Chapter 4: Supporting families through every stage of life

Strong and stable families are the bedrock of our society. We want Singapore to be the best place for Singaporeans to start, grow and nurture their families. However, our families are experiencing greater stresses due to the higher caregiving burden from an ageing population and shrinking family sizes. Many Singaporeans are facing the dual pressures of raising young children while caring for elderly parents.

We will do more to support families through every stage of life by creating a more conducive environment for families to thrive in.

Ensuring continued access to affordable public housing

We will introduce a new framework to classify new HDB flats by locational attributes. Our categories of HDB flats — Standard, Plus and Prime — will ensure that public housing remains affordable and fair, while maintaining a good social mix. Singaporeans will be able to own a wider variety of homes across more locations. Read more on new BTO classification.

Providing greater assurance to parents in the first stage of a child’s life

• We will study the feasibility of providing more parental leave so that parents, especially fathers, can be more involved in caring for their infants. We will work with tripartite partners to take into consideration the impact on employers and businesses.

• For parents without familial or alternative caregiving arrangements, we will ramp up centre-based infant care places, so that more can rely on infant care centres if they wish to.

• We will also introduce affordable, safe and reliable childminding services as an additional infant care option for families.

Supporting Singaporeans’ well-being

• We will better support Singaporeans in achieving mental well-being and work-life harmony.

• We will do more to help families balance their work responsibilities and family commitments through greater flexibility in work arrangements. This includes introducing Tripartite Guidelines for flexible work arrangements and working with tripartite partners to strengthen employers’ capabilities to provide flexible work arrangements well.

• We ask that employers and co-workers adopt more supportive and flexible working practices for families and caregivers, and create a workplace culture that promotes work-life harmony.

Supporting our caregivers

• We will provide additional support for children with developmental and special educational needs, by reducing their families’ out-of-pocket costs for early intervention services, Special Education schools and Special Student Care Centres.

• We will consider what more can be done to support our caregivers and help them manage their responsibilities, be it through caregiver leave, flexible work arrangements or other forms of workplace support.

• We also encourage community partners to lean in to foster a family-friendly environment and provide support networks for our caregivers. We hope that all Singaporeans will support their colleagues, friends and family members who are caregivers.

How can we support families through every stage?

• Ensure public housing remains affordable and fair, and maintains a good social mix

• More support for parents of infants, through parental leave and infant care options

• Support Singaporeans' mental well-being and work-life harmony, such as through flexible work arrangements

• More support for our caregivers

Download reports

• Download and read the full chapter [PDF, 2.1 MB]

• Download Forward SG Report [PDF, 20 MB]

• Download Forward SG Summary Booklet [PDF, 4.6 MB]
  (In English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil)