NEW CHILDCARE CENTRES

NEW CHILDCARE CENTRES:

(Affordability of fees):

1\. Ms Ellen Lee asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (a) if he will provide an update on the 200 new childcare centres to be opened; and (b) what plans does the Ministry have to keep the cost of infant care services affordable.

The Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon) (for the Minister for: Column: 1451

Community Development, Youth and Sports): Mr Speaker, Sir, Ms Ellen Lee asked about the progress of the development of 200 new childcare centres. As part of Government’s efforts to raise the supply and quality of childcare services, MCYS introduced a number of initiatives since August last year. These include increasing the childcare subsidy from $150 to $300, implementing the higher quality requirements for pre-school teachers and introducing a new scheme to help eligible non-profit childcare centre operators ramp up the supply of childcare places and set the benchmarks for childcare quality and affordability.

The response from the childcare industry has been encouraging. We have made good progress in ramping up the number of childcare centres. Since August last year, 23 new centres have been set up, increasing the number of centres from 748 to 771 as at end August this year. These new centres have added an additional of over 2,700 childcare places, a 4% increase within a year.

By March 2010, we would expect another 25 new childcare centres to be operational, contributing an additional 2,500 places. My Ministry will continue to release sites to childcare centre operators progressively over the next few years. These centres will be located in areas where there is assessed demand for childcare places.

On the affordability of infant care services, we have been monitoring the infant care fees closely after increasing the infant care subsidy from $400 to $600 last August. We are happy to note that infant care median fees have remained fairly stable, with fees rising by about 2%, from $1,177 last August to $1,200 this August.

The increase in the number of childcare centres has also helped to

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provide more infant care places and moderate infant care fees. The 23 new centres developed since August last year have added over 250 infant care places to the sector. I believe that our efforts to set up more centres will allow market forces and competition to maintain fees at an affordable level. I would also urge childcare centre operators to exercise restraint in setting their fees.

Ms Ellen Lee (Sembawang): Thank you, Minister of State, for the answer. I have three supplementary questions. First, is there a training programme in place to ensure that there will be enough sufficiently-trained childcare givers for all the 200 new centres when they are fully operational? Second, if foreigners are to be recruited to be caregivers, will the Ministry impose any minimum qualifications on these caregivers so that the safety and well-being of the infants and young children in their care are ensured? Third, would allowing infants as young as two months to be put in infant care centres effectively defeat the purpose of the 16-week maternity leave granted to mothers?

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon: As the Member knows, our objective is to ensure accessibility, affordability and quality. Therefore, we would not sacrifice the quality of the centres. Both MOE and MCYS have tried to speed up our training programme, conducted jointly with NTUC, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and so on.

On the second question about safety – my Ministry has set up benchmarks, standards and licensing requirements. If they do not fulfil the Ministry's requirements, we will not give them the licence. If operators do not do a proper job to recruit qualified people, we will also withdraw their licences. All caregivers, whether local or foreign, should fulfil the requirements, such as five GCE "O" Level passes, training, and so on.

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The third question was about infant care, whether parents will use the maternity leave provided by the Government and employers. We will leave it to the individual family. What we try to do is to give people a choice. So we try to provide infant care for babies as young as two months but whether parents want to use their maternity leave or they want to put their infants into infant care, the working women can make their decisions.

Mr Zainudin Nordin (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Supplementary questions, Sir. First, I would like to ask the Minister of State whether she has any data to show the development of the remuneration package for professionals in the childcare industry. Has this remuneration package improved a lot over the years? Is it satisfactory? Are we able to attract talent into this industry? I am happy that the Minister of State is asking centres to refrain from increasing fees but if we are attracting talent into this industry, I am not so sure whether it can be sustainable to keep fees low.

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon: On the question of talent – here in Singapore, we are short of talent in all sectors. In the early childcare sector, I should also say that we are quite squeezed. Previously – as Mayor Zainudin knows since he also supervised NTUC's childcare unit – we only recruited people with three GCE "O" Level passes. Now, the requirement is five GCE "O" Level passes and we want to improve on this further. As my Minister said during the COS debate, quality and training for teachers would be the key challenges for my Ministry and MOE. Therefore, we will look into the salary package and how to help this industry improve. I am sure the Member also knows that lately, my Ministry has been very generous in giving grants to some of the anchor operators to train their people. I am sure the Member knows we even give scholarships. We even give some assistance for set-up

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costs and administrative costs. In previous years, there was no such thing but from this year onwards we gave operators a lot of assistance. We will work harder with MOE and other training institutions to see how to help to train these professionals and at the same time, make sure they have reasonable rewards in this industry. But it is a challenge.

Mdm Cynthia Phua (Aljunied): I would like to ask the Minister of State, in view of our multi-racial and religious society, food is a key concern in childcare centres. Would the Ministry advise the childcare operators to look into the food prepared for the children so that children from multi-racial and religious backgrounds can go to childcare centres?

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon: I think it is a good suggestion and we will look into it. At this moment, I am sure the Member is aware, we do, at least, encourage them to be sensitive to food requirements, especially for the Malay-Muslim children. Whether the operators provide different kinds of food at their centres depends on the operators but insofar as I know, there have been no complaints in this area.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang): Mr Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of State whether there are plans to develop the informal sector. Currently, we know that many parents leave their children or babies with their neighbours or somebody else to look after. Are there plans by the Ministry to enhance this sector?

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon: We are still studying this informal sector, where some housewives stay at home and take care of two or three children. We do work with NTUC to train some of the housewives to improve the quality of care but we still have not settled the issue of whether we should introduce more structured policy on this. So far, we do encourage NTUC to train some of these housewives.