The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports will provide more help to high-risk families, the elderly and disabled, and is prepared to exercise greater flexibility at the margins and extend more support where needed, to ensure that those who genuinely need help do not fall between the cracks. This was announced by Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing in Parliament on 18 Oct.
Ag Minister Chan outlined three approaches to enhance the social safety net:
(i) helping “in-risk” groups, and preventing “at-risk” groups from falling into the former category;
(ii) improving social support and services in a more holistic and client-centric manner, focusing on the individual instead of the scheme; and
(iii) working towards better integration across different help agencies within the public-private-people sectors.
Even as the social safety net is reviewed in the longer term, MCYS will also gear up for short-term challenges that may arise as a result of the deteriorating global economy. As shared by Mdm Halimah, “We will refine our ComCare schemes to help those affected by the downturn. For example, for families that need more time to get back on their feet, we can be flexible in providing a longer period of assistance.” More resources will also be allocated to social service agencies to help them cope with increased workloads and potential drop in charity dollars during the downturn, and to CDCs which deal directly with residents and provide targeted help like job training and financial aid.
On the issue of social cohesion, Mr Chan said that society must work together to prevent a permanent underclass from emerging in Singapore. “Even if the current generation cannot do as well, we must endeavour to help their next generation do better. Social mobility provides hope. Hope and shared vision underpin social cohesion. A country divided will collapse, even without external challenges.”
Speech by Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing Sing
Speech by Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing Sing
Mr Speaker Sir, I would like to join fellow MPs in thanking the President for setting out the directions of this Government in the coming years.
Fundamentals Underpinning our Future
Since independence, three fundamentals have underpinned our survival and success: – a disciplined and cohesive society that is able to move ahead together; pragmatic policies to grow our economy for us to be able to share the fruits of our labour with all sectors of society; and steady investments in ensuring a safe and secure environment. These same fundamentals will continue to underpin our future. However, new forces have emerged or evolved to impact our social cohesion. We must take pro-active steps to address these challenges.
Challenges to social cohesion
I will touch on three challenges to our social cohesion - possible socio-economic divide; social stratification or immobility; and greater diversity, including differences in aspirations and expectations.
Every rapidly developing society has to deal with widening social inequity. Every society over time may stratify and risk losing its social mobility.
In each society, some will make it through their own efforts and some will not no matter how hard they try. The majority will benefit from a system that allows them to maximise their potential for success.
By and large, we have done well. Our system enables the majority of our people to succeed through their own efforts. For those who are unable to keep up despite their best efforts, our society must find a way to bring them along. These include those with disabilities, the chronically ill, vulnerable seniors with no family support, families who need guiding hands beyond financial help, children without positive home environments and other examples.
Our society must work together to prevent a permanent underclass from emerging, be it social or economic. Even if the current generation cannot do as well, we must endeavour to help their next generation do better. Social mobility provides hope. Hope and shared vision underpin social cohesion. A country divided will collapse, even without external challenges.
Evolving our Social Safety Net
To better manage social inequities and improve social mobility, MCYS is committed to doing more and doing better in the following areas.
First, to not only help the “in-risk” groups, but also to carefully watch the “at-risk” groups to prevent them from joining the in-risk groups. Prevention is better than cure. This is also the reason why we enhance accessibility to pre-school among low income families, fund programmes for at-risk youth and promote active ageing among seniors.
Second, to continue improving our social support and service delivery model in a more holistic and client-centric manner. We will always put the person needing help, rather than our schemes, at the centre of our focus. We are also prepared to exercise greater flexibility at the margins and at the local levels, and extend more support where needed. This is so that those who genuinely need help do not fall through the cracks.
Members of Parliament, the media and members of public have at times highlighted to us individuals who may have fallen through the cracks. We welcome the partnership to work with like-minded people and organisations to reach out to them.
Every case highlighted can point us in the direction where we can possibly do more or better. Every individual or family whose life we can touch, is one small step towards a more inclusive and cohesive society. Yet in every effort to help, there is also a delicate balance between preserving individual motivation and extending assistance, and between family responsibility, community outreach and government support to ensure the best outcome possible. In my encounters with them, I am proud that many of them have told me that they are not asking for handouts, but that they would like us to help them stand tall and proud on their own two feet again.
Third, we will work towards better integration. Integration across different help agencies within the public-private-people sectors. Integration of our efforts to reach out to at-risk groups across the time dimension, with greater emphasis on upstream measures.
Let me elaborate on what I mean, by the above. An example of integration across agencies includes working closely with MOH, as well as VWOs and private sector providers, to provide a better continuum of care options for the elderly – from home care, to community care and institutional care.
Examples of integration across time dimension include working closely with MOF and MOE to invest more in preventive measures. These include helping children from at-risk families to stay the course in schools, enhancing intervention programmes for children with special needs and ensuring that low-income families have access to affordable and quality preschool education.
In response to Mr Ang Wei Neng, we don’t have to worry about the gap between the MOE and MCYS. And this is because the MOE and MCYS have chosen a right path to ensure that everybody will be taken care of.
Examples of integration of the public-private-people sector efforts include encouraging individuals and corporations who have done well to play a part to help those who have not done as well. Each of us is able to be where we are, not entirely through our own efforts. We are able to come this far because of the opportunities afforded to us by society. It is thus incumbent upon the more successful to help the less successful. To paraphrase Spiderman, "to those with great accomplishments come great responsibilities". Our forefathers understood this well. We must bring forth the next generation of Tan Kah Kee, Alsagoff, and Govindasamy Pillai.
To cite a personal example. I have benefitted from various government scholarships and bursaries. But I have also benefitted from the help of the community and individuals, like Tung On Wui Kun, Kwong Wai Shiu Peck San Teng, and the Old Rafflesian Association. As you can see, I was someone from the at-risk group; but was supported by helping hands from the public, private and people sectors which I am eternally grateful for. We must grow this partnership for the benefit of many more who may need help. We must continue to pay it forward.
Giving need not only be in financial means. Giving can also be extending a hand to those who need help. Through volunteering and community participation, we also strengthen our community safety net, and extend care and compassion to our fellow Singaporeans.
Not Just Doing More But Doing Better
Our effort to care for the less fortunate is not just about doing more. Of course, we appreciate any additional resources from government, charitable private organisations and philanthropic individuals. But it is also about doing better with the resources that we have. To this end, my Ministry will strengthen the social service sector to bring out its potential and to build the caring community.
At the individual level, we want to help each player in the sector to be stronger. Some may grow in size. Others may remain small but have the ability to fill a niche or specialisation. Collectively as a sector, we hope to develop enough capacity to meet increased demand; capability to meet complex needs, and dynamism to innovate in response to changing needs.
There is no magic formula to this. Different things have to be done in concert.
First, we must invest more in the care and professional development of our social service professionals. I am particularly touched by their passion. As they play the critical front-line role in our social service delivery system, the least that we can do is to provide a better route of advancement for them. Indeed, my colleague Dr Maliki had alluded to this yesterday when he highlighted the importance of providing support to help social workers to do their part well. This is also a means for us to attract more much-needed talent. We will also nurture stronger administrative and professional leadership, in the sector to drive change and innovation. We should also promote good HR practices – so crucial to attracting and retaining talent, and getting the best out of them.
Second, we will work with VWOs to improve their management capability and to facilitate social innovation. We want to see more experimentation in this sector. It is only with constant experimentation that we can achieve more service innovation and productivity enhancements in the sector. There is scope to learn from other societies, such as Japan’s technology applications in eldercare, as mentioned by Mr Sitoh Yih Pin yesterday. We will also work with those who have the capacity to scale up their operations, and others to specialise in niche areas of needs.
Third, we will examine new models of service delivery, encouraging pooling of resources for higher efficiency and impact, and help redesign jobs to improve productivity. I have asked my MCYS colleagues to examine how we can widen the coverage of the VWO Capability Development Fund to also encourage and support this.
Enhancing the social service sector will require resources. We will systematically review where else we need to provide more resources and better support essential social services. Over the last month, I had announced increased funding for community-based eldercare services as well as new initiatives for childcare professionals working with younger children.
We have started reviewing the funding norms for social services as well as our investment in the VWO Capability Development Fund. We hope to complete these by early next year. Not only do we aim to improve social services, we also aim to provide better care for the family and informal caregivers. When caregivers are well cared for and supported, our people who need help will also be well cared for. The converse is equally true.
Mr Speaker Sir, the choices we make as a society will affect future generations of Singaporeans. As a rapidly aging society, we bear responsibility to plan for our old age and care for our parents and grandparents. To take the easy way out is to transfer the burden to future generations. This will jeopardise the future of Singapore.
The Challenge of Increasing Diversity
Let me now touch on the third challenge to our social cohesion –greater diversity. We are familiar with the traditional forms of diversity – in race, language and religion. In recent years, as we welcome more foreigners and immigrants, we will have to manage the associated opportunities and challenges. When well integrated, “new immigrants and their children” will join “old immigrants and our children” to play a constructive partnership for our country.
We cannot take for granted that integration will happen naturally. We have to work at it. All of us. There are, however, also other emerging forms of diversity. As technology opens up more opportunities for people to access information and entertainment, we will have greater diversity in our perspectives, values system and aspirations.
The ease of access and connection means that people can form new groupings and find alternative identities.
These new groupings and identities may no longer be geographically bounded. This is both a challenge and opportunity - opportunity to grow our network and be a node in the global network; challenge to maintain our identity as a people and as a nation. Turning Diversity Into Strength Taking a leaf from nature, we know that diversity can strengthen our resilience as a nation. Diversity need not mean wider division within our society.
We should strive for, and we can achieve “unity in diversity”. To this end, how we engage our people, young and old; how we share the challenges of governance; how we imbue ourselves with our shared values, will determine if diversity in perspectives will lead to a stronger or weaker society.
MCYS will work closely with all stakeholders in our society to ensure that as we become more diverse in the sea of change, we do not lose our shared and common values that serve as our anchor.
Beyond academic pursuits, it is equally important for us to share with and imbue in the next generation the very fundamentals that make Singapore possible and survive the odds of history against small states without much natural resources. Sports has an important role in this. We will also use sports as a strategy to develop our people to be future-ready for tomorrow’s challenges; to bond our increasingly diverse communities; and to ignite our passion and pride for our nation.
A few months back, I convened a committee from different walks of life – called Vision2030 – and together with all our sporting partners, to chart the future of sports as a strategy for our nation. They will present their recommendations in due course. Our youth also play a critical role. They will shape and steer this country.
We will support and empower our youth to define and take charge of their ideas and aspirations, for themselves, for our community and for our nation. Shared Responsibility & Engaged Citizenry Mr Speaker
Sir, I started off highlighting how our disciplined and cohesive society has helped secure our survival and success thus far. I have also shared the challenges ahead, our thinking and actions to address these. Just as we have invested much resources and talent in our security, defence and economic development, we will similarly need to invest in our social cohesion.
Social cohesion comes from shared responsibility and shared vision. The mark of a great society is not just how well we do economically, but also how well we care for our weak and less fortunate. Shared vision requires engaged citizenry. Engaged citizenry requires shared understanding of our fundamentals, constraints and options. But most of all, we require passion. Passion to build a better future for our families and children.
We may never be perfect, but we must all endeavour to leave behind something less imperfect for our future generations to have the option and desire to want to be called Singaporeans. While we face tough choices and difficult tradeoffs ahead, I am confident that as long as we stay cohesive, we will remain resilient and we will continue to be exceptional. We will overcome the challenges, and share a common destiny and continue to beat the odds of history.
Mr Speaker Sir, my colleague Halimah has shared on our plans to help the needy. Sam will share more about our plans to help the elderly and disabled. With that, Sir, I support the motion.
Challenges to social cohesion
I will touch on three challenges to our social cohesion - possible socio-economic divide; social stratification or immobility; and greater diversity, including differences in aspirations and expectations.
Every rapidly developing society has to deal with widening social inequity. Every society over time may stratify and risk losing its social mobility.
In each society, some will make it through their own efforts and some will not no matter how hard they try. The majority will benefit from a system that allows them to maximise their potential for success.
By and large, we have done well. Our system enables the majority of our people to succeed through their own efforts. For those who are unable to keep up despite their best efforts, our society must find a way to bring them along. These include those with disabilities, the chronically ill, vulnerable seniors with no family support, families who need guiding hands beyond financial help, children without positive home environments and other examples.
Our society must work together to prevent a permanent underclass from emerging, be it social or economic. Even if the current generation cannot do as well, we must endeavour to help their next generation do better. Social mobility provides hope. Hope and shared vision underpin social cohesion. A country divided will collapse, even without external challenges.
Evolving our Social Safety Net
To better manage social inequities and improve social mobility, MCYS is committed to doing more and doing better in the following areas.
First, to not only help the “in-risk” groups, but also to carefully watch the “at-risk” groups to prevent them from joining the in-risk groups. Prevention is better than cure. This is also the reason why we enhance accessibility to pre-school among low income families, fund programmes for at-risk youth and promote active ageing among seniors.
Second, to continue improving our social support and service delivery model in a more holistic and client-centric manner. We will always put the person needing help, rather than our schemes, at the centre of our focus. We are also prepared to exercise greater flexibility at the margins and at the local levels, and extend more support where needed. This is so that those who genuinely need help do not fall through the cracks.
Members of Parliament, the media and members of public have at times highlighted to us individuals who may have fallen through the cracks. We welcome the partnership to work with like-minded people and organisations to reach out to them.
Every case highlighted can point us in the direction where we can possibly do more or better. Every individual or family whose life we can touch, is one small step towards a more inclusive and cohesive society. Yet in every effort to help, there is also a delicate balance between preserving individual motivation and extending assistance, and between family responsibility, community outreach and government support to ensure the best outcome possible. In my encounters with them, I am proud that many of them have told me that they are not asking for handouts, but that they would like us to help them stand tall and proud on their own two feet again.
Third, we will work towards better integration. Integration across different help agencies within the public-private-people sectors. Integration of our efforts to reach out to at-risk groups across the time dimension, with greater emphasis on upstream measures.
Let me elaborate on what I mean, by the above. An example of integration across agencies includes working closely with MOH, as well as VWOs and private sector providers, to provide a better continuum of care options for the elderly – from home care, to community care and institutional care.
Examples of integration across time dimension include working closely with MOF and MOE to invest more in preventive measures. These include helping children from at-risk families to stay the course in schools, enhancing intervention programmes for children with special needs and ensuring that low-income families have access to affordable and quality preschool education.
In response to Mr Ang Wei Neng, we don’t have to worry about the gap between the MOE and MCYS. And this is because the MOE and MCYS have chosen a right path to ensure that everybody will be taken care of.
Examples of integration of the public-private-people sector efforts include encouraging individuals and corporations who have done well to play a part to help those who have not done as well. Each of us is able to be where we are, not entirely through our own efforts. We are able to come this far because of the opportunities afforded to us by society. It is thus incumbent upon the more successful to help the less successful. To paraphrase Spiderman, "to those with great accomplishments come great responsibilities". Our forefathers understood this well. We must bring forth the next generation of Tan Kah Kee, Alsagoff, and Govindasamy Pillai.
To cite a personal example. I have benefitted from various government scholarships and bursaries. But I have also benefitted from the help of the community and individuals, like Tung On Wui Kun, Kwong Wai Shiu Peck San Teng, and the Old Rafflesian Association. As you can see, I was someone from the at-risk group; but was supported by helping hands from the public, private and people sectors which I am eternally grateful for. We must grow this partnership for the benefit of many more who may need help. We must continue to pay it forward.
Giving need not only be in financial means. Giving can also be extending a hand to those who need help. Through volunteering and community participation, we also strengthen our community safety net, and extend care and compassion to our fellow Singaporeans.
Not Just Doing More But Doing Better
Our effort to care for the less fortunate is not just about doing more. Of course, we appreciate any additional resources from government, charitable private organisations and philanthropic individuals. But it is also about doing better with the resources that we have. To this end, my Ministry will strengthen the social service sector to bring out its potential and to build the caring community.
At the individual level, we want to help each player in the sector to be stronger. Some may grow in size. Others may remain small but have the ability to fill a niche or specialisation. Collectively as a sector, we hope to develop enough capacity to meet increased demand; capability to meet complex needs, and dynamism to innovate in response to changing needs.
There is no magic formula to this. Different things have to be done in concert.
First, we must invest more in the care and professional development of our social service professionals. I am particularly touched by their passion. As they play the critical front-line role in our social service delivery system, the least that we can do is to provide a better route of advancement for them. Indeed, my colleague Dr Maliki had alluded to this yesterday when he highlighted the importance of providing support to help social workers to do their part well. This is also a means for us to attract more much-needed talent. We will also nurture stronger administrative and professional leadership, in the sector to drive change and innovation. We should also promote good HR practices – so crucial to attracting and retaining talent, and getting the best out of them.
Second, we will work with VWOs to improve their management capability and to facilitate social innovation. We want to see more experimentation in this sector. It is only with constant experimentation that we can achieve more service innovation and productivity enhancements in the sector. There is scope to learn from other societies, such as Japan’s technology applications in eldercare, as mentioned by Mr Sitoh Yih Pin yesterday. We will also work with those who have the capacity to scale up their operations, and others to specialise in niche areas of needs.
Third, we will examine new models of service delivery, encouraging pooling of resources for higher efficiency and impact, and help redesign jobs to improve productivity. I have asked my MCYS colleagues to examine how we can widen the coverage of the VWO Capability Development Fund to also encourage and support this.
Enhancing the social service sector will require resources. We will systematically review where else we need to provide more resources and better support essential social services. Over the last month, I had announced increased funding for community-based eldercare services as well as new initiatives for childcare professionals working with younger children.
We have started reviewing the funding norms for social services as well as our investment in the VWO Capability Development Fund. We hope to complete these by early next year. Not only do we aim to improve social services, we also aim to provide better care for the family and informal caregivers. When caregivers are well cared for and supported, our people who need help will also be well cared for. The converse is equally true.
Mr Speaker Sir, the choices we make as a society will affect future generations of Singaporeans. As a rapidly aging society, we bear responsibility to plan for our old age and care for our parents and grandparents. To take the easy way out is to transfer the burden to future generations. This will jeopardise the future of Singapore.
The Challenge of Increasing Diversity
Let me now touch on the third challenge to our social cohesion –greater diversity. We are familiar with the traditional forms of diversity – in race, language and religion. In recent years, as we welcome more foreigners and immigrants, we will have to manage the associated opportunities and challenges. When well integrated, “new immigrants and their children” will join “old immigrants and our children” to play a constructive partnership for our country.
We cannot take for granted that integration will happen naturally. We have to work at it. All of us. There are, however, also other emerging forms of diversity. As technology opens up more opportunities for people to access information and entertainment, we will have greater diversity in our perspectives, values system and aspirations.
The ease of access and connection means that people can form new groupings and find alternative identities.
These new groupings and identities may no longer be geographically bounded. This is both a challenge and opportunity - opportunity to grow our network and be a node in the global network; challenge to maintain our identity as a people and as a nation. Turning Diversity Into Strength Taking a leaf from nature, we know that diversity can strengthen our resilience as a nation. Diversity need not mean wider division within our society.
We should strive for, and we can achieve “unity in diversity”. To this end, how we engage our people, young and old; how we share the challenges of governance; how we imbue ourselves with our shared values, will determine if diversity in perspectives will lead to a stronger or weaker society.
MCYS will work closely with all stakeholders in our society to ensure that as we become more diverse in the sea of change, we do not lose our shared and common values that serve as our anchor.
Beyond academic pursuits, it is equally important for us to share with and imbue in the next generation the very fundamentals that make Singapore possible and survive the odds of history against small states without much natural resources. Sports has an important role in this. We will also use sports as a strategy to develop our people to be future-ready for tomorrow’s challenges; to bond our increasingly diverse communities; and to ignite our passion and pride for our nation.
A few months back, I convened a committee from different walks of life – called Vision2030 – and together with all our sporting partners, to chart the future of sports as a strategy for our nation. They will present their recommendations in due course. Our youth also play a critical role. They will shape and steer this country.
We will support and empower our youth to define and take charge of their ideas and aspirations, for themselves, for our community and for our nation. Shared Responsibility & Engaged Citizenry Mr Speaker
Sir, I started off highlighting how our disciplined and cohesive society has helped secure our survival and success thus far. I have also shared the challenges ahead, our thinking and actions to address these. Just as we have invested much resources and talent in our security, defence and economic development, we will similarly need to invest in our social cohesion.
Social cohesion comes from shared responsibility and shared vision. The mark of a great society is not just how well we do economically, but also how well we care for our weak and less fortunate. Shared vision requires engaged citizenry. Engaged citizenry requires shared understanding of our fundamentals, constraints and options. But most of all, we require passion. Passion to build a better future for our families and children.
We may never be perfect, but we must all endeavour to leave behind something less imperfect for our future generations to have the option and desire to want to be called Singaporeans. While we face tough choices and difficult tradeoffs ahead, I am confident that as long as we stay cohesive, we will remain resilient and we will continue to be exceptional. We will overcome the challenges, and share a common destiny and continue to beat the odds of history.
Mr Speaker Sir, my colleague Halimah has shared on our plans to help the needy. Sam will share more about our plans to help the elderly and disabled. With that, Sir, I support the motion.
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