NCSS ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2008
13 NOVEMBER 2008
‘50 YEARS OF REACHING OUT, CHANGING LIVES'

SPEECH BY DR VIVIAN BALAKRISHNAN
Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports

RADM (Ret.) Kwek Siew Jin, President of the National Council of Social Service

Friends and colleagues from the social service and charity sector

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.

50 years of Reaching Out, Changing Lives

We are all very busy on a daily basis, but it is important to step back, review our strategies, exchange insights, share experiences and renew friendships at this annual conference.

2 The social service sector has come a long way. In the 50s and 60s, there was an urgent priority was to provide basic necessities for the poor and needy, including food, healthcare, housing and education. Poverty, destitution, overcrowding and unemployment were all too common in those days.

3 Singapore has become much more affluent now, despite the ups and downs of the economic cycles and successive crises, such as the one we are confronting even now. There will always be a vulnerable segment of our society who need and deserve our help. Economic crises, social changes, and changing demographics mean their needs will grow. Just as important, the expectations of society, as a whole, have also increased. The government has done its part, attracting investments and jobs, providing high quality education and training, subsidised healthcare and housing, security and stability. However, there is still a need for the human touch and moral leadership. Our “Many Helping Hands” model has served us well – and NCSS and its member VWOs are the leading custodians of the vulnerable segment of our society. Consequently, your work has become much more complex and comprehensive, with various programmes targeted at the elderly, children, dysfunctional families and people with disabilities. Currently, the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) has 393 member agencies offering a total of 1,260 social service programmes. The manpower in the sector has grown at an average of 3.5% annually to support these programmes. Today, we have a total of 8,439 social service professionals who are serving the different groups of people in need.

4. But it’s not just numbers. There has also been an emphasis in recent years on good governance, professional manpower development and uplifting service delivery in the sector.

Encourage Good Governance among VWOs and Charities

5 At the last NCSS conference, I encouraged VWOs to adopt the Code of Governance for Charities and Institutions of a Public Character (IPCs). I am pleased to learn that all of the 200 IPCs under NCSS purview have since submitted the online Governance Evaluation Checklist. By April next year, charities and IPCs would also be required to disclose their level of Code compliance via the Charity Portal for public viewing. Again, I urge charities to view this as an opportunity to enhance transparency and accountability to funding agencies and donors, and maintain high public trust.

6 I am also pleased to note that NCSS has been actively supporting charities in their compliance efforts. Let me emphasise that NCSS is not a regulator with a whip. It should be the champion and advocate for the sector. In partnership with the Charity Council, SSTI had organised customised programmes focused on discussing practical solutions to lapses in charity governance and management systems. More than 400 board members and management staff have attended these programmes this Financial Year.

Professionalising Manpower, Building Capabilities

7 The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and NCSS have rolled out two initiatives, namely the Professional and Leadership Development Scheme and the Sabbatical Leave Scheme for the first batch of 17 social workers. Under these schemes, senior social workers will be able to take up full or part-time courses, go on study trips or exchange programmes; promising social workers will also undergo professional training to be groomed into the leaders of the sector.

8 Also, MCYS, together with the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), NCSS, and other industry partners, have implemented the Community and Social Services Workforce Skills Qualifications (CSS WSQ) system.

9 I am pleased to note that the CSS WSQ has seen significant progress over the past year. A total of 28 organisations, including Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society, Hua Mei Training Academy, Health Management International Ltd, Yayasan Mendaki and SSTI have acquired the Approved Training Organisation status to roll out CSS WSQ programmes.

10 Good leadership and capable staff are critical for VWOs to deliver effective services. However, professions like social work continue to face shortages. There is a need for about 100 additional social workers annually. The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Dysfunctional Families chaired by my Ministry has recommended the re-structuring of social workers’ jobs, which will allow them to focus on the professional elements of the job while social work assistants can handle the administrative components. I strongly urge you to consider job re-structuring as a means to prevent burnout and aid in the retention of professionals like social workers.

Uplifting Service Delivery

11 In the past year, the social service sector, led by NCSS, had spearheaded many initiatives to meet the needs of various groups of people. For example, MCYS and NCSS had jointly piloted five Multi-Service Clusters (MSC), one in each Community Development Council. Each MSC comprises a cluster of social services anchored by a Family Service Centre, which provides one-stop service catering to the diverse needs of the family and community, thus enhancing accessibility and convenience to users of social service.

12 Two years ago, MCYS formed the Parents Workgroup to study the financial security of persons with special needs. One of the recommendations was to set up a non-profit special needs trust.

13 In June this year, the Special Needs Trust Company (SNTC) was incorporated as a public company limited by guarantee and was given Institutions of a Public Character (IPC) and charity status and NCSS membership in July. This is a collaborative effort among MCYS, NCSS and Movements for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS). SNTC aims to provide affordable trust services to enhance the financial security and well being of persons with special needs. Their needs, as stated in its care plans drawn up with inputs from caregivers, are provided for through the trust fund set aside by their caregivers. The SNTC targets to start operations in early 2009.

Spearheading New Resource Optimisation Strategies

14 With a wider range of resources under its administration, NCSS has been able to initiate more new approaches to optimise resource allocation to VWOs. This year, NCSS is building on its shared services initiative to pioneer a new shared service office for VWOs. Under this concept, VWOs co-locating at a particular premise will jointly develop the space and share the use of common facilities such as counselling, meeting, activities and training rooms. While each VWO will have their own office areas, all common facilities will be shared to optimise space usage.

15 Seven VWOs are collaborating with NCSS to develop the first of such a shared service office at the civic and community institution (or C&CI) space at Tiong Bahru Central Plaza. The space, to be called the Social Service Hub@Tiong Bahru, will be ready by early next year. A strong sense of cooperation and camaraderie has begun to build among the co-locating VWOs as they embark on this pioneer project together. Besides sharing physical facilities, many are also seeing the synergy to tap on each other's service expertise to better meet their clients' needs. I’m happy and encouraged to see such a development.

16 NCSS has also been leveraging on its enlarged resource administration role by helping VWOs to access more sources of grants to meet their needs. For the Social Service Hub@Tiong Bahru project, in addition to the allocation of space, NCSS had also facilitated and the Tote Board has made possible a capital grant through the Tote Board Social Service Fund for the VWOs to develop the hub. NCSS will continue to explore new and innovative ways to optimise resourcing to VWOs.

Social service celebrates 50th anniversary

17 2008 marks an important milestone for the social service sector as it comes together to celebrate 50 years of structured social service in Singapore. In celebration of this significant chapter in the history of social service, NCSS has led various sector-wide celebrations this year. Let me take this opportunity to congratulate and thank the sector for its 50 years of “reaching out and changing lives”

18 Serving and caring for the less fortunate is a long-term commitment. In the last fifty years, the sector has made great strides. In the next fifty years or even more, I believe the social service sector will continue to scale greater heights in serving the needy and making a difference to their lives.

19 I wish all of you a fruitful time at this conference. Thank you.