Mr Ishak Ismail, Families for Life Chairman,
Families for Life Council Members,
Distinguished guests, partners, volunteers, and families,
1 Good morning. It is my pleasure to be here today with all of you at the launch of the National Family Festival 2025. The Festival has grown from strength to strength since it first started on this scale in 2022, and we have, again, an exciting slate of events that we all can look forward to for the month. Please join me to give a big “thank you” to the Families for Life, or FFL Council, the organising committee, and everyone who is involved for their excellent work in putting this Festival together. Thank you.
2 Ladies and gentlemen, the NFF is a celebration of Singapore’s longstanding commitment to nurturing strong and resilient families. This year’s launch is especially meaningful because it coincides with our celebration of SG60, to commemorate six remarkable decades of nationhood.
Our Journey to SG60
3 Family is critical to our journey in our life, and also as a nation. Through every challenge and triumph, our families are our pillars of support, providing us with encouragement and love. They are indeed the foundation of our society. As our society evolves, so do the needs of our families. They change, and therefore, we must ensure that familial support systems remain relevant and robust.
4 In line with this, we launched the plan, “A Singapore Made for Families 2025”, in 2022 - three years ago. This marked a pivotal shift in how we support and uplift families. Through the Plan, we established a collaborative approach, where we integrate Government support across every stage of family life, to ensure that families have a comprehensive ecosystem of support.
5 Allow me to highlight a few of the moves we have made so far in the last three years.
a. For couples who will soon embark on their parenthood journey, the new Shared Parental Leave and enhancements to Government-Paid Paternity Leave was just implemented last month. They now have a total of 26 weeks of leave, which will be further increased to 30 weeks in April next year. This is a significant increase from before and will allow working parents more time to care for and bond with their newborn.
b. For couples who already have two or more children and are thinking of adding a new bundle of joy to the family, the new Large Families Scheme, which was announced at this year’s Budget, will provide up to $16,000 in additional benefits to eligible couples for each third and subsequent child.
c. For our seniors and their families, we have made progress in promoting legacy planning. As a result of coordinated efforts with partnering agencies, we are now more aware of the importance of making a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). And in fact, more than 95% of LPA donors have chosen their family members to act on their behalf should they lose mental capacity. In these grave matters, I am heartened by the strong show of inter-generational familial support. It shows that they have someone in the family they trust, not people outside, and that augurs well for what we mean by having families.
d. For lower-income families, we have made strides towards achieving stability, self-reliance and social mobility. For example, under ComLink+, each family is now paired with a dedicated family coach, and they co-develop, together, action plans that are tailored to their long-term goals, so that like everyone else in Singapore, they can achieve self-reliance, social mobility as well as stability.
e. For families caring for members with disabilities, we are introducing two pilots - first, the Home Support Programme to support persons with disabilities with low to moderate needs to continue living at home for as long as possible, and second, the Enabled Living Programme for lower-income persons with disabilities in designated public rental flats. These pilots will provide more options for persons with disabilities to live independently in the community, while also giving their families greater peace of mind on the long-term living arrangements of their loved ones.
f. We are also expanding our support for youths who have faced or are currently experiencing parental separation and divorce. This year, we will be rolling out new resources on the Family Assist portal for young people to cope with family transitions.
6 We will continue to build upon the progress made in the past 3 years. At our Forward SG engagement sessions, many shared their hopes and concerns for the future, including in areas such as cost of living, housing accessibility and affordability, and fostering more family-friendly practices. We have heard you, and will continue to enhance our support for families.
Community Participation and Partnerships
7 Ladies and gentlemen, our vision is to build a Singapore Made for Families. But it is not something that the Government can do alone, and it’s not enough that the Government does this alone. We cannot realise this vision on our own. Throughout the decades, we have seen community participation and partnership playing a significant role in the success of our nation, and therefore in fulfilling this vision. Through partnership between the community, corporates, and the Government, more lives are reached, and efforts are amplified. Indeed, our commitment to nurturing good families would not be possible without the good work of the FFL Council, who, by the way, are all volunteers, and they put their full commitment and time to make sure that these efforts actually get to the ground. Therefore, again, let me thank them, their partners, volunteers, including also social service professionals, who have come together to help the various types of families. Allow me to share a few examples of how this spirit of collaboration works on the ground.
a. For instance, this year’s National Family Festival. FFL brought onboard 250 partners. Our FFL @ Community teams have worked with preschools, grassroots organisations, community groups, religious organisations, and shopping malls, to organise more than 100 family-centric events across Singapore, not only today, but all the way from May to July. These events are opportunities for us to come together with our local communities to foster friendship and support.
b. In addition, I am pleased to share that the FFL @ Community initiative has now expanded to all 24 towns nationwide, ahead of our target to do so by end-2025. This creates vital touchpoints to bring family programmes together, like marriage preparation and enrichment programmes, closer to where Singaporeans live.
c. Our social service professionals have been instrumental in our journey to grow participation in FFL. These include parenting programmes and innovative ways to deliver programmes and resource support to meet families where they are. With their dedication, combined with support from our corporate and community partners, we had more than 16,600 parents’ participation in 2024, up from 10,000 in 2023.
d. I am particularly moved by our FFL volunteers who are creating a beautiful ripple effect by bringing their own families to volunteer. Teck Lee, our FFL volunteer and his daughters Yulin and Yuqing, started volunteering with FFL in 2023. From organising this very Festival to leading community engagement events, they exemplify how family volunteerism can impact both those who serve and those they serve. Their journey has also inspired other families to embrace volunteering as a way of strengthening their own familial bonds, while giving back to the community.
e. We have also seen an encouraging increase in corporate partners stepping forward. I am heartened by UOL Group Limited's commitment to chauffeur 80-100 ComLink+ families to the Festival with the support of their staff volunteers at today’s event.
8 To continue to sustain and deepen our partnership to strengthen families, I am happy to announce the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding with CapitaLand. CapitaLand will support this work through venue sponsorships, organising family-centric programmes and promoting pro-family messages at its properties.
Transforming Our Workplaces and Homes
9 Even as we build on efforts in community and organisational partnerships, much of the work of prioritising and celebrating families is actually day-to-day – within our workplaces and our homes, where we work, play and live.
10 Within our workplaces, family-friendly practices should be the norm, rather than the exception. When companies provide staff with the flexibility to be present for their families, they cultivate a more committed and engaged workforce. Such support typically leads to greater staff satisfaction, enhanced productivity and higher employee retention rates.
a. One example - supply chain company ST Logistics is one such corporate that has displayed a keen commitment to creating such a family-friendly workplace culture. They have done so through initiatives such as the RESPECT@Work programme, which champions fair and responsible HR policies, and the innovative Enrichment Time policy, which allows employees to leave at 3pm every Friday for self-directed learning and family time. You may ask “Why should employers invest in such practices?”. To this, ST Logistics has the answer. They have said “We believe that strong families build strong teams. When our families are supported where it matters most, they bring their best to work – that’s the kind of readiness ST Logistics is proud to stand for”. This year, ST Logistics won the Centre for Fathering’s Great Companies for Dads Award and is a new Families for Life partner. Congratulations to ST Logistics!
Conclusion
11 The impact of our families on us as individuals is undeniable. Earlier this year, we started to invite members of the public to share their family stories through the "Real Families Real Stories" campaign. In just 3 months, we have collected more than 500 stories.
a. One story involves a mum of two young daughters who had a bad fall during the Mid-Autumn Festival seven years ago. She had to undergo three surgeries and a painful recovery. Amidst this, her husband stepped up to juggle work commitments while caring for the family. As she reflects on this difficult time, she shares: "Now every Mid-Autumn Festival, I don't just see lanterns. I see our journey, the love that carried us, and the strength that made us even closer."
b. Thank you to all contributors for joining us on the Families for Life Movement to inspire and to encourage fellow Singaporeans through your stories, your experiences and your hopes. Keep your stories coming!
12 As we begin the National Family Festival, it is my hope that families, the community, corporates, and the Government – let’s all join hands in co-creating a Singapore that recognises families as core to our nation’s strength. We all have a part to play in this journey. Let us continue to build a Singapore in which every family feels valued and supported, wherever they may be in life. This is Singapore – one truly made for families.
13 Thank you, and I wish everyone a wonderful National Family Festival 2025.