Question on Factors for Lower Hiring Rate of Persons with Disabilities in Public Sector Compared to Private Sector

By Denise Phua

Speaker, I want to declare, first, that I am a volunteer actively helping job centres in inclusive employment. I want to present another angle. I am quite excited about the work that is going on in inclusive employment in the public sector.

Just to name a few: the National Library Board, VITAL, GovTech, the Central Provident Fund Board, Ministry of Social and Family Development, Ministry of Health Holdings, Singapore General Hospital and also the transport sector. Actually, I think that they have done quite a bit in inclusive hiring, sometimes not allowing us in the charity sector to give up even.

The average rate does not reflect some of the very good work that is done.

There are also critical success factors that I hope the Minister will agree with me that we can learn from. The first is top leadership engagement and support, middle management focus, job design, equipping the colleagues and encouraging those on the ground. So, quite a bit of critical success factors.

Sir, I would like to ask the Minister if he would consider forming even a small task force for those who are actually passionate about this in the public sector to suss out all the critical success factors and those good in this area. And, in fact, position the public sector strongly as a leader in inclusive employment. There is a lot of room there and I am very encouraged by the hiring so far.