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nsuring
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ork
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alance
tional flexibility for care-giving arrangements, since 1 May
2013 working fathers have also become entitled to share one
week of the 16 weeks of maternity leave, subject to the agree-
ment of the mother, if the mother qualifies for paid maternity
leave. The one week of paternity leave and one week of shared
parental leave are funded by the Government.
Working parents are also entitled by law to childcare and
infant care leave. Since 31 Oct 2008, each working parent
covered under the CDCA is entitled to six days of paid
childcare leave per year, if they have any Singapore citizen
child under the age of seven years (including adopted and
stepchildren). The employer pays for the first three days of
childcare leave and the Government funds the remaining
three days, capped at S$500 per day. Self-employed parents
are similarly eligible for the government-paid components
of childcare leave. Two days of government-paid extended
childcare leave is also provided annually for parents with
older children aged 7-12. In addition to paid childcare leave,
six days of unpaid infant care leave per year were introduced
in 2008, for working parents with any Singaporean child
under the age of two. For parents who adopt, employers are
required by law to provide four weeks of government-paid
adoption leave for mothers who have adopted a child, to be
taken within 12 months after the child is born.
While other types of leave, such as marriage and compas-
sionate leave, are not prescribed by law, employers are
encouraged to provide these and many do.
Second, with the increasing number of dual-income
households and an ageing population, more families will rely
on institutional care and support services to help them care
for their young and elderly. There is thus a need to ensure
affordable and accessible family care support services.
Today, there is a range of childcare centres, kindergartens
and centres offering infant care in Singapore, all of which
are licensed or registered by the Government. The Early
Childhood Development Agency was formed in April 2013
to oversee the entire early childhood sector. This includes
efforts to raise the affordability, accessibility and quality of
early childhood care and education.
To ensure the affordability of centre-based care and
education, the Government provides a universal infant
care and childcare subsidy of up to S$600 and S$300 per
child per month respectively. These are subsidies given to
parents of Singaporean infants (aged 2-18 months) and
Singaporean children (aged above 18 months to below
seven years) enrolled in licensed childcare centres. The
amount of subsidy varies depending on the programme
type enrolled (for example, full or half-day care) and the
working status of the mother (working mothers qualify for
a higher subsidy). There are also additional subsidies avail-
able for low-income and disadvantaged children so that
these families pay a nominal sum for childcare services.
Kindergartens provide half-day education for children
aged four to six years and financial assistance is similarly
provided to low-income families.
To increase the provision of good quality and affordable
early childhood services, funding was introduced in 2009 for
eligible anchor operators to set the benchmark for quality and
affordability. The funding enables anchor operators to recruit
better qualified teachers, develop existing teachers through
scholarship programmes, have smaller class sizes, and reach
out to children from lower-income or disadvantaged back-
grounds. Anchor operators are required to ensure their
programmes are affordable for the majority of Singaporeans.
A teacher conducting lessons with children in a childcare centre
Image: Early Childhood Development Agency, Singapore