NCSS MEMBERS CONFERENCE 2007
20 OCTOBER 2007
‘ATTRACTING, RETAINING AND OPTIMISING RESOURCES'

WELCOME ADDRESS BY RADM (RET.) KWEK SIEW JIN
PRESIDENT, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE

Speech

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan,
Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports

Distinguished guests and partners in social service

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning. I would like to thank all of you for supporting this year’s NCSS Members Conference. I would like to especially thank the Minister, who, by his very presence has lent special significance to our annual Conference.

2 The Members Conference is a platform for NCSS, member VWOs and partners to share best practices, review strategies and discuss important issues and challenges in the social service sector.

3 One of the key challenges faced by any sector is how its resources are managed and used. This concern is even larger in the social service sector, where resources are especially precious. Hence, the theme for this year’s Conference is: ‘Attracting, Retaining and Optimising Resources’.

4 To strengthen the sector, NCSS works with all of you and, increasingly with corporations as well, to facilitate or make available more resources. NCSS has introduced several new schemes and provisions such as pro-bono and shared services to help VWOs keep costs low and maximise resources. Schemes such as the shared audit service are especially helpful when VWOs need additional resources to meet new audit regulations and governance requirements.

5 In view of the enthusiastic response from members to the shared audit scheme, I am pleased to announce that plans are underway for three more shared services, to be finalised in the coming months. NCSS is working to secure IT maintenance and support, medical and health screening, as well as design and printing shared services at competitive rates for VWOs. We also plan to conduct a feasibility study to assess the benefits of a centralised shared services model that provides a suite of corporate services including accounting and HR administration. I hope that member VWOs will make full use of the schemes and provisions offered and to be offered through NCSS to help you stretch and optimise the use of resources. Every dollar stretched will bring an added smile to a donor, and an additional dollar’s worth of services to a beneficiary.

6 The success of the social services is reliant on human resources as we are in a people-centred and service oriented sector. The ability to attract high-quality people and retain trained manpower ranks high on our agenda. The sector needs to recruit people with the commitment and dedication to serve, and develop them so that they remain motivated and passionate. Better career paths and training plans need to be put in place to help people acquire skills and grow professionally.

7 In the area of staff development, NCSS is playing a major role by offering relevant training courses through the Social Service Training Institute. I am glad to note that close to 5,000 training places were taken up in the first half of this Financial Year alone, a 60 percent increase from the same period last year. This upward trend in the demand for training is a positive indication of VWOs’ increasing commitment towards building internal capability. Most of the cost of such training has been borne by the VWO Capability Fund, or VCF. Since its inception in July 2002, about $8.5 million has been granted for both local and overseas training which are aimed at building skills and competencies. For critical areas such as governance, NCSS is also funding the remaining amount of the training cost that is not covered by VCF, so that members can attend such training for free.

8 The VCF also provides resources for VWOs to make organisational enhancements. Since its inception, the Fund has provided $3.8 million to help VWOs build better Info-comms Technology capability. The VCF, now known as the VWOs-Charities Capability Fund, is also available to assist VWOs to engage consultancy services so that internal processes and procedures can be improved and made more efficient. Apart from VCF, various ministries and corporations have also appointed NCSS to be their fund administrator for social service programmes. Besides the funds of the Community Chest, for which a target of $52 million has been set for this Financial Year, we are also administering and allocating the MOE Special Education Fund, the Singapore Totalisator Board Social Service Fund and the MCYS Disability, Eldercare and Family Services Funds. These funds, together with VCF and schemes that provide direct funding to beneficiaries, add up to almost $200 million being channelled through NCSS this year. In contrast, four years ago, NCSS administered mainly the Comchest fund and VCF, both of which added up to less than $50 million.

9 With more funds being channelled through NCSS, we have an even bigger role to play in helping to optimise resources. However, NCSS can only succeed if we all work together to push the margin of creativity in optimising resources. With greater public awareness and interests in the sector, we are all keenly aware that in order to attract and retain resources, stakeholders need to be assured that our services help users in the most efficient and purposeful way.

10 To help provide this assurance to donors, NCSS has, since 2005, trained and assisted VWOs to implement outcome management in their organisations. In 2006, all NCSS-funded programmes started to track progress in at least one outcome area. With the 3-year renewal of funding coming up in the next Financial Year, NCSS plans to take outcome management to the next level by implementing outcome-based funding agreements. However, as is our practice so far, we will be implementing this in phases, so that problems encountered can be solved as we go along.

11 The social service sector has come a long way since the former Singapore Council of Social Service (SCSS), the precursor to NCSS, was formed in 1958 to coordinate and support the then unstructured social service sector. Next year, Singapore will celebrate 50 years of structured social service. This is definitely an important point in our history and development, and NCSS will be leading a sector-wide celebration that will need your participation and support. We have plans to organise a major public event to profile all the good work done by VWOs, a book to record and commemorate the achievements and the people who made them, and a dinner for volunteers and social workers to socialise and to celebrate the attainments of the sector. Various committees, comprising people from all parts of the sector, have been formed and are working out the details of the various events. We will keep you posted on the developments.

12 The progress of the social service sector would not have been possible without dedicated and committed social service professionals and volunteers like you. My deepest appreciation goes to all volunteers and social workers who have joined with us in NCSS in making a difference to the lives of the people in need.

13 I would also like to thank our corporate partners, as well as our associates from the Workforce Development Agency and the Ministry of Health who are here at the Conference with us today. And, of course, we would certainly not be able to do much of what we do without the strong support of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. Thank you all, and we look forward to continue working with you even more closely with each passing year.

14 Bee Lian and her people have put together a very interesting and informative programme for us this morning, so it remains for me to wish all of you a very fruitful conference. Thank you.