Criteria for Allocating and Prioritising Admission to ECDA's Inclusive Support Programme

Dr Choo Pei Ling asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) what are the criteria used to allocate and prioritise places for children applying for admission to the Early Childhood Development Agency's Inclusive Support Programme; (b) whether children who are Singapore Citizens will be given priority when there are limited places; and (c) what are the Ministry's plans to ensure an even spread of the additional 600 places in Singapore, if any.

Children with possible developmental needs are assessed by a paediatrician to determine the level of Early Intervention (EI) support the child needs and for the child to be referred to suitable EI programmes. The Inclusive Support Programme (InSP) serves children who require medium levels of EI support and who are suited to receive EI in a preschool group setting. The placement of a child into InSP depends on factors, such as whether the InSP preschool can support the needs of the child, matching of available class types to the child's individual needs and parents' preferred location. As we are in the early stages of scaling InSP, we will continue to assess demand for the programme to ensure a healthy supply of places. Regardless, only Singaporeans and Permanent Residents are eligible for InSP places.

About 600 new InSP places will be progressively added from 2026 onwards, spread over 15 to 20 preschools. This is in addition to the existing six preschools from the pilot. We will take into account the projected demand for EI services to guide the location of the new InSP places.