Govt to do more to help children in welfare homes

To improve the quality of care given to children and young people in welfare homes here, the Government will roll out a series of programmes in the coming years.

Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) Halimah Yacob said an assessment tool used by overseas case workers dealing with children, the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths tool, will be adapted to the Singapore context and applied throughout the children and youth sector.

Those working in the sector will also get better training, and the Ministry will fund and support homes that carry out resilience building programmes to build up their wards' confidence and self-esteem. Six small group homes will be set up in the next four years to take care of special needs children in a more personalised environment. Two will come up in the second half of the year.

'A society's success cannot be measured by how well we take care of the most able among us. Rather, our benchmark must also be how well we have taken care of the most vulnerable among us,' said Madam Halimah.