Introduction
1. Good morning. It is my pleasure to be here today at the inaugural Social Service Tribe Forum.
a. Just as a tribe bands together to serve a greater purpose, our Social Service Tribe is united by our common call to empower lives and uplift Singaporeans in need. Our tribe is strengthened by every single one of you, as you bring in your unique expertise into the social service sector.
b. And the tribe becomes even stronger when it is further supported by those who identify with us strongly. Which is why we celebrated the contributions of the Partners and the Volunteers of the Social Service Sector in the last two years.
c. Today, we come together as a tribe to celebrate the invaluable work of our Social Service Professionals. All of you.
Year of Celebrating Social Service Professionals
2. Our social service professionals are the beating heart of our sector. And indeed Singapore’s social service fabric, would not be the same without the dedication of our professionals today. This sentiment is shared by our fellow Singaporeans – in a 2024 survey, more than 80% of our Singaporeans said that they recognised the importance of your work as professionals.
3. I have personally spoken to many social service professionals as the Minister for Social and Family Development. I am continuously inspired by your dedication and selflessness in the course of my time. In serving others, and how you often go the extra mile to uplift those in need. Thank you to all our professionals for your support of individuals and families. Thank you. You are special because you help them journey towards stability, self-reliance and ultimately, achieve social mobility. Because of you, our families are empowered to overcome challenges and realise their full potential.
4. Now, to celebrate the progress that we have made over the years and to recognise the important contributions of our professionals, I am pleased to announce that MSF is designating 2025 as the Year of Celebrating Social Service Professionals. Throughout this year, we will shine a light on your invaluable contributions that shape the future of the sector.
Need for New Shifts – Changing Social Needs and Nature of Work
5. Let me first start by sharing some of the trends that we anticipate will affect our social landscape. As a sector, we must ensure that we are able to respond appropriately and keep up.
a. One, the digital age. This digital age will continue to impact our society. We have already seen how social media will continue to have a profound impact on how we interact with each other. Even as a family. At the family level, this could mean individuals are spending less quality time physically present with family, leading to weakening family ties. This can make the work of social service professionals even more challenging, as they will have to work with families to overcome presenting issues while navigating strained relationships and weaker familial support.
b. Before I continue, I would like to play a song for you. This song is titled “True North”, and it conveys the hope for our children to be able to find their bearings in life. Did you enjoy the song? Who do you think wrote this song? What if I told you, that I wrote a poem, asked ChatGPT to convert it to a song, and used an application called MUSIC AI to produce the music? I did all that in ten minutes. We are only beginning to see the extent of what AI can achieve. This is but one example. Perhaps it is a trivial one, but it has caused worry amongst many artistes. You remember there was a demonstration in Hollywood, because they knew what was coming. We can expect that the impact of AI on the various industries will not be insignificant. Therefore, even while we grapple with social media and its impact on society, we must be prepared for this to impact our sector. In the healthcare sector, in Scotland, an AI physiotherapist was recently trialed in an effort to cut NHS wait times. Such moves improve the accessibility of services, but that would certainly also have an impact on manpower and the workforce. We can expect that the jolts that we witness in other sectors, will certainly be seen here. We must respond to these in an agile way, because if it occurs and we are not prepared, it will take us by surprise.
c. In addition, as we move upstream and do more preventive work, the cases that require our intervention will be more complex. They are complex because what we cannott do upstream, will be more complex downstream. We have seen this with our youth justice system; we have diverted many youths away from the criminal justice system. Those that the prisons see are more difficult to handle. Therefore, we need to gear up our competencies to manage intense cases downstream effectively, when upstream ones fail.
6. As for employers, our SSAs will also need to keep up with the shifting nature of work and employees’ evolving priorities.
a. For example, the priorities of various demographics of the workforce may change. For seniors, they want to have time for their caregiving duties. For the young, they want to transition between different roles in the sector, as part of their career journey.
Key Moves in the Upcoming Year
7. As we celebrate the Year of Celebrating Social Service Professionals, let us work together to ensure our social service sector shows thought leadership as we keep up with the shifting social needs and nature of work. We believe that there are three key moves that must be made.
a. First, at the sector-level, what we need to do is to make sure that we can reimagine and reinvent the way in which the sector works, and make sure our services are structured, according to our needs.
b. Second, at the agency-level, we must track and make improvements to employee engagement and working environments, where needed.
c. Third, at the practitioner-level, we will elevate the recognition for the outstanding contributions of our professionals.
8. Let me share more about these moves in turn.
a. First, the reimagination and reinvention of the structure of our services, at the sector-level. As the needs of our society and sector change, we must make changes to the way we operate.
i. NCSS has been engaging various stakeholders over the past few months on this expanded role, as well as the consequent changes to the NCSS Act.
ii. The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) is therefore working closely with the sector to reimagine the family services landscape, to better support the evolving needs of families in the coming years. We have set up a review committee, chaired by Senior Parliamentary Secretary Eric Chua and Prof Tan Tai Yong, President of the Singapore University of Social Sciences. The committee is seeking views from SSAs and practitioners that provide family services. We look forward to your input on how we and the social service sector can improve ourselves.
iii. We look forward to working with you to ensure the social service sector remains agile and future-ready.
b. Second, we will better support social service professionals at the agency-level, through enhancements to employee engagement and the working environment.
i. MSF and NCSS have taken steps to ensure that our social service sector employees and professionals are remunerated competitively. In 2023, we reviewed the Skills and Salary Guidelines for the sector and have been engaging SSAs to pay employees according to the guidelines. We will continue to work with SSAs to improve adherence to the guidelines and will be sharing this with them so they can benchmark their performance against the sector.
ii. NCSS will also be launching the Employee Engagement Survey for Social Services platform. Through this platform, SSAs will seek to better understand their employee engagement levels, hear feedback from practitioners, and identify areas for improvement. Based on their findings, we hope that SSAs can tap on the existing Transformation Sustainability Scheme, to address areas for improvement.
c. Third, at the practitioner-level, we will elevate the recognition of the outstanding contributions of our professionals. I am therefore pleased to announce that we will establish new sector awards to appreciate professionals in the sector:
i. In this Year of Celebrating Social Service Professionals, we will be introducing the new President’s Award for Social Service Professionals. Henceforth, this will be the highest accolade for the sector. The President’s Award will affirm professionals who have demonstrated exceptional contributions and outstanding professional qualities. Because all practitioners, including social workers, are integral members of the sector, and we want to see peaks of excellence in all complementing domains, this award will be given to professionals in the social service – social workers, therapists, counsellors, psychologists, youth workers. Even care and corporate staff.
ii. There will also be Excellence and Merit Awards to acknowledge individual social service professionals who have made impactful contributions to the sector.
iii. As I mentioned earlier, a multidisciplinary approach working across domains will be something that we are required to address complex cases holistically. And we will see more of these. Therefore, it is not enough to just acknowledge peaks of excellence of professions from different domains. They must also work together. For those who demonstrate thought leadership in collaborative social service, and demonstrate impactful and innovative collaboration across boundaries, we will launch the Social Service Excellence Team Awards. Recipients of this award will be teams that have demonstrated client-centric, cross-profession, and inter-agency contributions.
iv. These awards will be given out in the latter half of 2025. NCSS will share more details on the nomination process soon. I hope these new awards will affirm the excellence of social service professionals and their invaluable contributions to Singapore.
9. Ladies and Gentlemen, the road ahead will be challenging. The world has changed to a situation that will not return to the familiar. But I believe that the social sector will rise to the occasion, just as it has always been able to before. I look forward to working with you to ensure that the social service sector remains agile, and more importantly, future-ready.
Conclusion
10. In conclusion, as our nation celebrates its 60th birthday, we will also designate this year as the Year of Celebrating Social Service Professionals. This is to recognise the important contributions of our professionals in this sector to our nation. As we celebrate SG60, I hope we continue to journey towards a Singapore where every Singaporean is valued and cared for, one that we are proud to call home. I wish all of you a very fruitful day of learning and sharing, in pursuit of greater excellence for the social service sector.