Family & gender

• The Minister clarified that the attendance requirement for childcare subsidies is one day per month, not 75%, and the vast majority of children meet this basic requirement.
• Reasons for low attendance are mostly non-financial, including parents’ work arrangements, child health issues, lack of awareness about attendance importance, and competing family priorities.
• Preschools are encouraged to engage parents and refer families to support services when needed, and the KidSTART programme assists lower-income families to address attendance barriers and will expand to reach more children.

• Under current regulations, kindergartens are licensed to provide only half-day education programmes and cannot offer before and after-school care services, but such care can be provided by licensed childcare centres or student care centres.
• Pre-schools may offer before and after-school care for children aged seven to 14 during operating hours if approved by ECDA, but must use separate spaces, limit enrolment to 10% of capacity, and adhere to safety and supervision standards, with no kindergarten having applied to do so yet.
• Private kindergarten operators may offer before and after-school care after hours or off-site, and three such operators are currently registered to administer the Student Care Fee Assistance Scheme while meeting required standards.

• Childcare centres are required to operate from 7 am to 7 pm on weekdays and 7 am to 2 pm on Saturdays to support working parents, with some centres extending beyond these hours based on demand and resources.
• The government encourages flexible work arrangements through the Work-Life Grant and Tripartite Standard, which have been adopted by around 1,900 employers covering 450,000 employees.
• Mothers re-entering the workforce can seek employment assistance through Workforce Singapore’s Adapt and Grow initiative and career centres like Careers Connect and NTUC-e2i.

• The Minister for Manpower stated that employers typically deny childcare leave due to a lack of awareness of employees’ statutory entitlements, which was the main reason in the 15 cases handled by MOM in the past five years.
• No cases were brought to TAFEP specifically for unreasonable denial of childcare leave applications, but MOM addressed 15 instances where employers failed to provide or under-provided childcare leave in contracts.
• In all 15 cases, MOM required employers to rectify their policies to comply with the law and took enforcement action against them.
• The majority of employers and employees mutually agree on childcare leave arrangements, with no unresolved cases reported to TAFEP in the past five years.
• MOM and TAFEP have not recorded any cases where employees were denied childcare leave after reasonable application, indicating that statutory obligations are generally being met once awareness is addressed.

• Louis Ng asked if parents can use Child Development Account (CDA) savings to buy child car seats.
• The Prime Minister’s office stated that CDA funds are designated for developmental needs like education and healthcare at approved institutions.
• It noted that the Baby Bonus Cash Gift, separate from the CDA, provides $8,000–$10,000 per child for other expenses such as car seats.

• The pilot Pre-Implantation Genetic Screening (PGS) programme began in 2017 for women aged 35 and above or those with recurrent implantation failures or pregnancy losses, with 298 patients enrolled so far.
• The pilot is scheduled to end in December 2019, after which the Ministry of Health will evaluate clinical outcomes like implantation, pregnancy, and live birth rates compared to non-PGS IVF cases.
• The review will consider international evidence, ethical challenges, and regulatory needs to decide if PGS should become a routine clinical service.

• Ong Teng Koon proposed waiving the foreign domestic worker levy for families with three or more children under 16 to alleviate financial pressures and encourage larger families.
• The government maintains that the concessionary levy of $60 per month already supports households with caregiving needs, and there are no plans for further reductions, citing sustainability concerns with FDW population growth.
• Officials emphasized broader support measures for families, including enhanced Baby Bonus cash gifts, childcare subsidies, tax reliefs, and pre-school funding, which provide substantial aid especially for larger families.
• The Senior Parliamentary Secretary noted that many families already benefit from the concessionary levy, with 80% of employers paying the reduced rate, and highlighted alternative support like pre-school expansion and inter-generational household allowances.
• The debate underscored balancing demographic goals with household affordability, with the government prioritizing targeted subsidies over blanket levy waivers.

• The Ministry plans to add 2,000 government-supported preschool places in Yishun and has four student care centres in Nee Soon South with sufficient capacity, while monitoring demand for future expansion.
• Registered student care centres, including private operators, must meet standards such as a clean environment, proper supervision, and at least three square metres of space per student, with audits conducted at least every two years.
• The Ministry is on track to have student care centres in all primary schools by 2020 and will continue to address feedback on space constraints and access for middle-income families.

• The government funds pre-schools through the Anchor Operator scheme to ensure affordable and quality education, with five operators currently serving about 60,300 Singapore Citizen children across 570 centres.
• For 2018, the average government grant was about $6,000 per Singapore Citizen child in Anchor Operator centres, with the highest per-child grants given to MY World Preschool, E-Bridge Preschool, and Skool4Kidz.
• The Anchor Operator scheme, introduced in 2009, requires operators to adhere to fee caps, improve quality, invest in teacher development, offer Malay and Tamil language instruction, and support enrolment from low-income families.

• Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked for annual data over the past five years on the number and percentage of working mothers and fathers with one, two, or more than two children who took six days of Government-Paid Child Care Leave.
• The Ministry of Social and Family Development does not collect data on the number of children per employee when processing GPCL claims, as only the presence of a child under seven is verified.
• Consequently, the specific statistics requested on childcare leave uptake by family size are not readily available.

• Louis Ng Kok Kwang inquired about the circumstances under which an employee can file a complaint with the Ministry of Manpower or TAFEP for being denied access to childcare leave.
• Josephine Teo clarified that while childcare leave is a statutory entitlement, employers must approve requests unless they have valid reasons.
• Over the past five years, MOM has not received any case where an employee reported being unreasonably denied childcare leave.
• If a complaint is filed, MOM will assess each case individually to determine if leave was unreasonably withheld.

• Murali Pillai asked about the number of families with care recipients aged 16 to 64 with cognitive disabilities benefiting from the Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW) levy concession and grant, and steps to reach out to eligible families.
• The government provides two schemes: the FDW Levy Concession, allowing a reduced monthly levy of $60 for families caring for persons with disabilities needing at least one Activity of Daily Living (ADL) assistance, with about 2,300 such families benefiting as of September 2019.
• Previously, the FDW Grant offered an additional $120 monthly cash payment for those needing at least three ADLs, benefiting 996 families; it was replaced in October 2019 by the Home Caregiving Grant, which provides $200 monthly for broader caregiving expenses.
• The Ministry of Social and Family Development has publicized these schemes through Social Service Agencies, media reports, and online platforms to reach families who may benefit.

• Assoc Prof Daniel Goh questioned why the Ministry does not use income per capita for all families to assess preschool subsidies, instead of only for larger families with five or more members.
• Desmond Lee explained that the Early Childhood Development Agency uses household income for most families but allows the per capita approach for larger families with five or more members and three or more dependants, as household income may not reflect their financial means.
• The per capita approach is more involved as it requires assessing the income of all family members in the same residence, and extending it to all families is not necessarily advantageous for smaller households.
• For a 4-member household, the household income and per capita income ceilings are equivalent, so families in this category would fall within the same subsidy tier regardless of the assessment method used.
• The current approach is pragmatic, as it helps larger families without disadvantaging smaller families or imposing a more complex assessment on most households.

• The Minister for Health acknowledged that women in Singapore hold misconceptions about breast cancer screening, such as the belief that it is unnecessary when feeling healthy or that mammograms are painful.
• The Health Promotion Board (HPB) collaborates with various cancer organisations to address these misconceptions through campaigns, forums, and community talks led by breast cancer survivors.
• Despite these efforts, the Minister noted that changing entrenched misconceptions is challenging, and the Ministry welcomes suggestions to improve public education and early detection efforts.

The amendment to the Women's Charter aims to strengthen laws against online vice syndicates by introducing extra-territorial jurisdiction to target overseas operators and increasing penalties for vice-related offences. It also imposes greater responsibilities on property owners and tenants to conduct due diligence, such as identity checks, to prevent their premises from being used as "pop-up brothels." Additionally, the bill broadens the definition of a brothel to include places advertised for prostitution, facilitating more effective enforcement.

• The Ministry of Social and Family Development does not allow Assisted Reproduction Technology centres in Singapore to provide surrogacy treatment and is still reviewing its overall position on surrogacy.
• Singapore’s public policy encourages parenthood within marriage, and while married couples may seek court approval to adopt children born via overseas surrogacy, this is subject to strict conditions.
• The government does not support the use of surrogacy or assisted reproduction by single individuals or for the formation of same-sex families through adoption.
• All adoption applications are assessed case-by-case, ensuring they align with public policy and the child’s well-being, with no automatic approval for overseas or non-marital surrogacy cases.

• Assoc Prof Daniel Goh asked how many caregivers receive Special Approval for higher childcare and infantcare subsidies due to not working or being non-parent caregivers, and the average amount they get.
• Desmond Lee responded that 2,100 applicants currently receive higher subsidies under Special Approval, with average monthly totals of $520 for childcare and $950 for infant care.
• Eligible applicants under Special Approval receive the same Basic Subsidy and means-tested Additional Subsidy as working mothers, with low-income families able to apply for extra financial assistance.

• About 4,100 needy families pay $10 or less per month for full-day childcare, with around 2,900 of them paying $5 or less, with the remaining amount covered by the CDA First Step grant.
• Eligibility for subsidies includes universal basic subsidies for all Singaporean children, higher basic subsidies for working mothers, and means-tested additional subsidies for low- and middle-income families.
• Non-working mothers may qualify for higher subsidies under special approval, subject to case-by-case assessment.
• Low-income families can apply for case-by-case financial assistance to cover fees after subsidies and for one-time grants to cover initial enrolment costs.
• The government supports affordable preschools through fee caps and plans to increase government-supported preschool places to 80% by around 2025.

• Assoc Prof Walter Theseira requested the gender breakdown and the number of workplace harassment cases among the 213 Protection Orders and 193 Expedited Protection Orders granted under the Protection from Harassment Act as of 31 December 2018.
• Minister K Shanmugam stated that there were about equal numbers of male and female applicants who obtained both Protection Orders and Expedited Protection Orders.
• He explained that identifying the types of harassment, such as workplace harassment, would require an intensive process that the Courts currently lack the manpower to perform, though technology is being introduced to help in the future.

• Louis Ng Kok Kwang questioned why childcare leave is not granted on a per child basis, seeking the government's rationale.
• The government explained that childcare leave is provided per parent to balance parental support with employers' manpower needs, citing concerns over increased costs and potential negative effects on parents with more children.
• Alternative support measures include promoting flexible work arrangements, enhancing grants, and launching tripartite standards to aid work-life harmony.