Priority pre-school enrolment, more early intervention places for children with developmental needs

She works as a server on an ad-hoc basis at weddings, and is interviewing for another part-time job in retail.

“(The ComLink befriender) supports me to not just sit at home and wait but also put in effort to apply for jobs,” she said.

She hopes to work in food and beverage, and eventually start a small F&B business of her own.

“She gives me emotional and financial support, checks in on me and asks how I’m doing,” she added. “Having someone to talk to feels so nice – even though we’re not related, we’re close like family.”

Her befriender, who is a Nanyang Technological University undergraduate, visits her monthly and sends her information on tuition and enrichment programmes her children can attend.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Social and Family Development Eric Chua said there are 760 volunteer befrienders working with 3,500 families today.

2. Priority enrolment for children from lower-income families at anchor operator pre-schools

The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) has worked with anchor operator pre-schools to prioritise children from families with a gross monthly household income of $3,000 and below for enrolment into childcare programmes from Jan 1, 2023.

Families with an income between $3,001 and $6,000 are also given priority in pre-school enrolment.

Parents can now indicate their monthly household income on ECDA’s Preschool Search Portal, which will allow anchor operator pre-schools to identify eligible children when parents indicate interest in their centres.

Minister of State for Social and Family Development Sun Xueling said more needs to be done to close the pre-school enrolment gap between children from lower-income households and their peers.

She said: “We hope that with a facilitated enrolment process, parents from lower income families will work with us and help to enrol their children into pre-school by age 3.”

“Beyond pre-school enrolment, we also recognise that children from lower-income families may need more support to attend pre-school regularly,” she added.

KidStart practitioners will work with pre-schools to address barriers to regular attendance for children on the KidStart programme.

Ms Sun also noted that 22,000 more full-day pre-school places will be created over the next two years, out of which 7,000 will be for infant care and playgroup programmes.

The number of qualified infant educators here has tripled from 2,100 in 2017 to 6,400 in 2022, she added.

3. KidStart to be expanded nationwide by 2026

KidStart, which has supported more than 6,200 children aged 6 and below from lower-income families, will be extended to Jalan Besar, Toa Payoh, Sengkang, Hougang and Serangoon in the coming year.

The programme, which was was introduced in 2016 to guide lower-income parents to support their young children’s development, will support 80 per cent of eligible children born from this year onwards, up from the current 20 per cent.

KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) and the National University Hospital (NUH) will identify eligible parents and encourage them to sign up at the antenatal stage. A multidisciplinary team of practitioners will support more expectant mothers in their physical and mental health.