New scheme set to make childcare more affordable
23 operators, including Star Learners Child Care, will receiving funding from the Government to lower their fees, invest in improving quality, and support their teachers in professional development. Photo: Star Learners Child Care/Facebook
SINGAPORE — From January, fee caps will be imposed on almost two dozen childcare operators — running 169 centres islandwide — under a new government scheme that also seeks to improve the quality of pre-school centres.
At the same time, a one-off reduction in fees will also be granted to Singaporean children enrolled in these centres. While the amount cut depends on the type of programme and a centre’s existing fees, on average, parents can benefit from a discount of S$90 on top of the monthly fee cap.
The Partner Operator (POP) scheme was announced during the Budget this year. Today (Oct 19), the first batch of 23 operators — which were selected out of 40 applicants based on the strength of their proposals, financial standing and track record — were appointed for a tenure of five years. Together, they offer 16,500 childcare places, said the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA).
Among the partner operators are six voluntary welfare organisations such as Persatuan Pemudi Islam Singapura, Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society and Young Women’s Christian Association of Singapore. The list also includes Alliance First, a consortium of five operators.
The POP scheme complements the Anchor Operator scheme, where anchor operators are given grants by the authorities to lower their operating costs. In return, they are expected to provide quality and affordable pre-school places.
Similarly, under the POP scheme, mid-sized and smaller childcare centres — offering a minimum of 300 places each — receive funding from the Government to lower their fees, invest in improving quality, and support their teachers in professional development.
The partner operators have to keep monthly fees for full-day childcare at S$800 and below, excluding goods and services tax, and keep any fee increases affordable. Half-day childcare fees are capped at S$600 a month while full- and half-day infant care programmes cannot cost more than S$1,400 and S$1,000 a month, respectively.
As of this year, the median fees for full-day childcare programmes stands at S$900 a month. One of the partner operators, Presbyterian Community Services currently charges below the cap at S$700 a month. Nevertheless, it intends to reduce the fee to S$665 a month.
Partner operators must also attain the Singapore Pre-school Accreditation Framework (SPARK) certification and ensure career progression opportunities for their staff. Currently, only 20 out of the 169 centres on board the scheme are SPARK-certified. Explaining the low numbers, the operators cited a range of reasons such as the centres being too new to apply for accreditation — pre-schools have to be operating for at least a year — and delay in certification due to management changes.
At present, there are five anchor operators. Together with the 23 partner operators, they cater to about 40 per cent of pre-school children here. The Government — which has set aside S$250 million over the next five years for both scheme — plans to raise the proportion to 50 per cent by 2020.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ECDA Scholarship Ceremony, Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan-Jin said: “(The partner operators) will work with us to keep early childhood services affordable, raise the quality of pre-school programmes… It is also important to make sure that operators pay attention to development of teachers… So it is also a commitment on the part of the operators to participate in our schemes to make sure that development opportunities are provided for their teachers and edu-carers.”
Partner operators interviewed declined to reveal the amount of government funding that they would receive. Nevertheless, Star Learners Childcare chief executive Tan Meng Wei said his 22 centres — which will all come under the POP scheme — will not be “commercially worse off”, despite reducing monthly fees from about S$990 to S$800. “The biggest impact is that (education) becomes a lot more affordable for parents, at the same time, there is assurance of quality because we will be receiving SPARKS accreditation and be able to attract more qualified professionals in this industry,” said Mr Tan.
Just Kids Group operations manager Lurvin Lee-Yuen said the scheme will offer better training opportunities for preschool educators. A structured career progression plan may also reduce the high turnover rate in the industry, she said. “Having opportunities to take on larger roles in planning, for instance, will definitely help the younger teachers find more fulfilment,” she added.
