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Investing in the Foundation Years of Our Children
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Building a Future-Ready Social Service Sector
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Speeches
Speech by Mr Chan Chun Sing at MSF Committee of Supply 2015
Speech by Ms Low Yen Ling at MSF Committee of Supply 2015
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Press Releases
New Initiatives to Develop Early Childhood Professionals and Improve Quality of Pre-Schools
The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) will introduce new initiatives to improve the affordability and quality of child care services for parents, support the career progression of more early childhood (EC) professionals, and raise the overall quality of the EC sector.
The Partner Operator (POP) scheme will provide support to eligible child care operators to keep fees affordable, build capabilities to raise quality, and improve career prospects for their professionals.
The Professional Development Programme (PDP) aims to deepen EC professionals’ skills to take on larger responsibilities and further develop their careers.
The proposed Early Childhood Development Centres Act (ECDCA) aims to raise the overall quality of early childhood care and education through a harmonised regulatory framework for kindergartens and child care centres.
Read the Press Release for more details.
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More Support for Social Service Providers and Professionals to Build Capabilities
MSF will invest more resources to help Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) and professionals in the social service sector build up capabilities to meet future demands.
Corporate Development Funding Scheme
MSF will introduce a Corporate Development Funding Scheme which provides funding support for these VWOs to hire qualified professionals in corporate functions such as strategic planning, finance, human resource and information technology.
Increase in Programme Funding
From 1 April 2015, MSF will increase funding norms for its funded programmes run by VWOs. The bulk of the increases will go towards raising the salaries of social service professionals, to ensure they are paid competitively.
Social Service Fellowship
To better recognise social service professionals (such as social workers, therapists, early intervention teachers, psychologists, counsellors) who are at the top of their professions in the social service sector, MSF and National Council of Social Service (NCSS) will launch a Social Service Fellowship in the second half of this year.
Expansion of Professional Hubs
MSF will provide support to expand the two existing Therapy Hubs at SPD and Thye Hua Kwan Therapy Services to support more VWOs in delivering therapy services. MSF will also appoint a third therapy hub by the end of this year. About $7 million a year has been set aside. The target is to increase the pool of funded therapists at the hubs to 125 by 2017, to meet the growing demand for therapy services.
MSF will also set up a new Community Psychology Hub. The hub will start with attracting, developing and deploying psychologists to support disability services (e.g. Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Young Children), before eventually expanding to support other areas such as family services.
Read the Press Release for more details.
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Dedicated Transport Services for Persons with Disabilities
MSF, together with the National Council of Social Service (NCSS), have awarded grants to three operators to provide dedicated transport services to persons with disabilities. The three operators are Handicaps Welfare Association (HWA), EK Ang Trading and Transport Pte Ltd and Silveray Pte Ltd. The operators were selected from an open grant application exercise. Applicants were assessed on criteria such as knowledge of working with persons with disabilities, service standards, training and safety standards, business model and proposed fees.
Read the Press Release for more details.
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