Louis asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) how many children below the age of 7 years with speech delay, autism and at risk of moderate to severe disabilities are currently receiving and awaiting early intervention services at Government-funded voluntary welfare organisations; and (b) what is the current waiting time for these early intervention programmes.

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin (MSF): The Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children (EIPIC) serves children with moderate to severe disabilities with speech delay, Autism and other developmental needs. Subsidised by the Government, EIPIC services are available at 17 Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWO) located across Singapore. About 2,600 children benefited from EIPIC in 2015. Of these, 6% were diagnosed with speech and language delays, and 47% were diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

Children currently have to wait an average of five to six months to enrol in an EIPIC centre. Some centres have a longer wait time due to parents' preferences. MSF will continue to work with VWOs expand capacity to meet the demand. There will be 28% more EIPIC places, or a total of 3,200 places, by 2018.

As children are best served in their natural settings, children with milder needs are served in mainstream preschools that offer the Development Support Programme (DSP). In 2015, about 1,200 children benefited from the DSP. The capacity and capability of these preschools will be further developed to meet demand.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

(Supplementary Question) Louis: Thank you, Madam. I just want to ask the Minister, he mentioned that they are going to include other vulnerable victims in the review as well. Could I check whether they will be including the mentally disabled as well?

Mr K Shanmugam: I think I have before that we are undertaking a review of the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC). We would be looking at many of these issues. I am not going to comment as to whether we will specifically be looking at the mentally disabled but I think you can assume that we are doing quite a comprehensive review.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether the Ministry will consider extending the Development Support and Learning Support Programme to children who are differently abled at the nursery levels.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M (MSF): The Development Support (DS) and Learning Support (LS) Programme is one of a suite of programmes which provides additional developmental support for preschool children. The DS-LS Progamme is currently designed to support preschool children aged 5 and 6 identified with mild developmental delays or learning needs. The DS-LS programme is currently offered at about 550 preschools. Children on the DS-LS programme are given the necessary support such as pull-out sessions with Learning Support Educators or therapists to address their developmental and learning needs.

For the younger nursery children, there are issues of whether identifying children with mild developmental delays or learning needs at these earlier ages is appropriate and if intervention via the existing DS-LS programme is suitable. ECDA is studying these issues with agencies.

For nursery children with clearer moderate to severe developmental delays, preschools can already identify and refer these children to KKH and National University Hospital as well as the Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children (EIPIC) where more intensive support can be provided.

At the same time, ECDA is scaling up KidSTART to support more low-income families with the development of their children from birth. This will support the development of these children from these families, regardless of whether there are development delays.

Taking ECDA’s KidSTART programme, DS-LS programme and the EIPIC programme together, these form the range of assistance available to provide additional developmental support for preschool-age children and their families. 

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis asked the Prime Minister whether the Government will consider providing extra childcare leave for parents of differently abled children to attend developmental assessments, medical and therapy appointments.

Ms Indranee Rajah (for the Prime Minister): We recognise that caregiving can be challenging, especially for those who have to juggle between work and caregiving roles, some of whom may be parents of children with special needs. We have enhanced child care leave provisions progressively over the years – we increased child care leave provisions for parents with children aged below seven years old from two to six days per year, and extended two days of child care leave per year to parents with children aged seven to 12.

We have taken a practical approach to calibrating child care leave provisions. Any enhancements will need to balance the caregiving needs of parents with the manpower and operational needs of employers, to avoid inadvertently affecting parents’ employability. 

Beyond legislated leave provisions, it is important for employers to provide a family-friendly work environment, to help parents manage their work and caregiving responsibilities. For example, employers could implement flexible work arrangements (FWAs), and allow parents of children with special needs to take a few hours off from work to bring their child for medical appointments or developmental assessments. The Tripartite Standards on FWAs and on Unpaid Leave for Unexpected Care Needs, introduced in 2017 and 2018 respectively, also encourage companies to provide additional support for employees’ personal or caregiving responsibilities.

The Government has steadily improved support for the child care needs of parents of children with special needs. Earlier this year, we enhanced subsidies for the Special Student Care Centre (SSCC) programme, which provides before-and-after school care service and supervision for Special Education (SPED) students. We also removed the age limit for children with special needs under the Grandparent Caregiver Relief scheme, from the Year of Assessment 2020. Working mothers who seek grandparents’ help to care for their children with special needs can now get the $3,000 tax relief, regardless of the child’s age. 

Other support is available for caregivers of children with special needs. One example is the caregiver engagement and training provided by Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children (EIPIC) centres, to equip caregivers with skills and knowledge to continue the support at home. SG Enable maintains The Enabling Guide and Carelender App to provide caregivers better access to information on resources available to support them, and provides the Caregivers Pod at the Enabling Village as a space for caregivers to find peer support, attend training sessions and organise sharing sessions among themselves.

We will continue to study how to better support working parents, including those with children with special needs.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether the Ministry has plans to introduce the Development Support and Learning Support programmes to non-Anchor Operator pre-schools.

Ms Sun Xueling (for the Minister for Social and Family Development): The number of pre-schools offering the Development Support or DS, and Learning Support or LS programme has increased by 60% from 350 pre-schools in 2017 to about 550 pre-schools today. Of these pre-schools offering the DS-LS programme, about 150 are non-Anchor Operator pre-schools.

Pre-school operators with a critical mass of centres, such as the Anchor Operators or AOPs, are DS-LS providers in their centres with their own in-house Learning Support Educators. Other pre-schools generally tap on regional DS-LS providers to deliver the DS-LS programme in their centres. There are currently three regional DS-LS providers namely, Asian Women's Welfare Association or AWWA, SPD and Thye Hua Kwan, providing the DS-LS programme at about 150 non-AOP pre-schools.

The Early Childhood Development Agency or ECDA is working closely with the regional DS-LS providers and pre-schools to expand outreach to more non-AOP pre-schools. Pre-schools that are interested to offer the DS-LS programme can contact the regional DS-LS providers to learn more about the DS-LS programme and for assistance to screen children with suspected developmental delays for early intervention support.

Louis: Sir, I thank the Minister of State for the reply. Could I just ask whether we are aware of what is the number and the percentage of children who are differently-abled or who are in pre-schools that do not offer this DS-LS programme.

The second point, I think that there are some that are out there, who are in these schools that do not offer the DS-LS programme. I am wondering whether ECDA is watching this space and seeing how we can support these children. Because I am worried that without the DS-LS programme, it really will be detrimental to their development.

Ms Sun Xueling: I thank the Member for his question. The 550 pre-schools I had mentioned earlier form about 30% of pre-schools. I do not have the number or the exact breakdown of the number of children who do not have access to the DS-LS programme but I can come back at a later stage and provide those numbers to the Member.

I understand where the Member is coming from, and indeed, the early intervention teams at MSF are looking to work closely with the AOP and Partner Operator Scheme or POP providers to expand the LS-DS provision and also working with the regional therapy teams at the three regional DS-LS providers that I mentioned earlier, to expand their outreach and the provision of these services to the non-Anchor Operator pre-schools as well.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis asked the Minister for Social and Family Development in each of the last five years, how many and what percentage of children who are differently abled have not had access to the Development Support and Learning Support programmes.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M (MSF): The Development Support (DS) and Learning Support (LS) programme provides support to children with mild development needs within the preschools. The DS-LS programme is currently offered in 550 preschools which enrol about 40% of preschoolers aged five to six, up from about 300 preschools in 2015. About 60% of preschoolers are enrolled in preschools which currently do not offer the DS-LS programme.

The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) is working closely with preschool operators to make the DS-LS programme available at more preschools. ECDA is working closely with the regional DS-LS providers and preschools to expand provision of DS-LS to more preschools. ECDA also provides funding to preschools which are prepared to be DS-LS providers themselves, to train their Learning Support Educators and procure therapy services. These preschools are also supported with a Place-and-Train programme to facilitate the training of more in-house Learning Support Educators.

For children enrolled in preschools that do not provide the DS-LS programme today, there are channels for parents, healthcare professionals or preschools to flag out children with developmental needs for support. If a preschool identifies an enrolled child who may have developmental needs, they can contact the regional DS-LS providers for assistance to screen the child for early intervention support. During regular medical screenings and check-ups, healthcare professionals in the polyclinics, paediatricians and General Practitioners (GP) may also detect delays in the child's development. In such cases, they will refer the child to the Child Development Programme in KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) or National University Hospital (NUH) for diagnosis of developmental needs. Depending on the severity of their development needs, children may be referred to the Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children (EIPIC) or to KKH's Department of Child Development or NUH's Child Development Unit for therapy services.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) what is the current average waiting time for children who are differently abled to be enrolled in the Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children (EIPIC) upon application; and (b) what are the recommended teacher to child ratios for (i) EIPIC and (ii) preschools who are managing these children.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M (MSF): The current average waiting time for enrolment in an early intervention (EI) centre for the Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children (EIPIC) is approximately six months. The waiting time in part depends on parents' preferences for specific providers or locations. We are working on expanding the number of EIPIC places over the next few years, which will help bring down the waiting time. We are also rolling out the Development Support Plus programme so that children who have made sufficient progress in EIPIC can transit to receiving EI services in their pre-schools. This will enable more children requiring EIPIC to be served.

Under EIPIC, the teacher to child ratios can vary based on the needs of each child. For children with higher needs, support can be delivered in a one-to-one setting while children with higher functioning could be placed in groups averaging six to eight children. Typically, each group is led by an EI teacher, with at least another EI professional (such as a therapist, psychologist or assistant EI teacher) assisting him/her.

Under the Early Childhood Development Agency's (ECDA) regulations, pre-schools, including those that enrol children with developmental needs, are required to adhere to minimum staff-child ratios for the different age groups. These ratios range from one infant educarer to five infants for infant care, to one early childhood teacher to 25 children for a kindergarten 2 class. Pre-schools may choose to deploy more staff to support classes with children with developmental needs if preferred.

Pre-schools also receive support from EI professionals. For children under specific programmes like the Learning Support, Development Support or Development Support Plus programmes, EI professionals visit the pre-schools to conduct intervention sessions for children within the centres. EI centres also assist pre-schools by sharing with them strategies on how pre-school teachers can better support these children in the classroom. We are currently studying ways to better support children with moderate to severe developmental needs within pre-schools, under the work of the Inclusive Preschool Workgroup.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) for each year in the past five years under the Government-Paid Child Care Leave (GPCL) Scheme what percentage of parents with a child or children who are differently-abled took all six days of childcare leave; and (b) if the information is not available, whether the Ministry will start collecting the data.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M (MSF): Employees with a Singapore Citizen child below seven years of age are entitled to six days of Government-Paid Childcare Leave (GPCL) per year. The first three days are employer-paid and the Government reimburses employers for the next three days. To avoid excessive burden on employees and employers, we do not require them to submit more data than is necessary for us to ascertain their eligibility for leave. Employers are also not required to track whether their employees take child care leave for differently-abled children. The data requested is therefore not available.

Data analysis is important to help us understand the needs of all working parents, and we continue to refine our methods to gather more accurate and complete data for policy purposes. Nonetheless, we have to balance this against mandating excessive data submission from working parents and employers. There is also risk of being intrusive should employees be asked if their leave is being consumed to care for a differently-abled child. We currently have no plans to collect information above and beyond what is necessary to efficiently process claims.

We recognise that parents of differently abled children may have more caregiving responsibilities. We will continue to study the needs of all working parents, including those with children with special needs, so as to better support them in their parenting journey.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)