Universal Code for Standard of Care at Homes for Children and Adults with Disabilities, and at Day Centres for Persons with Special Needs

Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether the Government will consider implementing a universal code of conduct prescribing a standard of care across all (i) homes for children and adults with disabilities and (ii) day activity centres for persons with special needs.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Eric Chua) (for the Minister for Social and Family Development): Mr Speaker, to ensure quality in service and the safety of persons with disabilities, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) establishes practice guidelines and requirements that service providers of our funded services need to abide by, through service models and, additionally, Standards of Care for Disability Homes.

These guidelines and requirements cover aspects relating to client safety and well-being, recommended staffing ratios and training requirements, safety protocols and hygiene standards, care management and programmes, and incident management.

Today, Children Disability Homes are licensed under the Children and Young Persons Act, which includes the Standards of Care that are enforced through regular inspections and compliance checks. For Adult Disability Homes and Day Activity Centres, there are regular service audits by SG Enable. Additionally for Adult Disability Homes, MSF conducts voluntary inspections and facilitates visits by an independent committee to observe the Home’s operations and recommend aspects of the Standards of Care that the Home can improve in.

That said, MSF is also currently reviewing how we can better ensure the standards of care in our disability services and we will share more in due course.