Submission of Impact Assessment Reports by Family Service Centres to Monitor Efficacy in Usage of Funds Disbursed

Ms Carrie Tan asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) whether the Family Service Centres (FSCs) are required to submit regular impact assessment reports to the Ministry to monitor the efficacy of the deployment of funds received; and (b) if not, whether the Ministry will consider extra funding for manpower support to help FSCs with impact assessments to provide more clarity in funding results and optimisation.

Family Service Centres (FSCs) are accountable, under their funding agreements with the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) to attain the required service standards, professional practice standards and good governance. There is, therefore, no need for FSCs to expend additional resources to undertake further impact assessment for work carried out under the funding agreements.

There are programmes or services that FSCs and other Social Service Agencies (SSAs) undertake, which are not funded by the Government. SSAs may want to demonstrate the impact and efficacy of their programmes. To this end, the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) has capability development initiatives to support SSAs. Ms Carrie Tan can refer to my response at the MSF Committee of Supply (COS) Debate this year.