CHILD CARE CENTRES BILL

[Mr Deputy Speaker in the Chair]

Order for Second Reading read.

11.36 am

The Minister for Community Development (Mr Wong Kan Seng): Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

This Bill seeks to provide for the control, licensing and inspection of child care centres, and to repeal the Creche Establishment Act, 1973.

To encourage more women to join the workforce and parents to have more children, reliable child care centres and facilities have to be made available to them. The present pool of foreign domestic help may not always be available to parents, especially when the economic situation in the countries where these maids come from improves. The pool of grandparents who now look after the children may also decrease over the years when the retirement age increases.

The Government has been actively promoting the establishment and development of child care centres over the last few years. As a result, there has been a significant increase in the number of child care centres. For FY 81-82, there were only 33 child care centres. Now there are 114. Based on the targeted increase in the female labour force participation rate by 1995 and the projected population growth, it is estimated that we need about 15-20 new child care centres each year between now and 1995 to meet the increasing demand.

The Government itself does not and is not likely to operate any child care centre. The Government's policy is to encourage and help private entrepreneurs, employers and organizations to set up and operate child care centres.

However, the utilization of these child care centres depends very much on the confidence parents have on the child care centres and on the quality of care provided by the centre staff.

When choosing child care arrangements for their children, what is uppermost in the parents' minds therefore must be the reliability and the quality of the care arrangements. Among the aspects the parents look for are such things as health, nutrition, safety, programme quality, staffing, facilities and so on. Parents therefore need to be assured that there must be minimum standards for child care centres. This Bill therefore recommends that minimum standards be set to ensure that the welfare and interests of the children are catered for in the child care centres. This will enhance the parents' confidence in the child care centres.

The Creche Establishment Act passed in 1973 is outdated and therefore needs to be repealed. This Child Care Centres Bill will take its place.

I need not go into the detailed clauses of the Bill as the sub-titles of the clauses are self-explanatory. I will touch on the main features of the Bill. Under this Bill, a "child care centre" is defined as:

'any premises at which 5 or more children who are under the age of 7 years are habitually received for the purposes of care and supervision during part of the day or for longer periods;'

The Bill which will be administered by the Director of Social Welfare:

(i) requires all child care centres to be licensed and to operate in accordance with the terms and conditions laid down by the Director;

(ii) specifies the grounds under which the Director may refuse to issue or renew a licence, or may suspend or revoke a licence;

(iii) empowers the Director or any officer authorized by him to inspect child care centres and the records therein; and

(iv) empowers the Minister to make regulations to carry out the purposes of the Act and to exempt any centre from any or all of the provisions of the regulations.

The Regulations to carry out the purposes of the Act may cover, among others, matters pertaining to:

(i) the operation, management and supervision of child care centres;

(ii) the duties and responsibilities of persons licensed, and the complement, qualifications and training of the staff;

(iii) the health, safety, nutrition and management of children; and

(iv) the adequacy or suitability of premises, equipment, programmes and physical facilities.

One important factor that influences the quality of care is the staff competency in child care. The regulations will ensure that operators comply with the training requirements of staff and that staff are properly trained to undertake their work. The Ministry will work together with the appropriate training institutions, eg, the Institute of Education, to ensure that child care centre staff are adequately trained.

My Ministry has also set up an Accreditation Committee to look into the accreditation of child care courses not conducted by the Institute of Education. This will ensure that staff who are trained overseas or by other accredited organizations have the necessary training to carry out their duties.

Sir, the introduction of this legislation will not pose any hardship to existing operators of child care centres because since 1981, my Ministry has introduced a set of guidelines for the development and operation of child care centres. Child care centres have closely followed these guidelines. Where existing child care operators fall short, the Ministry will give them a grace period of up to two years to enable them to comply with the requirements.

Sir, I beg to move,

Question proposed.

Mr Abdullah Tarmugi (Siglap): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Bill is rather straightforward and I shall be brief.

Sir, my GPC and resource panel have discussed this Bill at length and we support it generally as it aims to provide minimum standards to be observed in our child care centres. This is important for parents have to be assured that their children are properly taken care of in an environment conducive to their growth. Only then, Sir, would mothers, who would otherwise want to strive for a career or to work to augment the family income but are unable to do so because there is no one to look after their children, be induced to leave them at these centres. Therefore, the safety and well-being of children left at these centres cannot be compromised.

Supportive as we are of this Bill, there is a need to ensure that the cost of sending children to such centres will not be too high as to squeeze out low-income mothers from taking advantage of these centres. And I am glad, in fact, to hear the Minister mention just now that as of now at least there would be no difficulty of existing child care centres in maintaining such standards. I presume therefore that cost would not be unduly raised. Because if the cost of sending our children to child care centres exceeds the income that we can get, then it would only be logical for mothers to remain as housewives and look after their children themselves.

Sir, there are two views on this matter. One is that it would defeat the whole purpose of child care centres if mothers find it more economical or less cumbersome to take care of their children than to send them to child care centres. The other is even if the income mothers would have earned is only marginally more than the cost of sending their children to these centres, this would still be justified because the advantages and benefits enjoyed by the children at these centres would offset the cost involved, - like being taken care of in a better environment, being able to learn social skills through mixing with their peers and learning other skills which would not otherwise be found at home. This being so, Sir, then it is important, I stress, for the Ministry to pay attention to the cost of sending children to these centres, especially for those who may not be able to afford it. Because while there is merit in leaving costs to market forces, the only trouble is that such forces tend to always disadvantage those who cannot afford it. I hope the Minister will give his response to this caution.

Apart from this, Sir, my GPC and Resource Panel have also identified certain issues which we think the Ministry ought to look into: (1) Under the definition of a "child care centre" in clause 2, we wonder whether this would include such places as children's corners in shopping centres and in department stores, as the definition appears loose enough to include such places. And what about "drop in" centres run by some charities? While these centres are not meant to be child care centres, in the strict sense of the word, again the definition seems to include them too. If so, does the Ministry have any plans to assist these centres should any upgrading be needed as they serve a much needed but free and voluntary service to the public?

Then, Sir, we are rather unclear as to what constitutes "sufficient qualifications" in clause 4(3)(d) of the Bill. Can the Minister elaborate on this? Does it cover volunteers too? If so, has the Ministry any plans to ensure that the requirements for such qualifications would not render voluntary work difficult and an inaccessible one?

Lastly, Sir, clause 18 of the Bill states that the Act does not apply to centres controlled and maintained by the Government, although the Minister just mentioned that the Government is not likely to operate child care centres. So why is this clause needed, Sir?

Mr Chng Hee Kok (Radin Mas): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to this Bill I have two points to raise with the Minister. In clause 5(1) it seems that the fee for a licence is a variable amount which the applicant will know only after he has been issued with a licence. Is this correct? Or is there a prescribed fee that is known in advance?

The second point I want to raise is on clause 7 on the question of appeal. The clause here says that the appeal is "to the Minister whose decision shall be final." Some of these child care centres can be a very expensive investment for people who want to get into this business. You will find that it does imply here that there is no recourse to the judiciary. Is it fair to have this clause in the Bill?

Mr Eric Cheong Yuen Chee (Toa Payoh): Mr Deputy Speaker, I just want to raise a few points with the Hon. Minister with regard to the provision to encourage private operators, ie, private companies or individuals, to set up child care centres so as to reduce the dependence of parents on foreign maids.

I think it is a very good idea that we have introduced this new Bill. But what I would like to ask the Hon. Minister is that many of the premises that are being run as child care centres are, in fact, not really ideal locations. If we are going to encourage parents to put their children in child care centres, I think we should make greater effort to provide better quality, better designed, buildings. As you can see, some of the child care centres are located at the void decks of Housing and Development Board flats. May I suggest that the Minister liaise with the Minister for Education to find out how many schools are being returned, in other words, being relocated, and can these old school buildings be used as child care centres? I feel that it is very ideal because there are enough facilities like toilets and all these for the children, classrooms and also car parking facilities for parents, playgrounds and so on and so forth. May I suggest that the Hon. Minister liaise with the Minister for Education to try to acquire some of these old schools and maybe lease it out on special terms to those private individuals or companies that wish to set up child care centres.

Dr Tan Cheng Bock (Ayer Rajah): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I just want to ask the Minister clause 18 which exempts certain child care centres from the provisions of the Bill. I wonder why. If you refer to the object of the Bill, this Bill primarily is to set out the rules and regulations for child care centres. So I wonder why there should be an exemption for child care centres controlled by the Government. I think policing should be for all, private sector or Government. We are trying to ensure good standards and the Government should set the standards. I think it is important that even Government child care centres should not be exempted from being policed.

Dr Dixie Tan (Ulu Pandan): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to support the intention of this Bill, which is to establish good standards of care for young children under the care of child care centres. Although it is my personal conviction that infants and young children thrive and develop best under the care of their own parents within the confines of their own homes, I do recognize that there is a trend for increasing demand for places in child care centres, and therefore it is timely that we ensure that standards of care are good when parents seek to place their children in these centres.

Most of the points have been mentioned by other Members and I am sure that we all support this Bill. This Bill in effect gives the Minister wide ranging powers to draw up comprehensive regulations for the centres and powers to enforce them. Under clause 19 there is a long list of regulations setting out all the various aspects of the child care centres. May I suggest that an additional regulation be included which will address the question of minimum space allocation per child, and other factors of building construction such as ventilation and natural lighting.

If I may digress just a little. I feel that child care centres are good to have but it may be that they are not the best thing for very young children. But it may be that in the future the need may arise when we ought to extend the scope of child care centres to include the care of children who are schooling, be they primary school or secondary school but, in particular, children of primary school age and children whose parents are both away from home, and who would return home after school to an empty house. However, this concept is not within the scope of this Bill.

Dr S. Vasoo (Bo Wen): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill is timely in the sense that there will be a need to deal with an increase in the number of child care centres to be operated by private operators. The Bill will also take action against unscrupulous operators who might take advantage of families who need child care facilities.

I have a number of observations to make, Sir. Firstly, would the Ministry set up an accreditation committee to accredit the various child care centres. I think this is important because the committee can accredit the standard of the various child care centres, both Government and non-Government child care facilities.

Secondly, the Bill also makes provision for the assessment of the facilities and the conditions of various child care centres. However, I would like to see more emphasis placed on the assessment of the psychological and social quality of child care, because this aspect is most important. It is a very elusive area but nevertheless it is very important to assess this aspect because any neglect in the psychological and social aspects of care will be very traumatic for the children.

Thirdly, I would also want to see that Government centres are also monitored because Government centres are supposed to set the pace and therefore it is essentially important that their service standards be also assessed.

I rise to support the Bill, Sir.

Mr Wong Kan Seng: Sir, I thank all the Members for their contribution and I shall try to be as brief as possible in addressing all the points raised by the Members.

The Member for Siglap is concerned about costs. If we have this Bill, would it increase the cost of child care for the parents? Let me assure him that this is not likely because what the Bill sets out to do is to provide for minimum standards in child care centres. Right now we know that most, if not all, of our child care centres have met these minimum standards and they are charging fees ranging from $190 to $350; and with a subsidy of $100 from the Government up to the third child, parents only pay between $90 and $250. I think this trend is likely to continue. We will also continue to encourage and assist voluntary organizations the NTUC, the PA, to set up centres in all our major housing estates so that it can be accessible to the parents who need them. So let me assure him that the parents do not need be too concerned about the increase in the cost. But, of course, if parents want more than what is provided for in the minimum, then I think they deserve to pay more because if they are willing to pay and there is a market for it, and if there are child care operators willing to provide for them, then I think we should let the market forces decide on the fee for such child care centres.

As to whether mothers should stay at home to look after their children or to work and get the additional income, I think, again, we will leave that to the parents to decide. They should weigh the pros and cons of the returns for the job with staying at home to look after their children.

The Member also asked whether the definition here includes children's corners in departmental stores. I do not think so. He also asked whether the drop-in centres operated by charities also come within this definition. Again, I do not think so. But if he has any idea where these centres are I shall ask my officers to look at them to see whether they fit into the definition. If they do fall within that definition and if they are unable to meet the minimum standards, we shall try to assist them as much as possible to meet the minimum standards. If they cannot meet these standards, then of course they will have to close down.

As regards "sufficient qualifications", we have three kinds of courses. With the assistance of the Institute of Education, we have designed three kinds of courses: the basic course which is about 120 hours, the intermediate course, 150 hours, and the advanced course, 200 hours. These courses are for different grades or different levels of child care staff. The basic course is for child care assistants, the intermediate course is for the child care teachers, and the advanced course is for the child care centre supervisor. These are what we mean by the"sufficient qualifications."

Of course, there are also other institutions like the NTUC that conduct courses for their staff. We also look at these courses to see whether they provide the necessary training and whether the curriculum is adequate or not, and so on. I know that child care operators have no concern about qualifications because they know that generally they can meet them. But if they cannot, they can always send their staff to the Institute of Education or the NTUC for training.

The Member for Siglap and several others also asked the question about why Government-controlled child care centres need to be exempted? As I said, there is no intention of Government to run any child care centre. It is not likely to do so. It does not have any. But the clause is there, just in case we need to. But even if Government runs child care centres, let me assure Members that they will also meet the minimum standards that we set. If Members would like to take a look at the child care centre set up by the Ministry of Community Development Club they can see an example of how a child care centre is run. It is not run by the Ministry but it is run by the club itself. You can see an example of how the club runs the child care centre.

The Member for Radin Mas asked whether the fees have been prescribed for the licence. They have not been prescribed but it is not a big problem. It is not so prohibitive as to close all the centres. That is not the intention.

The Member also asked why there is no appeal to the judiciary. I feel that it is not necessary so long as we are able to work closely with the child care operators. Right now we have no difficulty at all in working with the child care operators. They have generally been able to satisfy all the conditions we laid down. If it is really necessary for them to resort to appeal to the Minister, we can be as sympathetic as possible provided they are reasonable.

The Member for Toa Payoh mentioned that child care centres in the void decks may not be ideal places. There may be such instances but let me assure him that from the various centres that I have visited in the Housing Board estates' void decks, I think they are of a reasonable quality, of reasonable standard. I do not think he need worry too much about that. As to his suggestion about getting disused or old school buildings, we will consider. In fact, we will consider any building that is suitable for child care, not just old school buildings. But he must know that a school normally takes in about 1,000 students or 800 students per session and therefore the building is pretty large if it is to cater for only 40 children as a child care centre.

The Member for Ulu Pandan suggested that regulations be imposed on ventilation, space allocation, lighting, etc. I believe this is also part of our minimum standards. As to her suggestion about the future, she says that if we can afford it, we should extend child care to pre-school and after-school periods for children who are still at school.Let me say that the current regulations and the Act do not prohit any child care prohibit any child care centre from receiving children for pre-and after-school care. In fact, right now, there are 14 centres receiving pre- and after-school children. It is entirely up to them.

As for the Member for Bo Wen's suggestion about accreditation committee for child care centres, I think it is not necessary. The staff of my Ministry are competent enough to assess the suitability of centres, with the assistance of other Government departments like the Fire Safety Bureau, the Environment Ministry and so on. As to his suggestion about studying the psychological effects of putting children in child care, I believe that is a useful idea which we have also thought about. But I think psychologists or sociologists in the University can also play their part by doing the research themselves and giving us their input.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr Wong Kan Seng].

Bill considreed in Committee.

[Mr Deputy Speaker in the Chair]

Clause 1 -

The Chairman: The citation year will be altered from "1987" to "1988".

Clause 1 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clauses 2 to 20 inclusive ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Bill reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.