Circle of Care
Designed to build a strong support system around children from disadvantaged families and help close the opportunity gap they face because of the lottery of birth, COC combines social work and learning support expertise with health services and parental guidance programmes.
Conceived as a partnership with Care Corner, COC is expected to extend its network to 23 pre-schools and seven primary schools by 2023. Social workers are the lynchpin of the programme. They work with educational therapists, health specialists, teachers and principals – professionals who usually work apart – to form an interdisciplinary team that meets regularly and works to shore up a child’s confidence, skills and learning abilities. The COC professionals also engage parents as partners – both individually and through parental guidance workshops – and provide the support they need to help themselves and their child. Each child has a portfolio summarising his or her background, strengths, needs and learning trajectory, which is shared with his or her primary school to ease the transition to Primary One.
Press Releases
Intervening in Critical Health & Early Childhood Development Needs of Disadvantaged Families Through Preventative Healthcare
2021
Expansion of Circle of Care scheme to support more disadvantaged children and build capabilities of preschools
2018
Singapore’s first model of integrated care expands to 9 preschools & 2 primary schools. More than 1,700 children to benefit in the next 3 years.
2016Media Coverage
Explore Maternal & Child Health
Mission: I’m Possible
An early detection and intervention programme that has since been scaled-up nationwide by the government and is now known as the Development Support and Learning Support Programme.
