10 regional centres to help support parents
Parents can learn to better manage their kids at these social service agencies
Parents who want to do better with their children can now access support more easily with 10 social service agencies across the island having been appointed as one-stop regional centres for government-funded parenting support programmes.
At these Parenting Support Providers (PSP) centres, parents can pick up skills and also attend sessions to learn to manage their child's difficult behaviour, said the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) yesterday.
MSF has been partnering schools to deliver two programmes - Positive Parenting Programme (Triple P) and Signposts - since 2014.
Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee said that by having social service agencies helm the programmes instead of individual schools, each agency can be a one-stop service provider for the region.
"In our move towards these 10 regional PSPs, we have replicated the essential feature of our social sector strategy, which is to provide more integrated, upstream and comprehensive support," said Mr Lee.
The process of appointing the Parenting Support Providers began in July and was completed this month.
Triple P equips parents with techniques to promote children's psychological, social and emotional competence.
Signposts, available in primary schools, helps parents to understand, prevent and manage their child's difficult behaviour.
Close to 20,000 parents have attended the programmes at 295 schools, the ministry said. The programmes are free.
They are available to parents of Primary 3 and 4 pupils and Secondary 1 and 2 students, who are at key transitional stages and may exhibit behavioural issues new to parents.
Mr Lee, who was speaking yesterday at the one-day Asian Family Conference held at Mandarin Orchard Singapore hotel, said evaluations of the two programmes here have shown that parents benefit by gaining confidence in parenting and they feel happier and less stressed.
He added that over time, the scope of the programmes will be expanded to address a wider spectrum of needs and more programmes could be added.
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