Publicity of Various Community Help Schemes

Ms Mary Liew asked the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports with so many different funds and subsidies available across the different Ministries to help the needy, how are these schemes communicated and made accessible to Singaporeans.

The needs of the needy are not the same, and various help schemes and programmes have been put in place to help them. Each of these serves a purpose. Singaporeans who need help do not need to know all the schemes. What they can do is to approach one of the key touchpoints on the ground, such as the Community Development Councils (CDCs) and Family Service Centres (FSCs). These agencies will provide the necessary referrals and, where relevant, link up with other organisations to provide more holistic assistance.

We continue to work on improving this arrangement. To strengthen communication amongst social service agencies, ComCare Local Networks were institutionalised in 2006. In April this year, we launched the ComCare Starter kit to equip frontline staff of social service agencies with better knowledge of help schemes.

Apart from visiting the key touchpoints on the ground, Singaporeans who need help or who come across others who need help can also call the ComCare Hotline at 1800-222-0000. This was set up in 2008. More recently, we launched the ComCare.sg web portal, where we have made effort to present information in a more intuitive and concise manner.

Beyond providing information and touchpoints, we are also enhancing efforts to proactively reach out to the needy. For example, to improve the FSCs' outreach to vulnerable families, the Ministry has provided them with resources to hire additional staff. We have also lowered the FSC caseloads to enable their social workers to give more attention to families with complex needs. Over the next three years, we will build some 10 more FSCs to enhance the accessibility of family services.

We will continue to work with our partners to develop to improve awareness, accessibility and co-ordination of the different help schemes we have for needy Singaporeans.