Supporting the Vulnerable in Singapore

Sir, last July, a 14-year old boy with special needs fell to his death from a HDB flat. Sebastian Yeo Wei Xiong or Ah Boy or beggar boy as he was known to his neighbours, lived with his divorced mother in a rental flat. It was reported in the online New Paper that Ah Boy had stopped attending school for more than a year before his death. His mother had depression and would often lock the door on him. On the nights that he was locked out, he would hang the packet of food that he bought for his mother outside the door before going to spend the night at the void deck or at a nearby bus stop. Ah Boy is dead now. Could his death have been prevented? Sir, I say yes, but only if all of us who are trying to help can organise ourselves as a sector more effectively.

Sir, as a full-time volunteer, I have witnessed and protested for years against the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the way the "many-helping-hands" approach is being applied in essential services, such as education in the disability sector. At times, "many-helping-hands" degenerate to a "many-bosses-to-report-to" syndrome, eg, special schools. Even the formation of a Disability Office by MCYS to coordinate inter-Ministry efforts for pivotal disability services in health, early intervention, education and employment did not bear much visible fruit for various reasons.

Sir, after serving three years as an MP, I now realise that the rest of the social service sector serving the poor and the needy faces similar challenges. The root cause does not lie in the competency or the mission of each agency. In fact, some of them whom I am familiar with, like the Central CDC, CDAC and Kampong Kapor Family Service Centre, are responsive, compassionate and able. Sincere and helpful MCYS and NCSS professionals are constantly developing programmes and seeking funding to support the many VWOs that they are taking care of. My sincere gratitude to them.

But, Sir, most help agencies work in silos. The CDC has its own data base. MCYS has its ComCare data base. The People's Association has its household information system. MOE, Town Councils, Family Service Centres, ethnic self-help groups, VWOs, NCSS and even us MPs have our own mini data bases, from Excel spreadsheets to more sophisticated ware to keep track of our charges. How many of these agencies have the capability and the bandwidth to follow through till the vulnerable individual or family can stand on their own two feet and to ensure that no one falls through the crack?

Sir, if the social service sector is likened to the Titanic, we need to go beyond rearranging the deck chairs or, worse, buying more deck chairs to save this ship and its passengers. We need a serious systems study of the features of the ship and align it with where it is heading, organise the crew, go beyond programme launches or publicity, and follow it through with execution excellence to save as many of the vulnerable as possible. Specifically, I urge the Minister to personally captain and navigate the following suggested strategies.

(1) Commission an in-depth systems study of the social service sector, listing its target recipients, the numerous agencies involved, reporting matrices and outcomes.

(2) Collaborate with the various agencies and construct a service delivery process map from the perspective of the user for each key group they serve, starting with the most vulnerable. In this regard, I would recommend a study mission to Alexandra Hospital's IDEAS LAB, which chronicles the hospital's key service delivery tools, such as customer-base experience mapping and trending of balanced scorecard results and outcomes.

(3) Appoint a carefully selected taskforce with the right mix of strategic leadership and execution bench depth, to be accountable to deliver what Prime Minister recently promised Singapore that he will "make sure that everyone who needs help will get help."

(4) Consolidate and make available a confidential password-protected data base, so that key information on the case history of the vulnerable is accessible to appointed key agency representatives, and that the respective help agencies do not overlap their services or trip over each other.

In conclusion, Sir, after observing and experiencing the challenges on the ground in the social service sector, I am convinced that it is not a lack of resources that those helping the vulnerable in Singapore are facing, and this is confirmed many times by the Ministry just now in the COS session. In fact, Government recently announced that only one third of the $6.25 million in ComCare fund is given out. The social service sector needs to undergo a serious review and we need to deploy our many-helping-hands approach wisely. Albert Einstein once said, "Ours is the generation that has seriously mistaken means with ends." Sir, with our MCYS Minister as the captain of the ship to lead us in navigating the four strategies I proposed, I am confident that we can avoid confusing means with ends and prove Einstein wrong, and extend help to where help is badly needed to the vulnerable in Singapore.