Debated in Parliament on 12 Jan 2026.
Mr Lee Hong Chuang asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) how is the Ministry enhancing support for families in strengthening family resilience and promoting work-life harmony, particularly for families with young children; and (b) what programmes or initiatives have been most effective in helping families navigate challenges while fostering strong family bonds.
Families are the bedrock of our society. Based on the Ministry of Social and Family Development's (MSF's) survey on families in 2023, 85.9% of families reported moderate to high family resilience scores. MSF actively works with our community and corporate partners to journey with families through every stage of life.
The Families For Life (FFL) movement supports families through a wide range of evidence-based or evidence-informed programmes and resources. These include marriage preparation programmes which equip couples with essential skills and build strong foundations for their marriage, the Journey with You (JoY) marriage initiative that provides mentoring to couples in their first year of marriage, and parenting programmes that provide parents with strategies to foster positive parent-child relationships. Couples and parents have generally found these programmes to be effective. In 2025, the roll-out of Families for Life@Community across all 24 towns was completed. Couples and parents now have greater access to these programmes and support groups.
MSF also works with the FFL Council to promote family bonding through partnerships with community and corporate partners. National initiatives, such as the National Family Festival, provide opportunities for families to spend time together. FFL Council also supports employers to foster family-friendly workplaces, such as organising lunchtime talks on parenting topics and corporate family days. Together, these efforts reinforce the importance of family time and work-life harmony.
We encourage employers to provide a family-friendly work environment to help employees manage both their work and caregiving responsibilities. This includes availing Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) to those who require it. The Tripartite Guidelines on FWA Requests are intended to facilitate this by setting out how employees should request for and use FWAs responsibly and how employers should respond to these requests.
In addition, we have progressively enhanced parental leave provisions to support working parents, including recent enhancements to Government-Paid Paternity Leave and the introduction of the new Shared Parental Leave scheme. When fully implemented from 1 April 2026, eligible couples will be entitled to 30 weeks of paid parental leave in the child's first year.
For couples and families facing stress in their marital or family relationships, there are online resources on the Family Assist portal, as well as professional family counselling provided via the Strengthening Families Programme (FAM). Families can seek help and gain the support and skills to handle their relationship challenges and build family resilience.
There is no single policy or programme that is most effective in strengthening family resilience. Our approach is to holistically support families at every stage of life, from upstream programmes that foster strong relationships to additional support for those facing challenges and stresses. Building a family-friendly Singapore is a whole-of-society endeavour. Besides the Government's efforts, strong social and community networks created by community partners, businesses and individuals also contribute to strong and resilient families.
PAPERCUTS