SPEECH BY MR ONG YE KUNG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND COORDINATING MINISTER FOR SOCIAL POLICIES, AT THE ENABLING MARK AWARDS

Mr Eric Chua, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Law & Ministry of Social and Family Development

Mr Moses Lee, Chairman, SG Enable

Ms Lee May Gee, CEO, SG Enable

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen

1.             It is truly a privilege to join you this evening for the Enabling Mark Awards.

2.             It has been almost 20 years since Singapore launched its first Enabling Masterplan, or EMP, our national roadmap for building a more inclusive society for persons with disabilities. We are now on our fourth – EMP2030 – and we have made good progress on many fronts: education, healthcare, community services, transport as well as the built environment.

3.             This will be an ongoing effort. In the coming years, more young persons with disabilities will leave school and step into adulthood. In 2023, about 7,800 students were enrolled in our Special Education schools. Today, there are about 9,000.

4.             For their parents, this transition brings natural and deeply felt worries about whether their children can live independently, and whether they will be accepted by society, especially when the parents one day will no longer be around.

5.             These are difficult but relevant questions. That is why we set up the Taskforce on Assurance for Families with Persons with Disabilities. Its recommendations released last month, recognise that while Singapore has made progress, we need a stronger system of support for persons with disabilities and their families, across every stage of life.

Strengthening Community Support and Engagement

6.             We can perhaps take a leaf from how we are strengthening support for seniors. The starting point is to recognise that their needs vary widely. Some seniors have complex needs and require intensive support, often in institutional settings. Others need a low to moderate level of support, as long as it is accessible and close to where they live. Still others remain fit despite their advanced age, and continue to contribute to, and live well in communities.

7.             That is why we have built a spectrum of services for seniors – from a network of Active Ageing Centres (AACs) and Community Health Posts that anchor preventive care in our neighbourhoods, to Home Care Services, Home Therapy Services and then nursing homes for the frailest.

8.             Needs are also dynamic, including for seniors. A senior who once needed intensive care may improve and need only the social support of an AAC later on. Equally, a senior’s condition may deteriorate. Our system must be flexible enough to shift support across settings, and make every transition as smooth and as integrated as possible.

9.             I think we can approach support for persons with disabilities with the same mindset – recognising that their needs are varied and can also change over time. However, unlike caring for seniors where we know that the march of time is relentless, for persons with disabilities, we can aim and we can hope to help them make tangible progress over the years, going as far as he or she can.

10.          For those who need more structured support, Day Activity Centres and Sheltered Workshops remain essential. They provide a fairly intensive level of care and engagement, including some work skills training. The waitlists for these services are growing quite long, and we have started to expand capacity. “We” as in the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). I am the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies, so I use “we” quite broadly. We will add 2,300 places by 2030, bringing total capacity across Day Activity Centres and Sheltered Workshops to 5,800 places. This should hopefully bring down waiting times. But more importantly, let us evolve the service.

11.          In addition, moving forward, we are also testing out a new model of care called the Enabling Skills for Life Programme (ESLP). It is currently being offered at a few Day Activity Centres and Sheltered Workshops.

12.          The idea is to go beyond care and engagement, to provide a more structured curriculum to help persons with disabilities build greater independence, integrate into the community, and where possible, prepare them for employment. Over the next few years, we will progressively convert more Day Activity Centres and Sheltered Workshops into Enabling Skills Centres offering the ESLP, operated by our social service agencies.

13.          With ESLP, we hope that more persons with disabilities will be able to take greater charge of their own lives and participate more actively in the community. 

14.          And when they can, for this group, we will continue to support them through Enabling Services Hubs, or ESHs. When you sort of graduate from ESLP, you are not left alone. The ESH will then take over the support. It is a different level of support. By 2028, SG Enable will set up 12 such hubs across Singapore. They will serve as touchpoints connecting persons with disabilities and their caregivers to resources, to future care planning services, to support, and to community programmes.

15.          We hope the ESHs will give caregivers greater peace of mind – knowing that there is a trusted place in the community where their loved ones can go, where they will be safe, and where they can remain engaged in the community.

16.          For this group that goes to ESH, there can be a further step. It is to help those who are ready find and hold a job.

Strengthening Employment Support

17.          The employment rate of persons with disabilities has been rising steadily in Singapore. Today, just over a third of working-age persons with disabilities are employed here. We have set ourselves a target of 40% by 2030.

18.          Much of the credit goes to enlightened and supportive employers that practise inclusive hiring. Take UOB. It has redesigned jobs so that employees with autism can work effectively in areas such as document digitisation and platform testing, breaking the work down into structured workflows with clear visual instructions. It takes an effort for UOB to do this. But with your effort, persons with disabilities now find a purpose in this organisation.

19.          Marina Bay Sands, our host today, is another good example. It made physical adjustments to the workplace, such as lowering card-access readers and computer kiosks, so that call centre agents and analysts who use wheelchairs can work with ease.

20.          These may seem like small adjustments, but to a person with a disability, they can be life-changing. I am always reminded when we do home visits as Advisers on the ground. We will visit some older flats where there is always a small kerb from the corridor up to the flat. For us, it is a little step. For a senior, that little step can make the difference between being confined at home, and being able to go out, take part in activities and stay socially connected. Remove that barrier, and you liberate the life of that senior. In all our organisations, there are all these little barriers that we can remove, and they open up the lives of persons with disabilities.

21.          Inclusive hiring is not the preserve of big companies. Last month, thanks to May Gee, I visited the Enabling Village and had lunch at this restaurant called AMGD. It is an inclusive F&B outlet run by RETA Social Enterprise. There, I met Lina, one of its Service Champions, who has been working at the restaurant for about 11 months. She is one of about 20 persons with disabilities employed there, in roles ranging from packing and food preparation to customer service. You should go try the restaurant. But the business is already quite good, I heard.

22.          I also visited Eden and Elie, where I watched artisans with disabilities skilfully threading beads by hand to make jewellery. These examples show what is possible. With the right job design, training and support, persons with disabilities can do meaningful work and make a real contribution.

23.          I hope more employers will join the likes of UOB, Marina Bay Sands, RETA and Eden and Elie. We must make inclusive hiring the norm, not the exception; everyone’s business, not the initiative of a few; and common industry practice, not something that rests on goodwill alone.

Government Support for Inclusive Hiring

24.          But we also need to be realistic. Employers face practical challenges. You need to survive, compete and manage rising business costs, and navigate many government rules. Hiring and supporting persons with disabilities involves additional costs – to redesign roles, provide training, modify the workplace, or put in place additional supervision and professional support. Not forgetting sometimes explaining to your customers, asking them to just please be more patient and more understanding.

25.          If we want employers to do more, the Government must be prepared to lean in and help defray some of these costs. Earlier today, SPS Eric Chua announced enhancements to the Enabling Employment Credit (EEC), which defrays the cost of wages and salaries.

26.          In addition, in the first half of 2027, we will consolidate existing employer grants into a single Enabling Employment Grant, or EEG, which defrays the cost employers incur, for example, in redesigning jobs or training. This will make support easier to access, and broaden the range of items the grant can be used for. Changes that are much welcomed.

27.          To encourage more employers to create more jobs for persons with disabilities, we will also introduce sort of a new scheme called the Stronger Support Enabling Employment Grant (S-EEG). The S-EEG caters to enterprises that employ a meaningful number of persons with moderate support needs, and provides them with a higher level of funding beyond the EEG. If you think about it, we have the EEG, here is one more tier above the EEG, which is the S-EEG, and “S” just stands for Stronger Support.

28.          We will start the S-EEG with a budget of around $30 million to support the first group of enterprises. SG Enable will launch the first call for proposals by the end of this year.

29.          We will learn from its implementation and better understand what employers need to support employment to make it more sustainable. From there, we will consider how Government support for disability employment can be further expanded, with the hope that supported employment becomes common practice over time. EEG and S-EEG, as complicated as they may sound, I really hope that this is just the beginning.

Conclusion

30.          I am heartened to see such a strong turnout tonight, from companies of all sizes, and across many sectors. More than 190 organisations will receive Enabling Mark accreditation this evening – almost double the number at the last Awards ceremony in 2024.

31.          Beyond employers, we are also recognising individuals who champion inclusive employment – from colleagues who buddy persons with disabilities at work, to job coaches who support their transition into employment.

32.          We also celebrate employees with disabilities who demonstrate a strong work ethic and serve as role models for others. Together, they show that everyone has a part to play in building inclusive workplaces.

33.          This evening, we are also launching the refreshed Enabling Mark 2.0 framework. It places greater emphasis on meaningful inclusion outcomes, including retention and career development. Inclusion is not just about opening the door – it is about helping people stay, grow, and build careers, so that our efforts are both sustained and sustainable.

34.          I think Singapore has come a long way in disability inclusion. The Taskforce’s recommendations mark the next phase of our journey – recognising that the needs of persons with disabilities can evolve, believing that more of them can live independently and contribute, and supporting families to plan for the future with confidence.

35.          A society is measured not only by how far it has progressed - economically or materially, but also by how well it includes everyone. Every job redesigned, every workplace made accessible, and every person given a fair chance brings us closer to that society. So let me congratulate all the Enabling Mark awardees this evening, and thank you for being part of this effort. Thank you.