Data on Infant Care and Childcare Places, and Ratio of Available Places and Resident Children per Planning Area

19 Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) what is the latest available number of infant and childcare places; and (b) what is the current ratio of infant and childcare places to resident children below seven years old, as broken down by planning areas.

The Minister of State for Social and Family Development (Ms Sun Xueling) (for the Minister for Social and Family Development): As at end-2024, there were around 16,000 infant care places, out of which around 70% were taken up. As at end-2024, there were around 200,000 childcare places, out of which around 77% were taken up.

When it comes to utilisation rates, they vary across Planning Areas and the median utilisation rates for infant care and childcare are 69% and 74% respectively. Utilisation rates for all Planning Areas are below 90%, for both infant care and childcare.

Mr Speaker: Mr Chua.

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis (Sengkang): Thank you, Speaker. Just one supplementary question for the Minister of State. I understand the average utilisation and take-up. But for places where there is a relatively higher proportion of younger residents such as in Sengkang and Punggol, I think the utilisation will be rather high. I also understand, at least based on the centres set to open in 2025, that a lot of them are naturally in some of these new towns. So, how is this ratio going to change with the introduction of additional new childcare places in the next five years that the Ministry has announced? Especially if you look at Sengkang, based on a quick check on the Life SG app, if I look at infant care places within one kilometre of Sengkang Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station, for example, a large percentage of those are full or have limited vacancies.

Ms Sun Xueling: I thank the Member for his supplementary question. For Sengkang, specifically, infant care and childcare utilisation rates are at 74% and 83% respectively. This is higher than the national level infant care and childcare utilisation rates of around 70% and 77% respectively, which I had mentioned in my main reply. Therefore, it is important, when it comes to building the infant care and childcare centres, that there are early discussions between the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) and the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to understand where are the new estates that are coming up.

These discussions have been taking place. ECDA would assess the sites that are available. HDB gives them a heads-up so that they are able to assess the void deck space that is available or where there are adjacent places available, to be able to construct a space that can be used for infant care and childcare centres.

There will be a tender process for operators to come in to operate these centres. That also takes place in advance so that by the time residents move in to these new estates and they have started renovating, this would be in tandem with when the renovations for these infant care and childcare centres take place, so that when the residents come in and they have young children, that these infant care and childcare centres can be used.

Mr Speaker: We have one last question to be answered. Mr Yip Hon Weng, please move the next question.