Government's Response to State Coroner's Suggestions to Mitigate Psychological Effects for Young People under Police Investigation

6 Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong asked the Minister for Education (Schools) whether the Ministry will be accepting and adopting all the suggestions made by the State Coroner to mitigate the risks of suicide and adverse psychological effects for young people under police investigation.

The Minister for Education (Schools) (Mr Ng Chee Meng):Mdm Speaker, the Ministry of Education is part of a multi-agency review committee formed to consider the State Coroner's suggestions. The committee is led by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and includes the Ministry of Social and Family Development and the Attorney-General's Chambers. As announced by the Minister for Home Affairs last week, the committee has undertaken a comprehensive review of the investigation processes for young persons. Following the recommendations, we will implement further measures that will provide enhanced support for the well-being of young persons under Police investigation. These measures will be implemented in schools by February 2017.

Any young person conveyed from one of our schools to the Police station for an interview will generally be accompanied by an appointed school personnel familiar to the young person. This could be his or her teacher, the Year Head, or the School Counsellor. The school will provide the Police relevant information for all cases to better understand the young person's personal circumstances. The Police will inform the parent about the arrest as soon as possible.

The review committee has also recommended the implementation of an Appropriate Adult (AA) Scheme for young suspects, as announced by the Minister for Home Affairs last week. This Appropriate Adult will provide emotional support and observe the young person for signs of psychological distress during the interview by Law Enforcement Agencies. Thereafter, the school personnel will keep in touch with the parent to work out the follow-on and follow-up steps to look after the young person's well-being. This includes monitoring his or her well-being and making counselling support available.

These efforts by our schools, other Government agencies, parents and the community, will support the well-being of young persons under investigation.

Mdm Speaker : Assoc Prof Daniel Goh.

Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong (Non-Constituency Member): Thank you, Madam. I thank the Minister. The State Coroner suggested that the ideal person would be the school counsellor to be at the interview with the Police, mainly because he would be the resource person and can be the real time facilitator for communication between the different parties involved. So, by adding in the Appropriate Adults, would this add a new layer that complicates things? Why not just stick to the school counsellor as the resource or the key person to be involved in the process?

Mr Ng Chee Meng:I thank the Member for the supplementary question. For the counsellor in question, he is familiar to the young suspect. According to the Review Committee, an Appropriate Adult is more suitable because in the police investigation, the person in attendance should be neutral. While a school counsellor may be in a better place to support the well-being of the young person, in those circumstances may not be neutral. So, that is one part of the answer.

Second, for the school counsellor, whether he or she is accompanying the young adult, a certain level of flexibility would be required given the school's circumstances. So, beyond the school counsellors specifically, we have decided to include the teacher, or the year head, that is familiar to the student to accompany him or her to the police station. In this way, this flexibility will actually have a wider space to support the young person.

Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong: A quick one for the Minister. Just a point of clarification. So, the school staff who is accompanying the student to the police station, he or she will be there the whole time during the interview process?

Mr Ng Chee Meng: I thank the Member for the question. He may or may not be there, depending on the circumstances of the event. When the counsellor, teacher or the year head is at the police station, there will be a proper handover to the Appropriate Adult. If there is no Appropriate Adult at present, the school counsellor would have to make a judgement call to stay with the young person until such an adult shows up. So, this would be operational management and we trust the judgement of the school personnel to make the best call.

Mdm Speaker : Mr Louis Ng.

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Thank you, Madam. I just want to check with the Minister whether the teachers and the school counsellors have adequate training in mental health awareness and psychological first aid, especially awareness of the most common conditions like depression?

Mr Ng Chee Meng: I thank the Member for the question. The basic answer is yes to a basic level to be able to monitor signs of distress, from the teachers and the year head. For the counsellors, they will have a little bit more in-depth training.