Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether training officers from the day activity centres will fall under the bracket of ‘instructors’ instead of ‘nurse aides/care staff’ given the nature of their job scope so as to allow for greater remuneration according to the salary guidelines for the social service sector.
Answer
1 MSF-funded disability programmes, including Day Activity Centres(DACs), are resourced according to client profile and the required manpower to serve each profile.
2 DACs support persons with disabilities who have care needs, and engage them through social, recreational and community-based activities. DAC staff thus fall under the category of “social service assistant and care staff” under the salary guidelines for the social service sector published by the National Council of Social Service (NCSS). The category of “workshop instructors” refers to staff in MSF-funded Sheltered Workshops, who provide work skills training for persons with disabilities who are not yet ready for or are unable to take up open employment.
3 The salary norms provided in the social service sector salary guidelines are derived from wages of comparable jobs in the labour market. MSF and NCSS regularly review the guidelines, to enable the sector to keep pace with salary growth in the broader labour market.