Debated in Parliament on 5 Feb 2025.
Assoc Prof Razwana Begum Abdul Rahim asked the Minister for Social and Family Development what programmes are in place to help nudge community attitudes towards the adoption of the guidelines on healthy family boundaries as the accepted norm without criminalising or criticising parents who may currently hold alternative views.
Assoc Prof Razwana Begum Abdul Rahim asked the Minister for Social and Family Development what programmes are in place to assist those who work with parents, families, or children in the community, public, or private sectors to better understand, follow and promote the guidelines on healthy family boundaries.
Assoc Prof Razwana Begum Abdul Rahim asked the Minister for Social and Family Development how does the Ministry assess whether behaviours that are inconsistent with the guidelines on healthy family boundaries are not simply poor parenting but are potentially child abuse.
I thank the Member for the question. This matter has already been addressed in Question Nos 59 and 60 for written answers to questions for oral answer not answered by the end of Question Time for the 7 January 2025 Sitting. I would like to refer the Member to the written reply for further details.
Minister of State Sun, your response covers the three questions that Assoc Prof Razwana has raised?
Yes, indeed. I apologise, Mr Speaker, Sir, for not asking for your permission earlier. Indeed, my answer will correspond to Question Nos 10, 11 and 12 in the Order Paper today.
Assoc Prof Razwana Begum.
I would just like to ask the Minister of State two supplementary questions. I think this is with regard to the objective of the guidelines. There are some concerns, in terms of whether the families, especially those who are working with children, are aware of such guidelines, in terms of whether this is going to be something that may cause criminalisation and all that.
Sir, I would like to ask if there will be constant reminders to the public with regard to those, especially, working with children, clarifying the objective and the purpose in achieving what is the guideline or why are we having this guideline? So, that is my first question.
My second one is, would there be any consideration to include physical discipline as part of the guidelines as well? Not just healthy boundaries, but also physical discipline.
I thank the Member for her two supplementary questions. The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) had initiated the development of the Practitioners' Resource Guide on the Guidelines on Healthy Family Boundaries. And the background to this is that in the course of child protection work, MSF and professionals have come across parenting practices that, while not illegal, can place children in uncomfortable situations.
That said, MSF recognises that every family is unique and some may face special circumstances and therefore, the guidelines are thus not intended to be rules to be enforced or prescriptive in nature across all parenting contexts, but rather to serve as general principles to help professionals working with diverse family situations.
On the second question that she had, the guidelines currently do not include physical discipline elements. There have been various surveys that show that many parents in Singapore still use certain methods of physical discipline on their children. MSF recognises this and acknowledges that, ultimately, at the end of the day, parents have the right to decide on how they would want to discipline their children. But that said, if the behaviour crosses the line and goes into child abuse – and we have professionals who will look into case-specific details to be able to come to a conclusion on that. And if that is the case, then Child Protective Services will not hesitate to step in to protect the child.
PAPERCUTS