200 childcare centres will be built by 2018

They will offer places for up to 20,000 kids, and help women to return to workforce

By Toh Yong Chuan, The Sunday Times, 11 Mar 2012

Some 200 new childcare centres will be built over the next five years, as part of the Government's drive to coax more women back into the workforce.

To be built mostly in Housing Board estates, they will provide places for some 14,000 to 20,000 children, and add to the 950 or so childcare centres across Singapore.

The plans, which were revealed by Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports Halimah Yacob yesterday, back a larger aim to boost local manpower as outlined in the Budget that Parliament has just passed.

'Childcare is a very important facet of work-life balance, and women cannot go back to work if there are no proper caregiving facilities for their children,' she said at an International Women's Day event held by the labour movement.

Most of the 200 new centres will be located in estates such as Woodlands and Bukit Panjang, where many young families are setting up home. Each will be able to take in from 70 to 100 children.

The exact sites have not been picked, and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) will identify suitable locations and find operators to set up the centres. Childcare centres are now run by cooperatives, voluntary welfare organisations and commercial operators.

Increasing demand has seen childcare centres being built at a faster pace. MCYS said in 2008 that it would add 200 new childcare centres by 2013, but it will hit this target by the end of this year.

Asked whether residents were likely to welcome more childcare centres being set up at void decks, Madam Halimah said feedback has been generally positive so far.

Human resource coordinator Alicia Cher, 30, who was at yesterday's event, said being able to send her two young boys to a childcare centre was one of the main reasons she could continue working.

Location was just one factor, she said, and added: 'Extending the operating hours will be a big help, since parents work long hours. Also, childcare services have to be affordable.'

During the Budget debate, MPs and ministries agreed that Singapore needed to provide more and affordable childcare to get housewives back to work, if it wanted to grow the local manpower pool and reduce its reliance on foreign workers. MCYS said it would loosen the qualifying criteria for childcare subsidies to cover more families.

Yesterday, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) lent its weight to the drive by saying it will work with the Government and employers to spell out clearer guidelines to protect people on flexible work arrangements.

NTUC assistant secretary-general Cham Hui Fong said such workers have complained about being seen as underperforming by their bosses, or found that their part-time arrangements had affected their job prospects.

The labour movement is aiming to get these workers covered by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices, which sets out guidelines against discriminatory practices.

The concerns were reflected in an NTUC online poll of working women released yesterday, which showed that one in five working mothers wanted to have more time with their family.

For the nearly 500 women polled, the biggest sources of unhappiness were pay, the lack of work-life balance and work-related frustrations.

Childcare as an economic imperative
Editorial, The Straits Times, 14 Mar 2012

THERE is no disputing competent childcare services are an integral part of Singapore's manpower equation, not merely a social need. Their provision is logically to be regarded as a component of the economic infrastructure. Plans by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) to accelerate supply, with another 200 daycare centres to be built in the next five years, acknowledge an inherent weak spot of the economy. That is, more career women with young children will be lost to the workforce if care that is reliable and affordable is not readily available.

The simple truth is that Singapore cannot afford to forgo what trained manpower it has built with considerable state investment. The ministry's previous provisioning of 200 additional centres in 2008, also meant to take five years to come through, will be completed a year early. Deficient and inconsistent services may well be one of the reasons young marrieds delay starting a family or are not having children at all.

What does it point to? Simply, that demand will continue to outstrip supply. There are well over a thousand child facilities currently available, including nurseries and kindergartens. But there are never enough of them. Manpower planners need also to account for the probability that the flow of household maids could tail off at some stage. Supplier countries, like Indonesia, are generating more jobs for their people. Maids will likely be drawn to countries which pay better. Creation here of a substitute family support 'ecosystem', a word much in vogue among bureaucrats, then becomes urgent. Not only child daycare centres, but also on-site creches set up by firms, and part-time child-minding and cleaning services provided by local entrepreneurs.

There are ways to give delivery a boost. As the overseer of childcare centres, MCYS could work with the Housing Board to have purpose-built child facilities incorporated in new towns, and put them out to tender to commercial operators and voluntary organisations. This is a faster approach and possibly cheaper than retrofitting void decks for the purpose. Second, reputable international child-service chains could be sounded out to apply for projects or to start their own operations here. Their operational scale and expertise could raise service quality. MCYS has exhaustive operating and staffing conditions spelt out under childcare law. These can help sift out unsuitable operators. Finally, the private sector here should be alive to the potential of this industry. They should research the market, and not wait for ideas and financial incentives from the state.