More families in Singapore using childminding and elder-minding services
Active Global's part-time elder-minders helped care for its client Khor Tze Siong's mother when his family helper was away from March to April 2025.
SINGAPORE – More than 40 infants are enrolled in a new significantly subsidised nanny service here in childminders' homes and in rooms in Tampines East and Nee Soon East community clubs (CCs).
Another 180 families have indicated their interest in enrolling in the service for infants aged two months to 18 months, said the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) on Aug 14.
ECDA, which is under the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF),
launched the three-year childminding pilot in December 2024 to provide more affordable infant caregiving options for parents.
Around 50 of these childminders are currently caring for infants under the pilot, out of nearly 200 childminders who have undergone background checks by ECDA.
The agency said it is encouraged by the growing interest in the pilot.
'Parents have shared positive feedback on the dedicated care their infants receive and the convenience, especially since childminders can accommodate parents' caregiving preferences,' it said.
ECDA said it will continue to work with operators to explore more community premises to meet demand from parents and childminders, and enhance services.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore Over 100 people being investigated for vape offences, say MOH and HSA
Singapore Bukit Merah fire: Residents relocated as town council carries out restoration works
Singapore askST: What to do in the event of a fire at home
Singapore Jalan Bukit Merah fire: PMD battery could have started fatal blaze, says SCDF
Singapore askST: What are the fire safety rules for PMDs?
Asia AirAsia flight from KL to Incheon lands at wrong airport in South Korea
Asia India and China work to improve ties amid Trump's unpredictability
Singapore From quiet introvert to self-confident student: How this vulnerable, shy teen gets help to develop and discover her strength
This includes matching families with childminders in convenient locations more efficiently.
Separately, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said it will be ceasing manpower concessions for basic childminding services under its Household Services Scheme (HSS).
MOM said it assessed, in consultation with MSF, that there is no need to provide manpower concessions for childminding services owing to the low take-up rate. Current migrant worker quota concessions will cease from March 2026.
The HSS was introduced in 2017 as a pilot to allow companies to hire more migrant workers for cleaning and other part-time domestic services. Approved companies under the HSS are eligible for additional work permit quotas.
The scheme was made permanent from 2021. It was expanded in March 2023 to cover basic childminding services and elder-minding services in a two-year pilot.
Basic childminding and elder-minding include tasks like feeding, bathing and dressing, as well as engaging the person in activities.
Families should approach specialised caregiving companies if a higher level of care is required, such as home nursing or home medical services.
MOM said it will continue to grant manpower concessions to elder-minding services for HSS companies and review this again in 2027.
About 1,300 households had engaged care services from January to July 2024, with more than 95 per cent taking up elder-minding services under the HSS, MOM said.
Companies told The Straits Times they expect demand for part-time childminding and elder-minding to rise as these are flexible services and can stand in for family helpers when they go on home leave.
Companies that are part of the HSS can hire female workers from Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka or Thailand.
Under the HSS, elder-minders are required to complete their first aid certification and undergo a competency assessment conducted by an Agency for Integrated Care-appointed training provider, among other requirements.
Part-time elder-minding plugs caregiving gaps
For eldercare provider Active Global, a total of 500 families have engaged its elder-minding services to date. This is up from 100 families at the end of 2023, around half a year after Active Global joined the HSS.
The company has also received 1,855 inquiries on the HSS, said Mr Muhammad Asraf, who runs Active Global's HSS services.
He said its migrant workers received training at the Active Global Training Centre on eldercare support, safety and hygiene practices, as well as communication techniques.
Active Global's initial team of six staff has grown to 24 employees, who have at least two years of caregiving experience.
They have caregiving certificates obtained either in Singapore or from their home country, and receive additional training from Active Global's in-house nurses.
The company provides accommodation under its corporate lease for HSS staff.
One client, Mr Khor Tze Siong, said Active Global's elder-minding service helped to fill in for his family's domestic helper when she returned home for about three weeks in mid-March.
Mr Khor, an accountant, is mostly able to work from home, but he engaged an elder-minder to help him to take care of his mother, who has dementia, in four- or eight-hour blocks on days he needed to go to the office.
He said, compared with his domestic helper, the Active Global elder-minders are more skilled at caring for seniors owing to their professional training.
But he noted that they kept to their job scope of caring for seniors and related tasks, unlike his domestic helper who takes on a larger variety of chores.
Mr Khor also noted that four different elder-minders were assigned on different days, and his mother took to some more than others.
Another HSS company, Luce SG, which provides home cleaning and caregiving services, said it has facilitated more than 1,000 elder-minding sessions and more than 600 childminding sessions in 2025.
Luce SG employs 10 full-time minders from Myanmar with caregiving experience, such as former nurse aides or migrant domestic workers.
Its childminders are required to have at least five years of childcare experience.
More than half of Luce's elder-minders and childminders previously worked as live-in domestic helpers in Singapore, said Ms Abbicia Choo, strategy and planning associate at Luce SG.
Many workers opted for the switch because they prefer structured working hours and the opportunity to specialise in eldercare or childcare, while still enjoying the stability of full-time employment, Ms Choo said.
Luce's HSS migrant workers live in MOM-approved Housing Board flats or private rented units.
Many Singaporean families are also choosing not to engage live-in domestic helpers to have more privacy, Ms Choo added.
Part-time and full-time care for children
Appointed operator EduNanny by Butler, which started providing services under ECDA's childminding pilot in March, has reached the maximum capacity in its Tampines East CC facility, caring for nine babies.
EduNanny chief executive Poon Da Qian said 60 parents are on the waiting list.
Aside from EduNanny, two other operators, Kidibliss and NannyPro Care, have also been appointed to hire nannies under the scheme.
According to ECDA guidelines, each childminder is allowed to care for up to three infants at any one time under the pilot.
This is compared with one staff member for up to five babies under the infant care programmes run by childcare centres.
The pilot childminding scheme, which will run for three years, aims to serve 500 infants in the first year.
Mr Poon said: 'With Tampines East CC now operating at full capacity, our full focus is on ramping up home-based childminding.'
EduNanny currently has 17 home-based childminders listed on its portal and is onboarding an average of four infants a week for such care. It provides home-based childminders with training on infant care and safety, key equipment and materials, and support with layout and environment set-up.
ECDA says on its website that it conducts background checks on the nannies, including if they have any criminal history.
If the baby is cared for in the nanny's home, these background checks are also done on the nanny's family members and others who visit the home regularly.
Before they are deployed, the childminders must undergo mandatory training on infant care, among other things.
One of EduNanny's clients, Ms Felicia Ho, drops off her five-month-old daughter at the home of its childminder every weekday before going to work.
Ms Felicia Ho drops off her five-month-old daughter in the home of an EduNanny childminder every weekday before going to work.
PHOTO: FELICIA HO
The technical support worker decided to give the service a try as she and her husband's hands are tied up with responsibilities.
The couple have another two-year-old, and parents with cancer and dementia, who are being cared for by the family helper.
The full-time childminder has two boys of her own, aged two and 10, and lives 20 minutes from Ms Ho's home in Jalan Besar.
'The assuring thing about the childminder is she is compassionate about caring for kids,' Ms Ho said, adding that the childminder's home is a welcoming environment for the children.
EduNanny also provides babysitting services under the HSS, which are used mostly by expatriate parents, who are not eligible for the subsidised MSF childminding scheme.
The cleaning services of another company, Meide.sg, are under the HSS, but its babysitting services are not. Founder Pierre Tan said that while it is hard to hire Singaporeans and permanent residents (PRs) to work as cleaners, many are keen to babysit to earn a side income.
Mr Tan said Meide's babysitters comprise about 50 work permit holders – most of whom had worked as domestic helpers – compared with around 9,000 locals and PRs. Most of Meide's babysitters are self-employed and work flexible hours.
Around 4,000 clients have used Meide's babysitting service since it started in 2021, said Mr Tan. About 1,200 of the clients took up the service in 2024.
One client was personal trainer John Cheah, who engaged Meide around the start of 2024 to look after his 15-month-old daughter when he was at work.
Mr Cheah was able to coordinate the babysitting arrangements directly with the sitter he was matched with. He engaged the childminder for four hours around three times a week for about seven months.
The babysitter, who is Singaporean, has five children of her own.
Mr Cheah's parents could help, but they were still working and his helper was caring for his bedridden grandfather at the time.
The babysitting costs amounted to $960 a month. Mr Cheah, who co-parents with his former wife and cares for their daughter for half the week, was just happy to come home to his only child after work.
'I'm paying for the flexibility,' he said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
Mandarin with Taiwanese characteristics: Taipei leverages language as soft power tool
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox – How do you say 'MRT' in Mandarin? In this particular Chinese language class, the correct answer is 'jieyun' – a Taiwan-specific term – and not 'ditie', which is used in mainland China. Reading comprehension exercises here can be about Taiwan's night markets, with references to stinky tofu and bubble tea; and writing is done in traditional Chinese characters instead of the simplified characters preferred across the Taiwan Strait. Finally, students might be prompted to practise saying where they are from with the following phrase: 'Wo shi tai wan ren, ni ne?' – I am Taiwanese, how about you? The scenes described above provide a snapshot of what lessons are like at a Taiwan Centre For Mandarin Learning (TCML) – the Taiwan government-funded overseas learning centres which, as they admit, offer Mandarin education with 'Taiwanese characteristics'. Since their introduction in 2021, Taiwan's Overseas Community Affairs Council has set up 88 centres across Europe and the United States, in major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and Paris, as part of Taiwan's efforts to use Mandarin to promote cultural diplomacy. These centres are typically established within existing language schools or community associations, which receive Taiwan government funding and resources to cover operating expenses. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore I want to divorce my husband and be a single mother: More victims speaking up on emotional abuse Asia Dozens injured after magnitude 6.0 quake strikes Sulawesi, Indonesia, official says Singapore Buying hope: Inside S'pore's love affair with the lottery Singapore She won big in Genting, but getting $240k winnings back to Singapore was dicey World Trump drops Ukraine ceasefire demand after Putin summit Singapore Motorcyclist dies after multi-vehicle collision on TPE An estimated NT$541 million (S$23.1 million) so far has been spent to fund the programme. The programme is set to significantly extend its reach: In 2026, new centres will be established in Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand. Dr Elaine Chung, a Chinese studies lecturer at Cardiff University in the UK, told The Straits Times that it was unsurprising Taipei had selected those countries to set up language centres. 'These nations share democratic norms and are likely seen by the Taiwanese government as providing a favourable context for cultivating long-term international goodwill and political support amid intensifying cross-strait tensions,' she said. Taiwan faces the constant threat of invasion by China, which views the island as its territory and has in recent years ramped up its military and diplomatic pressures against it to assert its sovereignty claims. In a July speech addressing TCML's expansion plans, Taiwanese Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi said that Mandarin education served as one of the island's most effective diplomatic tools. 'Mandarin language exchanges have brought Taiwan to the world and the world to Taiwan,' he added. If the TCMLs sound like Taiwanese counterparts to China's dwindling government-funded Confucius Institutes (CIs), that is because they were designed to be that way. Founded in 2004, CIs are language and culture education centres embedded in overseas universities and colleges, whose stated purpose is to promote Chinese language and culture. But as tensions between Washington and Beijing intensified in recent years, concerns have grown over the alleged use of CIs as tools for Chinese propaganda and espionage in American educational institutions. Critics have accused CIs of censoring discussions on issues sensitive to the Communist Party of China, such as the Cultural Revolution and alleged human rights abuses in Tibet. From a peak of roughly 100 CIs in the US in 2018, fewer than five remain operating in the country, according to a 2023 report by the US Government Accountability Office. A similar wariness about the rise of China's influence in parts of Europe has also led to rapid closures of some CIs in countries such as Sweden, Spain and Germany. Taiwan saw a chance to fill the void, teaching adult students its version of Mandarin – along with its democratic values – as Beijing's threats against the island have become increasingly aggressive. In 2021, Taipei launched the TCML programme and marketed it as an alternative source of Mandarin instruction that was open and democratic. Besides the programme, Taiwan also runs a long-running scholarship programme offered to international students, including from Singapore, to travel to Taiwan to study Mandarin. Another scheme involves sending Mandarin language teachers from Taiwan to teach in US universities. Dr Chung said: 'Taiwan's active promotion of Mandarin reflects its ambition to mobilise the language as a cultural resource that projects value-based soft power, emphasising its democratic and liberal identity as distinct from China on the international stage.' At London's Hua Hsia Chinese School – a TCML centre – some 70 students have signed up to master basic Mandarin while picking up factoids about Taipei 101 and how to identify cities and counties on a Taiwan map. Many students have some kind of connection to Taiwan, either by marriage or business ties. Ms Katja Ting, who runs the school, said she felt heartened by the show of interest in the course, despite the significant challenge in learning to read traditional Chinese characters versus simplified script. 'One of our students said that it has always been his dream to learn traditional characters because he thinks they're more beautiful,' she told ST in a video call. 'Our Japanese students also prefer it because the same characters are used in their Kanji writing system.' Experts noted, however, that the promotion of traditional Chinese script as a unique feature of Taiwan could also be its drawback. 'The education system in most countries teaches Modern Standard Chinese as it is spoken and written in China, which is 'putonghua' with simplified characters,' said Dr Jeffrey Gil, who has researched extensively on the topic. 'That means that TCMLs are teaching a kind of Chinese that most students haven't studied and which doesn't match their prior learning experiences,' said the lecturer from Australia's Flinders University. 'This raises questions about if and how TCMLs can connect with and contribute to existing Chinese language education programmes abroad,' he told ST. Dr Chung noted that despite the political controversy surrounding CIs, international students see the appeal of learning a version of Mandarin that is usable in China due to perceived academic or career advantages in the long run. After conducting interviews with 30 university students in the UK majoring in Chinese studies, she found that even as students were critical of China's political system, many preferred to learn the version of Mandarin as written and spoken in China. 'While Taiwan works to brand its Mandarin education as a progressive, liberal alternative, it struggles against the gravitational pull of China's global economic and political dominance,' she said. For Ms Ting, who heads the TCML centre in London, Taiwan's Mandarin education strategy should be seen as offering students an additional choice. 'That's better than thinking of it as a competition with China. Students will want to learn Taiwan's version of Mandarin for specific reasons, and it's good that they have this option,' she said.
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Straits Times
The key to delicious homemade ice cream? Cream cheese
Whether it is strawberry cheesecake ice cream, peanut butter pie ice cream or the good old plain vanilla, the best ice cream this summer is the one you create. UNITED STATES – Imagine a cookie dough ice cream that actually has enough cookie dough in it: That is just one thrill of making your own ice cream. Sure, it requires a machine and a bit of patience, but there is nothing sweeter on a hot summer day than scooping a flavour of your creation. I fell in love with making ice cream when I was young, helping my mum manage ice and salt levels in an old-fashioned churning bucket . That passion eventually led me to complete a professional ice cream course at Penn State's Department of Food Science. These days, I like to experiment with flavours based on other desserts, such as peanut butter pie, with chocolate cookie pieces (the crust) and chocolate shards (the topping) rippling through creamy peanut butter ice cream (the filling). It is a recipe that captures the pie's best – and one you probably will not find at scoop shops. Half the fun of making ice cream at home is letting yourself get creative, and the base recipe I I have included here, along with these tips, are all you need to get started . 1. Start with a secret ingredient. The key to really delicious homemade ice cream is in the dairy aisle, but it is not heavy cream or eggs. It is cream cheese. Many at-home ice cream recipes call for egg yolks to create a creamy, scoopable custard base, but a lot of commercial options are Philadelphia-style, which is made without eggs. Instead, these commercial makers use stabilisers and sweeteners that home cooks might not be able to buy. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 5 new walking trails allow hikers to explore heritage sites and win supermarket vouchers World Trump advises Ukraine's Zelensky to 'make a deal' with Russia after meeting Putin World Did Putin just put one over Trump at the US-Russia summit on Ukraine? Singapore Nowhere to run: Why Singapore needs to start protecting its coasts now Life Meet the tutors who take O-level exams every year to create a 'war mate' bond with their students Life Switching careers in middle age and beyond: How these Singapore professionals did it Opinion Revitalise nightlife? Let's get the crowds out first Asia 11,000 properties without power after 4.9-magnitude quake strikes near east coast of Australia Cream cheese already contains stabilisers, which keep the final ice cream softer, creamier and easier to scoop for a longer time. Pair it with the correct balance of milk, cream and sugar, and you will have a base that tastes deeply of dairy but will not necessarily be described as cream cheesy. 2. Create a smooth base. It is important to add the cream cheese at the last stage of this base recipe. After the milk is warmed, it is poured over room-temperature cream cheese to prevent lumps and curdling. If there are tiny clumps, pass the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. 3. Chill well before churning. Setting the base in an ice bath before transferring it to the refrigerator gives it a head start on chilling. You will want to keep it in the fridge for a minimum of four hours and a maximum of two days. Often referred to as the base's ageing process, this time allows the flavour to develop and deepen. Think of this period as you would resting cookie dough: It lets the flavours mingle and really get to know one another. While there is some debate over the impact of this ageing process on final flavour and texture, the most compelling reason for doing it is that it guarantees a very cold base, which will churn up more smoothly. A crucial part of the process is ensuring everything is as cold as possible so that the final freezing stages happen quickly. 4. Use a cold baking pan. Aside from an ice cream maker, you need a standard metal loaf pan. Its benefits are twofold: By freezing the pan before making the base, you are ensuring that the just-churned ice cream lands in an ice-cold dish, which helps minimise how much of the base melts between churning and freezing . Two, the loaf pan makes easy work of layering in ripples or mix-ins. After adding half of the just-churned ice cream to the pan, swirl or layer in any additions before topping with the rest of the ice cream and mix-ins. 5. Layer in mix-ins. Mix-ins probably define many of your favourite flavours. And it is true that swirling in saucy additions and layering in other ingredients are simple ways to create a new flavour without adjusting the base. But it is just as easy to steep herbs or crushed coffee beans in your base to make your very own fresh mint or cold brew ice cream. Once you have a handle on the basics, let your imagination run wild. Easy Homemade Ice Cream The addition of cream cheese to this vanilla ice cream base makes it even easier to scoop into perfect rounds. PHOTO: DAVID MALOSH/NYTIMES This easy vanilla ice cream does not contain egg yolks as a lot of ice cream recipes do. Instead, it relies on cream cheese to provide texture, stability and scoopability. While it is excellent on its own, this ice cream also makes a great base for building almost any flavour you can imagine, from strawberry cheesecake to peanut butter pie. Ingredients For the ice cream base: 120ml cream cheese, at room temperature Ice and cold water 415ml whole milk 235ml heavy cream 130g sugar 2 Tbs light corn syrup 1/4 tsp kosher salt or 1/8 tsp fine sea salt 1 tsp vanilla extract For the additions 180g to 360g mix-ins (to taste), such as rainbow sprinkles, edible cookie dough chunks or coarsely chopped chocolate sandwich cookies, chocolate covered pretzels or peanut butter cups (optional) Method 1. Prepare the ice cream base: Cut the cream cheese into 1.2cm pieces and set aside in a medium bowl. This bowl will be used to refrigerate the ice cream base before churning. 2. Place a 22cm by 12cm metal loaf pan in the freezer. This pan is for holding the ice cream after churning. 3. Choose a large bowl that will contain the medium bowl with some room to spare around the edges. Fill the large bowl halfway with ice and add about a cup of cold water. 4. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup and salt. Set over medium heat and cook for about six minutes, whisking often, until the mixture steams and bubbles start breaking through the surface. Remove from the heat. Warm milk is poured over room-temperature cream cheese to prevent lumps and curdling. Cutting cream cheese into small cubes helps it melt smoothly into hot milk. PHOTO: DAVID MALOSH/NYTIMES 5. Using a measuring cup or ladle, scoop about 60ml of the hot milk and pour it over the cream cheese. Let sit, undisturbed, for one minute, then whisk vigorously until smooth. If it looks lumpy at first, keep going: It is essential to make it smooth at this stage. Gradually stream in the remaining hot milk, whisking constantly until smooth. If there are any clumps remaining, pass the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. 6. Set the bowl over the ice bath and whisk occasionally until the mixture cools completely. Add the vanilla extract and whisk to incorporate. 7. Remove the bowl from the ice bath. Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours or, preferably, overnight. 8. Make the ice cream: Pour the chilled ice cream base into an ice cream maker and churn according to machine instructions. 9. Once the ice cream has reached a thick, soft-serve consistency, remove from the machine and transfer to the chilled loaf pan. If adding mix-ins, spread half the ice cream in the pan and top with about half of your mix-ins. Swirl with a butter knife or chopstick to evenly distribute them. Top with the remaining ice cream and mix-ins, and swirl once more to distribute. 10. Press a piece of parchment paper directly against the top of the ice cream and cover the pan with plastic wrap. Freeze until solid for at least four hours. The ice cream will keep for a long time in the freezer, but tastes best within two weeks. When ready to serve, allow to sit at room temperature for a few minutes before scooping, if needed. Yields about 1 litre of ice cream NYTIMES
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Straits Times
More families in Singapore using childminding and elder-minding services
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Active Global's part-time elder-minders helped care for its client Khor Tze Siong's mother when his family helper was away from March to April 2025. SINGAPORE – More than 40 infants are enrolled in a new significantly subsidised nanny service here in childminders' homes and in rooms in Tampines East and Nee Soon East community clubs (CCs). Another 180 families have indicated their interest in enrolling in the service for infants aged two months to 18 months, said the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) on Aug 14. ECDA, which is under the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), launched the three-year childminding pilot in December 2024 to provide more affordable infant caregiving options for parents. Around 50 of these childminders are currently caring for infants under the pilot, out of nearly 200 childminders who have undergone background checks by ECDA. The agency said it is encouraged by the growing interest in the pilot. 'Parents have shared positive feedback on the dedicated care their infants receive and the convenience, especially since childminders can accommodate parents' caregiving preferences,' it said. ECDA said it will continue to work with operators to explore more community premises to meet demand from parents and childminders, and enhance services. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Over 100 people being investigated for vape offences, say MOH and HSA Singapore Bukit Merah fire: Residents relocated as town council carries out restoration works Singapore askST: What to do in the event of a fire at home Singapore Jalan Bukit Merah fire: PMD battery could have started fatal blaze, says SCDF Singapore askST: What are the fire safety rules for PMDs? Asia AirAsia flight from KL to Incheon lands at wrong airport in South Korea Asia India and China work to improve ties amid Trump's unpredictability Singapore From quiet introvert to self-confident student: How this vulnerable, shy teen gets help to develop and discover her strength This includes matching families with childminders in convenient locations more efficiently. Separately, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said it will be ceasing manpower concessions for basic childminding services under its Household Services Scheme (HSS). MOM said it assessed, in consultation with MSF, that there is no need to provide manpower concessions for childminding services owing to the low take-up rate. Current migrant worker quota concessions will cease from March 2026. The HSS was introduced in 2017 as a pilot to allow companies to hire more migrant workers for cleaning and other part-time domestic services. Approved companies under the HSS are eligible for additional work permit quotas. The scheme was made permanent from 2021. It was expanded in March 2023 to cover basic childminding services and elder-minding services in a two-year pilot. Basic childminding and elder-minding include tasks like feeding, bathing and dressing, as well as engaging the person in activities. Families should approach specialised caregiving companies if a higher level of care is required, such as home nursing or home medical services. MOM said it will continue to grant manpower concessions to elder-minding services for HSS companies and review this again in 2027. About 1,300 households had engaged care services from January to July 2024, with more than 95 per cent taking up elder-minding services under the HSS, MOM said. Companies told The Straits Times they expect demand for part-time childminding and elder-minding to rise as these are flexible services and can stand in for family helpers when they go on home leave. Companies that are part of the HSS can hire female workers from Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka or Thailand. Under the HSS, elder-minders are required to complete their first aid certification and undergo a competency assessment conducted by an Agency for Integrated Care-appointed training provider, among other requirements. Part-time elder-minding plugs caregiving gaps For eldercare provider Active Global, a total of 500 families have engaged its elder-minding services to date. This is up from 100 families at the end of 2023, around half a year after Active Global joined the HSS. The company has also received 1,855 inquiries on the HSS, said Mr Muhammad Asraf, who runs Active Global's HSS services. He said its migrant workers received training at the Active Global Training Centre on eldercare support, safety and hygiene practices, as well as communication techniques. Active Global's initial team of six staff has grown to 24 employees, who have at least two years of caregiving experience. They have caregiving certificates obtained either in Singapore or from their home country, and receive additional training from Active Global's in-house nurses. The company provides accommodation under its corporate lease for HSS staff. One client, Mr Khor Tze Siong, said Active Global's elder-minding service helped to fill in for his family's domestic helper when she returned home for about three weeks in mid-March. Mr Khor, an accountant, is mostly able to work from home, but he engaged an elder-minder to help him to take care of his mother, who has dementia, in four- or eight-hour blocks on days he needed to go to the office. He said, compared with his domestic helper, the Active Global elder-minders are more skilled at caring for seniors owing to their professional training. But he noted that they kept to their job scope of caring for seniors and related tasks, unlike his domestic helper who takes on a larger variety of chores. Mr Khor also noted that four different elder-minders were assigned on different days, and his mother took to some more than others. Another HSS company, Luce SG, which provides home cleaning and caregiving services, said it has facilitated more than 1,000 elder-minding sessions and more than 600 childminding sessions in 2025. Luce SG employs 10 full-time minders from Myanmar with caregiving experience, such as former nurse aides or migrant domestic workers. Its childminders are required to have at least five years of childcare experience. More than half of Luce's elder-minders and childminders previously worked as live-in domestic helpers in Singapore, said Ms Abbicia Choo, strategy and planning associate at Luce SG. Many workers opted for the switch because they prefer structured working hours and the opportunity to specialise in eldercare or childcare, while still enjoying the stability of full-time employment, Ms Choo said. Luce's HSS migrant workers live in MOM-approved Housing Board flats or private rented units. Many Singaporean families are also choosing not to engage live-in domestic helpers to have more privacy, Ms Choo added. Part-time and full-time care for children Appointed operator EduNanny by Butler, which started providing services under ECDA's childminding pilot in March, has reached the maximum capacity in its Tampines East CC facility, caring for nine babies. EduNanny chief executive Poon Da Qian said 60 parents are on the waiting list. Aside from EduNanny, two other operators, Kidibliss and NannyPro Care, have also been appointed to hire nannies under the scheme. According to ECDA guidelines, each childminder is allowed to care for up to three infants at any one time under the pilot. This is compared with one staff member for up to five babies under the infant care programmes run by childcare centres. The pilot childminding scheme, which will run for three years, aims to serve 500 infants in the first year. Mr Poon said: 'With Tampines East CC now operating at full capacity, our full focus is on ramping up home-based childminding.' EduNanny currently has 17 home-based childminders listed on its portal and is onboarding an average of four infants a week for such care. It provides home-based childminders with training on infant care and safety, key equipment and materials, and support with layout and environment set-up. ECDA says on its website that it conducts background checks on the nannies, including if they have any criminal history. If the baby is cared for in the nanny's home, these background checks are also done on the nanny's family members and others who visit the home regularly. Before they are deployed, the childminders must undergo mandatory training on infant care, among other things. One of EduNanny's clients, Ms Felicia Ho, drops off her five-month-old daughter at the home of its childminder every weekday before going to work. Ms Felicia Ho drops off her five-month-old daughter in the home of an EduNanny childminder every weekday before going to work. PHOTO: FELICIA HO The technical support worker decided to give the service a try as she and her husband's hands are tied up with responsibilities. The couple have another two-year-old, and parents with cancer and dementia, who are being cared for by the family helper. The full-time childminder has two boys of her own, aged two and 10, and lives 20 minutes from Ms Ho's home in Jalan Besar. 'The assuring thing about the childminder is she is compassionate about caring for kids,' Ms Ho said, adding that the childminder's home is a welcoming environment for the children. EduNanny also provides babysitting services under the HSS, which are used mostly by expatriate parents, who are not eligible for the subsidised MSF childminding scheme. The cleaning services of another company, are under the HSS, but its babysitting services are not. Founder Pierre Tan said that while it is hard to hire Singaporeans and permanent residents (PRs) to work as cleaners, many are keen to babysit to earn a side income. Mr Tan said Meide's babysitters comprise about 50 work permit holders – most of whom had worked as domestic helpers – compared with around 9,000 locals and PRs. Most of Meide's babysitters are self-employed and work flexible hours. Around 4,000 clients have used Meide's babysitting service since it started in 2021, said Mr Tan. About 1,200 of the clients took up the service in 2024. One client was personal trainer John Cheah, who engaged Meide around the start of 2024 to look after his 15-month-old daughter when he was at work. Mr Cheah was able to coordinate the babysitting arrangements directly with the sitter he was matched with. He engaged the childminder for four hours around three times a week for about seven months. The babysitter, who is Singaporean, has five children of her own. Mr Cheah's parents could help, but they were still working and his helper was caring for his bedridden grandfather at the time. The babysitting costs amounted to $960 a month. Mr Cheah, who co-parents with his former wife and cares for their daughter for half the week, was just happy to come home to his only child after work. 'I'm paying for the flexibility,' he said.
