About 20 recommendations have been made in the Third Enabling Masterplan for persons with disabilities to include them in the national mainstream and make the society more inclusive. The recommendations included scaling up efforts of employers’ capabilities to hire persons with disabilities, improving their quality of life, caregivers should be given more help and making Singapore a more inclusive society.
Enabling Masterplan is a five-year roadmap to guide the development of policies, programmes, services and other support for the persons with disabilities.
The 22-member steering committee shared its report and proposals for 2017 to 2021 at a media conference at Enabling Village in Lengkok Bahru recently.
Four key thrusts were outlined to help Singapore achieve its vision of a caring and inclusive society. The committee's proposals revolve around improving the quality of life for persons with disabilities, supporting caregivers, building the community and building an inclusive society.
This is the third set of five-year plans to be unveiled, drawn up by the 22-member committee after a series of consultations involving over 400 members of the public over eight months.
The report spelled out how it would improve the quality of life of these persons with disabilities by developing flexible service models for them, ensuring the timely and early detection of children with disabilities by enhancing the existing network of touchpoints, developing open and customised employment models to provide more pathways to employment, and studying if there is a need to establish a disability office.
In ramping up its support for caregivers, they recommended that efforts should be made to improve the caregivers' well-being, enhance their caregiving capabilities, and to support them in their future care planning.
The Ministry of Social and Family Development said in a statement that it would "study the recommendations carefully and respond in due course”. This third Enabling Masterplan will build on the progress of the second Enabling Masterplan (2012-2016).