Letter of the week: MSF’s review of Megan Khung case should look into empowering social workers

The media has been abuzz with reports on the tragic death of four-year-old Megan Khung, following a year of physical abuse in her home.

A report in The Straits Times (Megan Khung’s death: At least 7 other fatal child abuse cases in Singapore over past 10 years, April 8) cited seven other cases of fatal child abuse in the past 10 years, with the children’s ages ranging from two weeks to 11 years.

In Megan’s case, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) attributed the “inadequate” interventions by the social agencies involved to Megan’s pre-school report “not fully describing the severity of her injuries” (Info from Megan Khung’s pre-school gave no reason for ECDA to suspect girl’s abuse: MSF, April 8)

Media reports point to a collective failure of the system  and a series of lapses in the reporting of abuse and follow-up checks.

MSF has since said it will further review the case (MSF planning further review of Megan Khung’s case, covering responses of all parties, April 11).

This move should help restore public trust in our system to protect children.

I have three points to make regarding the review.

First, the review should examine not just the responses of the various social agencies per se. It should also investigate any underlying human or organisational factors that might have contributed to inadequacies of responses.

Second, because broader issues may be involved, MSF should invite representations, written or oral, from interested parties such as the Singapore Children’s Society (SCS), Children’s Aid Society and Society Against Family Violence. They would likely have observations, insights and suggestions to contribute. In fact, SCS has already made two recommendations relating to child protection in pre-schools   (Social workers say the system failed to protect Megan Khung; pre-school not solely responsible, April 10).

Third, I suggest that MSF also review whether social workers dealing with child abuse cases can be more empowered. For example, can lying to a social worker investigating a child abuse complaint be made an offence? Can a social worker be empowered to exercise discretion and make a 999 call for police assistance to enter a home to look for a child? An alternative would be to have a special police hotline for such calls.

MSF’s review should be a comprehensive one. No stone should be left unturned.

Lim Soo Ping