45 childcare centres to be built this year to meet demand

10 in Punggol and Sengkang - places that tend to draw young families

By Priscilla Goy, The Straits Times, 3 Jan 2014

AT LEAST 45 new childcare centres are expected to be built this year islandwide, with the bulk of them in areas with high demand for pre-school services.

In Punggol and Sengkang alone, 10 new centres will be added to shorten the wait for childcare places in these two housing estates, which tend to attract young families. Seven new centres will be in Punggol, and the remaining three in Sengkang.

The rest will be built in areas like Woodlands - which will get 13 new pre-schools - Tampines, Pasir Ris and Yishun.

The centres coming up this year are part of the 200 new ones the Government has said it will build by 2017.

Giving an update on the plans to ramp up childcare places, Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing said yesterday that the Government is "on track" to meet the target.

The expansion will result in an additional 20,000 places, enough for one in two children, up from one in three currently. Just five years ago, the ratio was one in six.

"For some of the newer towns like Punggol and Sengkang, the demand is a bit higher because the families may not have as much support from the grandparents," Mr Chan said, after a visit to a childcare centre in Punggol.

Punggol now has 30 centres with enough places for about one in three children. Sengkang has 73 centres providing enough places for almost one in two children.

By the end of 2017, there will be 47 centres in Punggol, and 92 in Sengkang, which will provide enough places for more than one in two pre-schoolers.

Mr Chan said the authorities will continue to look at innovative ways to site centres, with some built alongside existing facilities.

Yesterday, he visited a PAP Community Foundation Sparkletots centre on the first floor of a multi-storey carpark in Punggol.

He later officiated at the opening of the NTUC My First Skool centre at Braddell Heights Community Hub in Serangoon, which was formerly a bus interchange.

It is the first childcare centre in Singapore to be built on the same site as an eldercare facility run by NTUC Eldercare. Mrs Adeline Tan, general manager of My First Skool, said: "In future, we plan to have activities where the children from the childcare centre can interact with the elderly from the eldercare centre."

The centre is also one of two "model" centres set up under a collaboration between local philanthropic organisation Lien Foundation and NTUC First Campus.

The centre, which can take in about 230 children for its childcare and infant-care programmes, features rooms designed for specialised play and music lessons, and a courtyard for art and water play. Teachers will explore new ways of teaching pre-schoolers, such as incorporating the use of information technology in class.

The other "model" centre in Jurong is expected to start operations in April.

Said IT director Yan Chin Keong, 39, who has a two-year- old at the Serangoon centre: "It is very spacious, and my daughter warmed up to it instantly."

Post by MSF Singapore.

Anchor operator scheme attracts 16 applications
By Priscilla Goy, The Straits Times, 3 Jan 2014

SIXTEEN applications have been submitted from organisations looking to become "anchor operators" of childcare centres, Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing revealed yesterday.

The outcome of the applications is expected to be made known in the first quarter of this year, he said, without giving details on how many applicants his ministry intends to pick. But some industry players say they expect only a handful to be selected.

The authorities announced last June that the anchor operator scheme would be widened to include commercial operators and voluntary welfare organisations.

Anchor operators get government help - such as rental subsidies and priority in securing Housing Board premises for new centres - in exchange for keeping fees low.

There are now only two anchor operators - NTUC's My First Skool and the PAP Community Foundation, which together run about a fifth of more than 1,000 childcare centres in Singapore.

Expanding the scheme could lead to cheaper and better pre-school programmes for the average Singaporean family.

Some of Singapore's biggest private pre-school operators have applied for the scheme, including EtonHouse. A joint proposal has also been submitted by Modern Montessori International (MMI) and Carpe Diem.

MMI's chairman T. Chandroo said the number of applications is "encouraging". This is despite the strict qualifying criteria, which require operators to provide a financial guarantee of six months of operating costs or $10 million, whichever is lower, among others.

"It shows people are interested in the scheme," Dr Chandroo said, but added that he thinks only two or three will be selected, as it is the first time the scheme has been expanded.

Taking care where to site childcare centres

Finding the right space to build 200 new childcare centres is no child's play. Priscilla Goy finds out how officers from the Early Childhood Development Agency tackle the challenge, as the Government ramps up efforts to ease the childcare crunch.
By Priscilla Goy, The Straits Times, 13 Jan 2014

WITH a map of Sengkang estate, Ms Chua Sin Oon walks around the void deck of a new block of flats in Fernvale Ridge, taking notes on her clipboard as she scans the surroundings.

Convenient drop-off points. Check.

Playground within walking distance. Check.

Ms Chua, 35, scrutinises each site she visits like a seasoned property agent. However, she is not shopping for flats, but suitable locations to site new childcare centres.

She is a sector planning officer from the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), which is spearheading the Government's efforts to meet the growing demand for childcare services.

The aim is to build 200 new centres by 2017 which will provide 20,000 childcare places - enough for one in two children, up from one in three currently.

This year alone, at least 45 centres are expected to be built islandwide - the bulk of them in areas with high demand like Sengkang and Woodlands.

The task of finding suitable locations to house these centres falls on Ms Chua and six other officers in the infrastructure and productivity team - one of four departments in ECDA's sector planning division.

The Straits Times followed Ms Chua last week when she conducted a "walk-the-ground assessment" of the void deck at Fernvale Ridge, where residents had moved in about half a year ago.

She had a long checklist of what to look out for when evaluating the site.

For example, it must be near a playground where children can safely take part in outdoor activities. Ms Chua said: "Children should not need to cross any roads or carparks to get to the playground."

She also noted that the void deck does not have stone tables, bicycle racks, or too many pipes and cables - which is good because it offers sufficient space for pre-school activities.

The process of setting up a new centre - from planning to the opening of a centre - takes about a year. It starts with identifying the areas within an estate which need more childcare centres.

To do this, officers make use of software which shows the locations of existing centres, and demographic data such as the number of children of pre-school age.

In Fernvale Ridge and the adjacent Fernvale Palms, for instance, there are about 50 children of pre-school age. But the nearest centre - a few blocks away at Fernvale Court - is privately-run and has limited vacancies.

In newer estates like Sengkang, gauging demand for childcare places is easier because of the higher proportion of younger families living there. But this proves more challenging in mature estates.

Mr Alex Ong, ECDA assistant director for infrastructure and productivity, said: "For older estates, there may be fewer children below the age of seven. But there could still be high demand for childcare services."

This could be due to working couples preferring to send their children to centres near their parents' homes, which may be located in mature estates.

Once officers like Ms Chua have identified a suitable location, they will work with the Housing Board to evaluate if it is feasible to set up a childcare centre there.

This process also involves other stakeholders, such as grassroots advisers and town councils.

At times, different agencies may vie for the same site and competing needs have to be worked out.

"We'll discuss - do the other agencies have alternatives, or do we have alternatives? We'll try to come to an agreement," said Mr Ong. "It also depends on which is the greater need in that area."

The problem of finding sites is worsened by the lack of large void decks, many of which are already housing childcare centres.

"In the previous five-year masterplan (in 2008), we already built about 200 centres, so quite a number of void decks have been taken up," said Mr Ong.

To get around the problem, more centres have been sited in "innovative" places in recent years, such as in multi-storey carparks.

Increasingly, the high demand for childcare facilities is factored in by the HDB when it plans new Build-to-Order projects.

But beyond the "hardware" of assessing sites and finding locations, Ms Chua said one of the greatest challenges in her job is getting the support of residents.

"There were some cases where we had strong objections from residents," she said, adding that some residents were concerned about noise or traffic congestion caused by parents picking up their children from the childcare centres.

But Ms Chua is undaunted by these challenges.

"As a parent myself, there is a sense of achievement and satisfaction when I see centres being developed to provide childcare services to other parents."

For a list of upcoming centres, parents may go to www.childcarelink.gov.sg/ccls/home/CCLS_HomeUpcomingCentreDetail.jsp

Licensing officers make spot checks
By Priscilla Goy, The Straits Times, 13 Jan 2014

FROM identifying sites for pre- schools, training of teachers, to regulating the sector - the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) takes care of it all.

The government agency was set up last April, under a national effort to raise the quality of childcare and kindergarten programmes for children below the age of six. It has about 150 staff in four divisions, including the regulation and standards division, which has a team of childcare licensing officers.

They look into parents' feedback about alleged cases of child abuse, childcare centre fee increases, or even the availability of newsletters to ensure the quality of the 1,000-plus childcare centres here.

Last year, each of the 22 licensing officers received about 420 feedback reports and conducted five centre visits on average every month.

A spokesman for ECDA said: "Our officers investigate every case, including assessing the centre's environment, conducting interviews, and verifying documents and records."

On top of following up on parental feedback, the officers also ensure that childcare centres meet licensing criteria before ECDA issues or renews the licences of operators. Often, they turn up at the centres unannounced for surprise checks.

Earlier this month, The Straits Times accompanied senior licensing officer Yvonne Kong, 29, on a visit to The Little Skool-House International in Sembawang.

Over more than two hours, she examined how outdoor play was conducted, whether water within the reach of children was at room temperature and how their work was displayed.

Even the first aid kit was not left out. Ms Kong noticed a few bottles of saline solution that had expired and informed the pre-school's principal about it.

She spent the last half hour or so looking through files of administrative records, including whether the centre's incident log book was updated.

Said Ms Kong: "We check to see that the records are comprehensive, and that centres call the parents to inform them of any incidents." Ms Kong admitted that during such visits, some centre supervisors tend to "get defensive".

"But they need to know that these visits are to safeguard the centres - to ensure accountability, and safety of the kids."

Ms Jamie Tan, principal of The Little Skool-House International in Sembawang, said: "Getting all the documents ready (for the ECDA officers) can be a bit stressful.

"But the officers give very good feedback about blind spots which we may have overlooked. It helps us to ensure we are still meeting standards."