside of schools continue to provide affordable services?

Sir, we have seen a huge rise in the demand for childcare. Of late, the Government has put a lot of resources in that area. However, I do not see the same being done for student care. The same young working parents that use childcare services will need student care for their children, at least for the first few years of school.

Commercial SCCs are unattractive to run, given the high cost of rent and lack of Government support, compared to childcare. The MSF website listed 207 student care centres, of which a good number are tuition or childcare centres. These may take only a small number for student care, if at all, as their other operations are generally more profitable. Good student care services could eliminate the need for tuition. Is the current supply of student care places sufficient for our increasing needs for this area?

Student care operators are also not subjected to the Ministry's supervision for quality, unlike childcare. SCCs are not required to be licensed and are not subjected to regular checks by MSF. Their staff need not attain minimum qualifications and training.

I urge the Government to extend better funding and resource support to this sector, create more places, work with MOE to have more SCCs in all schools, and to provide closer supervision of the quality of operations.

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Sir, over the years, I have highlighted and championed many aspects and issues that families face. For this year, I wish to raise the following points.

First, I would like a progress update on the Family Matters Initiative which was launched last year with the intent of providing more support for people to pursue a positive family life. A sum of $40 million was set aside to help provide funding to schools and workplaces to run pro-family programmes. How many companies or organisations have taken up this funding and to what extent has this helped promote pro-family programmes?

Second, I would like to also ask for more support for families that are undergoing divorce and post divorce, as their children may be affected when relationships turn sour. Currently, parents who are in the midst of divorce proceedings must attend mediation and counselling at Family Court if they have at least one child below 14 years old. I feel such a restriction is unnecessary. In any divorce, all children would be affected, and so I opine that the need for mediation and counselling should be made compulsory as long as they have any children who are aged 18 years or below.

Currently, there is one FSC – Help Every Lone Parent (HELP) FSC – which is providing socio-emotional support to single parents and the children from single parent families. I think more agencies are needed to also provide support in this aspect. Beyond mandatory mediation and counselling, there could be better support for the family and children, both in terms of financial assistance and socio-emotional support. Could the Ministry share its views and the measures on this? My next cut, on single parents.

Sir, with changing demographics and strain on families, we expect to see more households headed by single parents.

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Some recent studies have indicated that the number of low-income single-person headed households ranged between 21,000 and 88,000. I can imagine many of them facing increasing challenges in having to earn a living and raise a family. Such challenges include housing, employment, childcare and parenting issues.

Given this, it is important that we also ensure that their children are not unnecessarily disadvantaged due to their family circumstances.

I am heartened by the policy change last year which extended childcare and infant leave to single parents. Six days of childcare leave a year for children below the age of seven, two days for those aged between seven and 12, and six days of unpaid infant care leave a year if they have a child below the age of two. These are now available to single parents.

Beyond the childcare leave and childcare subsidies, however, I would like to know the Ministry's plans to provide further support to single parents and their children. This is a group that needs more attention and deserves our fullest support.

Finally, I also want to single out another group of single parents for special attention. These are the unwed mothers and their children. For whatever reasons and circumstances, they are in that difficult and challenging situation where, based on current policies, they are not entitled to certain benefits for the simple reason that the unwed mother and her child or children are not, by policy definition, considered a family. Can the Ministry start a whole-of-Government approach and process to review this?

Sir, in the course of my work in the community, there are many moments of joy in seeing happy families. But there are also heart-wrenching encounters with families broken by divorce. The impact on children is often the worst.

The trend of divorce is alarming. In 2012, although the number of marriages rose slightly to just under 28,000, there were 7,237 divorces in the same year. A crude statistical calculation would, therefore, mean that 25% of marriages end in divorce. More importantly, the median duration of marriage at divorce is about 10 years, at the critical time when children are just beginning to fully comprehend the dynamics in a family.

As we continue to promote a pro-family society, I would like to ask the Ministry how it intends to ensure that the unit of the family is safeguarded. Would the Ministry consider better pre-marriage counselling and perhaps, more importantly, dedicate more resources to address the concerns of couples facing separation or divorce so that there is a better focus on the children?

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A family is like musical notes, some high, some low, but the important thing is how to make the notes come together to form a beautiful song. The strains of society often add to the challenges of keeping a family together. We, therefore, need concerted efforts to protect the family and do all we can to ensure we have more beautiful songs.

Sir, the Home Ownership Plus Education Scheme was introduced back in 2004 to help improve social mobility of small families from the younger generation.

One of the eligibility criteria was that the wife or mother has to be aged 35 or below. I would like to ask: how many families have benefited from the HOPE scheme? What is the amount spent on this scheme? When was the last review of this HOPE scheme?

Sir, as women are getting married and having children at a later age, would the Government consider reviewing the eligibility criteria to extend it to those beyond 35 years old? With Singapore having a low fertility rate, would the Minister consider helping families with more than two kids?

Moving on to special needs children, very often, mothers with special needs children are unable to take on full-time jobs due to a lack of schools that provide full-day care. There is also a lack of resources within schools to provide individual attention for these children. I would like to ask the Minister a few clarifications.

Firstly, what is the number of children with special needs and how many teachers are trained to teach them? Is the number of teachers sufficient?

Secondly, some schools with early intervention programmes for infant and child can only offer two or three school days each week for special needs children. Would the Minister consider putting in more resources to provide five full-day care in school for these special needs children?

Thirdly, what are the training schools, centres and places for the special needs children with different needs, and are there sufficient and suitable training for those children beyond 18 years of age?

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Lastly, many special needs children will have medical conditions and require long-term medical care. Would the Minister consider giving more subsidies for these special needs children?

Mr Chairman, the reported cases of elderly abuse are about 200 yearly, since 2004. This number is more likely to be just the tip of an iceberg and more importantly, it is unacceptable because no person should be abused. Many abused elderly may not report for various reasons. For example, they may feel shameful, they may not want to jeopardise their source of providers, they may be too weak or too sick to protest, or they may not know the channels to get help and so on.

We have the Mental Capacity Act to protect the mentally incapacitated elderly and the Maintenance of Parents Act to obtain financial support for parents from their children. Is it time to further introduce more laws to stamp out elderly abuse? The perpetrators must be brought to task with better provision of deterrents in place and laws that have more teeth to prosecute. There must be better legal protection for abused elderly, especially the infirm elderly. Perhaps, we can have an Act similar to the Children and Young Persons Act (CYPA). CYPA prescribes counselling, psychotherapy, assessment and treatment. CYPA also requires care centres to report suspected cases of abuse. CYPA protects informants on suspected cases of those being abused from personal liability. This is particularly useful to encourage social workers, relatives, friends and grassroots leaders to report abused elderly because the victims themselves usually keep their silence.

There is a need for raising public awareness on elderly abuse. There are various kinds of abuses and they include infliction of physical pain and injury, debilitating mental anguish, unreasonable confinement, wilful deprivation by caretakers of services necessary to maintain physical health and mental health, as well as financial abuses.

It is very important to have better provisions to assist this group. Could MSF make available support services to give respite to caregivers and prevent burnt-out syndrome of those service providers, such as dementia caregivers, at home?

May I ask MSF whether enhanced measures – either financial assistance or homecare assistance to assist low-income and middle-income families care for

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their dependent elderly members at home better – can be put in place?

Sir, the Maintenance of Parents Act (MPA) was first passed in Parliament in 1994 and later amended in 2010, as tabled by hon Member Mr Seah Kian Peng. There was much debate, and I believe issues were comprehensively argued to derive at its current form.

I am in support of the Act and I would like to raise some points about this Act to further strengthen the Act, hopefully.

By definition, filial piety cannot be forced. But with this Act, we are setting the right tone to the society that filial piety, kinship and caring for our old continue to be important values to us as an Asian society.

Budget 2014's overwhelming focus on honouring and caring for our Pioneer Generation and support for seniors in Singapore further underlined these values. Looking at the statistics, I know that the new Tribunal applications have steadily decreased since 2009. Cases with the Commissioner for the Maintenance of Parents have, however, increased since 2010. It seems to suggest that the option for conciliation has helped to promote amicable resolutions between elderly parents and children, as this option gives them the chance to talk it out before things get ugly.

However, there are cases of outright abandonment that MPA is not yet able to cover, not least because this again requires one of the elderly parents to be willing to apply for maintenance. This creates the opportunity for financially competent but irresponsible children to abandon their parents, knowing that they can get away with it.

I have heard of many irresponsible comments, such as "Go to see your MP. Find her. Government sure will help you." I have met so many elderly residents who came to MPS to beg for welfare and rental flats because their children would not give support despite themselves owning 4- or 5-room flats or even private condominium units.

In one recent case, a woman in her late 30s came to seek help with supporting her elderly mother. Her two elder brothers in their late 40s – and they have kids of their own – refused to share any financial obligation to care for their mother. When the Judge asked the brothers during their parents'

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divorce just a few years ago whether these brothers were supporting their elderly mother, these brothers went missing in action for a few months – for many months, in fact. Just for Members' information, the father was abusive and, hence, the mother filed for divorce despite their old age, so it is not a matter of the mother not playing her part. At last, the elderly mother was unwilling to apply for MPA for fear of straining an already strained relationship. The brothers continued scot-free, knowing fully that nobody can do anything about it. Suddenly, filial piety is being outsourced to the Government.

Of course, there are cases that are complex and the children may have valid reasons for wanting to keep their parents at arm's length. It should be considered. But this cannot happen if there is no opportunity to do so. For instance, it can be done during mediation where a neutral mediator can be witness. Hence, will the MSF consider allowing neutral third parties to apply for MPA on their elderly parents' behalf? Proper guidelines can be established. For example, before an application is approved, the third party needs to help show proof that the children have neglected or abandoned their elderly parents to the extent that the elderly's survival or well-being has been compromised. Alternatively, can MSF share what measures it has in place to address the issue of abandonment by children?

Finally, Sir, MPA itself is a bold move to impose on children to care for their parents. I am pushing this further, because I feel strongly about this. It is about defending important values to us as an Asian society for generations of yesterday, today and tomorrow —

Sir, the focus on the disabled or those with special needs in Singapore has grown from strength to strength. Under the Enabling Masterplan 2012 to 2016 and the one before, support, indeed, has been enhanced, thanks to the good work of the Ministry, NCSS, SG Enable and the various partners.

As expected, support for the adults, especially those who are moderate to severely disabled, tends to fall behind support for the younger and the milder. As a volunteer activist who helps to build services for the young and older ones, I have observed many challenges in the adult space.

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At a macro level, the quality of services is uneven and usually lacks depth and scale. There is the issue of manpower constraint, as not many Singaporeans choose to work in jobs that support the more severely disabled. And then, the issue of insufficient funding – funding for most adult programmes is means-tested and not tiered to reflect the higher support needed for those who are more severe. Hence, any qualified provider who chooses to operate, for instance, an adult centre, must be prepared to raise funds to cover its expected operating deficits for as long as the programme runs. There needs to be both funding and options, such as what was announced by MOH just now on home-care support packages.

On the family front, parents of adult disabled children are getting on in age themselves and many are in a state of anxiety, helplessness or paralysis regarding the future of their children. It is clear that while the state feels it is doing more, the beneficiaries do not yet feel the same way.

Not many of these ageing parents have clarity of the end-goal for their child's adult life or if they know how to get there. Some would like the Government and the VWO to take over the entire care, but not everyone wishes to abdicate their parental duty. The consistency of engagement and support is not evident during the adult days, compared to those in the younger days; yet, adulthood is the season that lasts for a good many years beyond childhood and youth.

For this COS, I would like to surface five pointers for the Minister to consider.

(a) An update of the Enabling MasterPlan and how this update might be better presented and made more accessible to, especially, stakeholders outside this House.

(b) A specific sharing of the Ministry's plan for the adults with moderate to severe disabilities in view that there are not many options other than day activity centres which are expensive to run and which face serious manpower constraints due to lack of appeal.

(c) Tiered funding for services that support those who are more severe, especially for those in DACs, the home-based services and residential homes, even if the duration of service is not for full-day attendance.

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(d) Structured and stronger family support by having paid and trained Life or Family Coaches from either disability organisations, Family Service Centres or SG Enable to work out with families of such adults what is commonly called "Person-Centred Individual Life Plan" during transition from youth to adult and then on a periodic basis. The Plan can serve as a signpost and roadmap to clarify what the end-goal is; and what services are available and what families themselves can do to get closer to the end-goal. The vision should be a user-friendly plan that maps how families and other stakeholders can work towards such Quality of Life goals like financial well-being, physical fitness, social and community inclusion, and continued education and training.

(e) Finally, I ask for the development and communication of a clear continuum of disabled adult service models from respite service, home-based service to day activity centres, to employment and residential homes for those with no family support.

Sir, the cost of raising a child with cerebral palsy from infancy to adulthood is very high. When such a child grows in size and weight, caring for one who is totally dependent on a caregiver to do the basic activities of daily living is a huge challenge and a full-time job.

These caregiver parents have to prepare milk feeds for their children every few hours, change diapers for them throughout the day, shower them, change sitting and sleeping positions for them frequently to prevent bedsores, and more. For working parents, they will have to hire a domestic helper to care for such children full-time.

Cerebral palsy is a long-term chronic medical condition that requires long-term supportive care services. Those with cerebral palsy often have other associative and co-mitigating medical conditions.

The family of an individual with cerebral palsy is likely to incur significant expenses related to the on-going need for medical care, early intervention, special education services, developmental assistance and assisted living. More often than not, the parents themselves may also incur additional medical expenses. I know of parents who are suffering from chronic back pains after years of caring for their grown-up handicapped children.

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Day-to-day living cost is also high for these families. Daily needs like diapers and milk powder are not subsidised. Thus, I would like to ask the Minister if more assistance can be given to families with members who are totally dependent on caregivers.

Currently, there is no official record kept on the number of people in Singapore who suffer from cerebral palsy. However, l am heartened to know that the Cerebral Palsy Alliance of Singapore (CPAS) had announced last year that they had started compiling the first such central registry in Singapore and will have it up and running in 2015. Having such a registry is a good start as help and assistance schemes for people with cerebral palsy can now be more targeted.

Although SG Enable started operations in the third quarter of 2013 as a one-stop centre for persons with disabilities, many may still not be aware of its existence and what it does. I hope the Ministry will work closely with CPAS and its supporting central registry to reach out to more people with disabilities so that their families will know where to seek appropriate assistance in times of need.