Enlarging Enrolment for Day Activity Centres to Increase Placements for Adults with Autism

Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether Day Activity Centres can enlarge their enrolment to increase the likelihood of securing placements at such centres for adults with autism.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: Day Activity Centres (DACs) are community-based facilities that provide care and skills training for adult persons with disabilities (PwDs). These centres aim to equip PwDs with community and daily living skills and meaningfully occupy clients with social and recreational activities.

In planning for DACs, MSF seeks to ensure that there are sufficient spaces, distributed across Singapore, to cater to the projected demand from PwDs. There are currently 31 DACs, which provide more than 1,700 places to cater to persons with different disabilities. As at December 2020, the overall utilisation rate was about 75%. Eight of these centres specialise in serving clients with autism. As at December 2020, the average utilisation rate of these eight centres was about 80%. Apart from these eight centres, other centres may also serve persons with autism on a case-by-case basis.

While there is sufficient capacity in DACs overall to cater to persons with autism, care-givers may prefer certain DACs for various reasons. Should the care-givers' choice of DAC be unavailable, they may be recommended or referred to other DACs so that they can secure suitable placements for their children. MSF will also continue to monitor the demand for places at DACs and work with providers to increase their capacity where necessary.