Social Worker to Caseload Ratio at Family Service Centres

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Social and Family Development for FY2021/2022, what is the average and median social worker to caseload ratio at family service centres.

The Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M): Mr Speaker, in Financial Year (FY) 2021, the average and median social worker to caseload ratios at Family Service Centres (FSCs) were 1:19 and 1:20 respectively.

Mr Speaker: Mr Louis Ng.

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Thank you, Sir. I thank the Minister for the reply. I spoke up about the workload of social workers during my Budget debate speech last year. Two clarifications. One, it seems like the caseload has dropped, so could I ask what efforts the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) has put in, in terms of reducing the amount of work for our social workers? And two, whether there is also a similar reduction in the amount of administrative work that social workers are doing in the last FY?

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: I do not have specific answers to those points raised. Generally speaking, we look at the sector very carefully, all the time, and we look at work environment. It is not just about the workload. We look at the organisation, the environment in which they work in. We look at the kind of challenges they meet and in fact, whether the challenges are those that they enjoy overcoming.

One of the areas we always look at is how to uplift the management quality so that when you come to work, every Monday is a Friday and every Friday is a Monday. It is that kind of place where you want to come to work and really feel sad that it is a Friday and you are going for your weekend. We are not there yet, but I can say that some of the FSCs are doing far better than others and we really want to uplift their quality of work. Certainly, the load with which our social workers are facing is one of the many factors that we are looking at.