Assistance for Children of Disadvantaged Families

Mdm Speaker, I would like to suggest that this House implement measures to ensure that disadvantaged children, many of whom are from the lowest-income families, receive the assistance they badly need to break free from their predicament and to let our society become stronger and fairer.

John, not his real name, is a 10-year-old Chinese boy who lives in my HDB rental estate. He was born to a single mother and has been cared for by a guardian, his mother's male friend, since he was four. John's mother is and has been in jail for the past six years. John is very much alone; wandering around by himself in the neighbourhood, playing truant from school often and doing poorly in his studies.

Ahmad, not his real name, is a 5-year-old boy who has never attended childcare or pre-school education. He can only respond in his mother tongue and he does not even know the English alphabets. Ahmad has four other younger siblings from one to four years old.

For a long time, Madam, we have adopted the policy that the best way to help our disadvantaged children from lower-income families is to assist them to attain academic achievement in order to climb the social mobility ladder in due course. The same policy also emphasises the motivation for families to encourage hard work and self-help.

I have mentioned earlier only two examples of how children may still be disadvantaged today. The problem here, really, is the social predicaments these children are facing with regard to home environment, peer and neighbourhood influences, as well as parental guidance that have disabled them from benefiting fully from our education system. It appears that children living in poverty benefit less than non-poor children in spite of the same exposure to our education system. Disparities between poor and non-poor children exist from as early as Primary 1.

Ideally, children should not suffer from the unfortunate circumstances into which they are born. They ought to be given special attention and given extra assistance so that they can get the opportunity to break free from being disadvantaged and from remaining in their poverty trap.

I would entreat this House, Mdm Speaker, to set up targeted and encompassing interventions for the disadvantaged children mainly from the lowest income families. Let us implement effective and evidence-based

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interventions early so that families receive the appropriate assistance as early as possible. The three approaches we should adopt are: (1) targeted family support and outreach; (2) early intervention; and (3) parenting programmes.

Targeted family support and outreach. I would like to suggest that we identify and intervene very early on the families that need special attention. The purpose is to assist young disadvantaged children who do not have the same level of support or are unable to benefit from the same opportunities as others. Targeted interventions should be designed and used to identify problems early and prevent them from recurring. There should be a range of interventions that is able to provide support for differing and varying types of needs of families. Family support encompasses a range of assistance with the purpose of strengthening families and promoting the well-being of their children. Families needing this kind of support include those with single mothers, unemployed fathers, families in poverty, broken families without adequate housing, disabled children and those with special educational needs.

A child's physical, social and cognitive development during his/her early years strongly influences his or her school-readiness and educational attainment, economic participation and health. Evidence has shown that development of early cognitive ability is strongly associated with educational success, higher income and better health later in life. The early years are also important for the development of non-cognitive skills, such as application, self-regulation, resilience and empathy. These are the emotional and social capabilities that enable children to make and sustain positive relationships and succeed both in school and in later life. High-quality provision at this age has a long lasting impact on a child's chances.

Key research findings strongly indicated that outreach is an essential factor in ensuring that intervention and support can be targeted at the most vulnerable families in the community. Family support can be informal or therapeutic, reactive when parents are struggling or anticipatory in order to prevent problems from arising in the first place.

May I suggest that we identify the lowest income families and the children that can potentially be disadvantaged from as early as at the time of birth registration? This would pre-empt our losing track of these children and only meeting them at Primary 1, which is the current status for far too many children. The aim is to follow up on such families with specially assigned social workers and to offer assistance to those who have less than favourable home environments. These families receive more individualised support in a holistic

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way so as to spot and to tackle emerging difficulties.

Targeting parental risk factors, as well as child outcomes, reduces the risk of problems being passed on to children as they grow up. We need to provide guidance and support to the parents for better home environments. Some of these families may need extra assistance, such as domestic violence, anger control, drug abuse, alcohol problem, medical care and divorces, all of which increase the risk of poor children outcomes.

The problems experienced by some children and families may respond to a single intervention, others will require longer-term support and some may also be complex. It is, therefore, crucial that a continuum of support and communication can be provided and with the resources to meet the specific needs at a particular time. I hope that such provisions can be created and sustained with the implementation of the right policy.

Early intervention. According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Prof James Heckman of The University of Chicago, early interventions "promote schooling, raise the quality of the workforce, enhance the productivity of schools and reduce crime, teenage pregnancy and welfare dependency".

Recent research in neuroscience, developmental psychology, economics and other fields suggest that the earliest years of life may be a particularly promising time to intervene in the lives of low-income children. Mdm Speaker, special attention and assistance given in the first few years of children's lives lead to better economic, social and emotional benefits later on for both individuals and for society as a whole.

In UK, it was found that high-quality early education is crucial to making a difference in achievements of children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, since an overwhelming majority of children who had a good level of development in the foundation years go on to achieve well in later stages of learning. Intervening earlier with troubled families not only prevents children and their parents from falling into cycles of deprivation, anti-social behaviour and poverty but also saves thousands, if not, millions in the longer term. In fact, studies of early childhood education programmes typically find that disadvantaged children benefit much more from these interventions than do non-poor children.

Our Government sees the importance of early childhood education and has amended and improved this sector recently. I feel that it is very crucial that the

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disadvantaged children get the proposed high-quality childcare and pre-school education as well as the subsequent after-school care. Thus, vulnerable children should be given subsidised pre-school education and, furthermore, a certain number of such pre-school education places should be reserved for them.

Parenting programmes. Parents have the most significant influence on children, and parenting has profound consequences for their children's lives in the future. Training in parenting skills should be facilitated for vulnerable families in order to improve the well-being and behaviour of their children.

Some families in difficulty may need personalised assistance in psychological counselling for stress and depression, medical care, difficulty with their children's behaviour, strained relationships and financial assistance. These families can benefit from better social skills, self-efficacy and self-confidence. The assigned social workers for these families will need to collaborate with different agencies to provide the correct solutions. Whilst our Government has always emphasised the virtue of self-reliance, exceptions have to be considered for those families who need that extra help and funding from the Government. The purpose in assisting such families is to achieve a more conducive environment for their children. This will ensure healthier subsequent stages of their children's development.

These families will need continued follow-up unless there is a change for the better in the home environment. This may mean following these families for their children to go through from their Primary 1 education to their Secondary school education. A specifically assigned social worker for such children will ensure familiarity and continuum of family service.

The link between reducing child impoverishment and parental employment is strong. In UK, a survey had shown that the risk of relative impoverishment for a child in a workless household is 53%. This falls to 7% for households in which all adults work.

May I suggest that our Government enable better opportunities for the parents of these families to increase their skills level? This can help them progress to sustainable employment. Some of them may have complex needs, especially non-working mothers who are furthest away from the labour market. They need a hands-on approach by social workers in meeting their needs and in pre-employment training. These may include improving literacy and numeracy skills and confidence building. Poverty alone is not a block to good parenting but low levels of literacy, numeracy and confidence are. Such parents

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need convincing that they can bring real and lasting benefits to their children.

Our Government, Mdm Speaker, firmly believes that every child should have the chance to succeed, regardless of his or her background. Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shamugaratnam had said that more must be done to level opportunities for young children in Singapore. He said, and I quote, "intervene early, intervene upstream, not downstream".

Inter-Ministry collaboration. In recognising the value of prevention and early interventional benefits, I now beseech our Government for the creation and provision of inter-Ministry collaboration and communication, with the clarity of purpose and the determination to make improvements for families in need over the immediate and long term. The relevant Ministries are: MSF for welfare, childcare and parenting programme, MOE for educational needs and after-school care, MND for housing needs, MOM for job upgrading and matching and MHA for the well-being of adolescent children.

According to an MHA report, there were 1,535 juveniles arrested in Singapore in 2012. MHA believes in early intervention to seek and to identify pre-delinquents or youths in order to correct their behavioural or criminal tendencies before delinquency results.

In four decades of research into the origins of violent behaviour, Prof Richard Tremblay of the University of Montreal has found solid evidence that the most aggressive and violent adolescents did not become more violent in their adolescent years. They were already very violent at age six and had much higher levels of violence than other children of the same age at age three. Those who have not learnt to control their aggressive reactions by the time they enter the school system enter a vicious cycle of negative interactions, where rejection from their peers, because of their aggressive behaviour, leads to more aggression.

Thus, with a policy for collaboration and communication between Ministries in place, early intervention and follow-up of such children will be possible with better outcomes. The Scandinavian countries consistently lead international comparisons in terms of child welfare and general well-being. Recognising the value of prevention and early intervention programmes, in the last 20-30 years, these countries have increased investment in such channels. International research suggests that the most successful programmes tend to share common characteristics: they target specific populations; they are intensive, they focus on behaviour, they include both parents and children and

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they stay faithful to their programmes.

Community volunteers. Volunteers from the community are an invaluable resource that should be tapped. I would like to illustrate an example in my constituency which is set up by my grassroots volunteers and completely run by generous donors and volunteers from the community. It is called CATCH, which stands for Children And Teens Community Hub. This centre is situated at Jalan Kukoh RC. This centre has more than 100 participating members ranging from age six to 16 years from nine blocks of HDB rental flats. Sponsored full-time staff supervise these children daily. CATCH members can come daily to this centre for their tuition, school-work supervision, computer classes, games and indoor activities. These children get free meals and snacks daily, sponsored by food catering companies. Their tuition classes are conducted free-of-charge by tertiary students of NUS and Singapore Polytechnic. Local parents in financial difficulty that assist in this centre get allowances to support their families. The grassroots volunteers take turns to take the children out for outings and outdoor sports.

I hope that MSF will facilitate the setting up more of such avenues towards building social support networks for families and children, where communities can come together to contribute and make a difference for the better in the lives of others.

Madam, I would like to end by quoting what the Prime Minister said at the National Day Rally, "Today, the situation has changed. If we rely too heavily on the individual, their efforts alone will not be enough, especially among the vulnerable, like the lower-income families, like the elderly. There are some things which individuals cannot do on their own, and there are some things which we can do much better together. So, we must shift the balance, the community and the Government will have to do more to support individuals". Thank you, Prime Minister, for saying that.

Thus, let me entreat this House to take this initiative today to intervene early and assist the vulnerable children and ensure that they do not fall into the perpetuating cycles of deprivation. Let the children have a good start in life. Help them to level up and to achieve a better future. [Applause]