MEDIA RELEASE
Embargoed until 9.30am on 13 January 2011
CALLS FOR FAMILY SERVICE CENTRES TO
PROVIDE QUALITY SERVICES
SINGAPORE, JANUARY 12, 2011
– Being the focal point for family
services, the Family Service Centres (FSCs) should continue to be accessible and to
provide high quality services to help distressed families strengthen their resilience.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports
outlined the vision for FSCs to grow in the 21st century, at the inaugural FSC seminar
organised by the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) on 13 January 2011.
Vision attainable through building capabilities
Currently, there are 37 FSCs located island-wide, an increase of more than ninefold
since 1992. The social landscape has changed immensely over the years and the
FSCs are faced with increasingly challenging and complex social issues. As the first
touch point on the ground, the FSCs are expected to be responsive to meet the needs
of families. They are required to be proactive in engaging and collaborating with other
stakeholders, like the Community Development Councils (CDCs), schools and the
grassroots organisations, to provide a continuum of high quality and professional
intervention services. This could be achieved through building the capabilities of the
staff in the FSCs.
Training and sharing sessions such as this FSC seminar provided a platform for social
service practitioners to sharpen their skills and grow in their specialist know-how to
design effective methods to help their clients. Since the completion of the FSC review
in 2009, the training roadmap and core competencies for FSC staff have been
mapped and implemented.
“This seminar is part of NCSS’s efforts in building learning communities amongst the
social service sector. By learning from each other, and reflecting on our practices and
progress, the sector would then be able to better prepare for the challenges ahead,”
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE
170 Ghim Moh Road #01-02 Singapore 279621 ● Tel: 6210 2500 Fax: 6468 1012 ● www.ncss.org.sg
said Ms Tina Hung, Chairman, Organising Committee of the Inaugural FSC Seminar
2011, and Deputy Chief Executive Officer, NCSS.
Updates on the FSC review
Aside from building the capabilities of FSC staff, the FSC review also looked into
several areas including service focus and coverage, resources, community linkages,
and service and professional standards. In the area of service focus and linkages,
NCSS received feedback from key stakeholders, such as schools and grassroots
organisations that FSCs were more focused in their core services. The stakeholders
also reported satisfaction in working with FSCs. The clients too, were satisfied with
the FSC services. In April 2010, a new FSC, Persatuan Pemudi Islam Singapura
(PPIS) FSC (East) started operations; and four more new FSCs will be built over the
next few years. On providing resources for FSCs, a total of $36 million was provided
by MCYS, NCSS and Tote Board to the FSCs in FY2010, so that they can be
adequately staffed to carry out their core work.
NCSS together with MCYS implemented accreditation for social workers and social
service practitioners in April 2009. This accreditation framework aims to ensure
professional standards of practice and promote continual education and training
among social workers. As of 31 December 2010, 260 social workers and social
service practitioners were accredited.
FSCs in the 21st century
The theme for the inaugural FSC seminar is “FSCs in the 21 st Century”. Two
international social service leaders were invited to share their experience and insights
on effective solutions to managing multi-stressed families.
Mr John Burnham, Head of Family and Systemic Psychotherapy Department, and
Director of Systemic Training, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, United Kingdom, would
be sharing on “Responding to Community Needs in the 21 st Century: Methods and
Models that Work”. Professor Joe Leung, Department of Social Work and Social
Administration, The University of Hong Kong, would be speaking on “A Perspective of
Integrated Models: Effective Management of Multi-Stressed Families through
Evidence-based Practice Research”.
The Plenary Session would be chaired by Ms Tina Hung, where the panelists would
engage the seminar participants in discussion on the topic, “Collaboration: Burden or
Resource”. About 350 participants from the FSCs were expected to attend the
seminar.
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Please refer Annex A for the programme of the seminar, and Annex B for the
abstracts of the keynote presentations.
For media queries, please contact:
Ms Kong Chui Fun
Corporate Communications Manager
Corporate Communications Division
National Council of Social Service
Tel: 6210 2636
Email: kong_chui_fun@ncss.gov.sg
Ms Goh Siew Hian
Assistant Director
Corporate Communications Division
National Council of Social Service
Tel: 6210 2638
Email: goh_siew_hian@ncss.gov.sg
National Council of Social Service
NCSS is the umbrella body for about 400 member Voluntary Welfare Organisations in
Singapore. Its mission is to provide leadership and direction in social services, to
enhance the capabilities of social service organisations, and to promote strategic
partnerships for social services. In FY2009, $198 million was disbursed to 526
programmes in the social service sector.
Issued by:
Corporate Communications Division
National Council of Social Service
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
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Annex A
Inaugural FSC Seminar 2011: FSCs in the
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Concorde Hotel Singapore
21st
Century
Programme
Time
Activity
8.00am
Registration
8.50am
Participants to be seated
9.05am
Opening Address
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan
Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports
9.20am
Keynote 1:
Responding to Community Needs in the 21st Century: Methods and
Models that Work
Mr John Burnham, Head of Family and Systemic Psychotherapy
Department, and Director of Systemic Training, at Birmingham Children’s
Hospital, United Kingdom
10.10am
Morning Tea Break
10.40am
Keynote 2:
A Perspective of Integrated Models: Effective Management of MultiStressed Families through Evidence-based Practice Research
Professor Joe Leung, Department of Social Work and Social
Administration, The University of Hong Kong
11.30am
Address
Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, Minister of State, Ministry of Community
Development, Youth and Sports
11.40am
Plenary Session:
Collaboration: Burden or Resource?
 Dr Teo Ho Pin, Mayor, North West Community Development
Council
 Mr John Burnham, Head of Family and Systemic Psychotherapy
Department, and Director of Systemic Training, at Birmingham
Children’s Hospital, United Kingdom
 Professor Joe Leung, Department of Social Work and Social
Administration, The University of Hong Kong
Moderated by Ms Tina Hung, Deputy Chief Executive Officer,
National Council of Social Service
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Time
Activity
12.30pm
Lunch
1.30pm
Concurrent Workshops
Concurrent 1: Creative Strategies in Working with Multi-Stressed
Families
Mr John Burnham, Head of Family and Systemic Psychotherapy
Department, and Director of Systemic Training, at Birmingham Children's
Hospital, United Kingdom
Concurrent 2: A Model Human Service Organisation
Professor Joe Leung, Department of Social Work and Social
Administration, The University of Hong Kong
3.00pm
Concurrent Session Reports
3.30pm
FSC Appreciation
3.45pm
Closing Address
Ms Ang Bee Lian, Chief Executive Officer,
National Council of Social Service
4.00pm
End of Session
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Annex B
Abstracts of Keynote 1:
Responding to Community Needs in the 21st Century: Methods and Models that
Work
Speaker: Mr John Burnham, Head of Family and Systemic Psychotherapy
Department, and Director of Systemic Training, at Birmingham Children’s Hospital,
United Kingdom
Contemporary approaches within the systemic field have brought a ‘breath of fresh air’
into the systemic field through creating forward looking practices, de-emphasising
problems and restraints, whilst emphasising resources and possibilities. In his area of
work, Mr Burnham looked into creating a practice map on how client/supervisee and
therapist/supervisor could work together to work out a unique pathway from problem
to possibility for each client when they are seeking to wrestle with what restrains them
Abstracts of Keynote 2:
A Perspective of Integrated Models: Effective Management of Multi-Stressed
Families through Evidence-based Practice Research
Speaker: Professor Joe Leung, Department of Social Work and Social Administration,
The University of Hong Kong
Family is the basic building block of all societies. Yet rapid social and economic
changes have led to increasing vulnerability of modern families. This presentation
reviews the re-structuring of the Family Service Centres in Hong Kong in the last
decade with the establishment of a new service mode, namely the Integrated Family
Service Centres (IFSCs). IFSCs follow the broad direction of child-centred, familyfocused and community-based and adopt the principles of accessibility, early
identification, integration and partnership. The Hong Kong experiences examine the
evidence-based process of how a new service model was designed, implemented and
evaluated. During the change processes, the cultural/ mindset change of social
workers are found to be paramount in ensuring the success of service reform.
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