MSF apologised to Beyond Social Services for ‘finger-pointing’ in initial response: Desmond Lee

SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) has apologised to the agency running Megan Khung’s pre-school for the misunderstanding over “finger-pointing” in its initial response in April to the girl’s case.

Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration Desmond Lee said this on Nov 5 in response to a question by Mr Cai Yinzhou (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC) concerning the case of four-year-old Megan.

Mr Cai said earlier reports of MSF’s statement in April seemed to pin blame on Beyond Social Services (BSS), the agency that runs Megan’s pre-school.

Replying, Mr Lee said there is a balance between setting out the facts of what happened and keeping the social service sector cohesive.

“The aim is to reflect on what happened and see how those gaps should be closed. And so there was not and should not be an intention to point fingers,” he said.

“At the same time, the public expects some accountability and the laying out of the facts. That is what happened with the report of the independent panel, and we’ve read the report and seen what happened.

“And so, to the extent that there was a misunderstanding that there was finger-pointing, we have apologised to the relevant agencies, including Beyond Social Services, for the misunderstanding that had occurred.

“It was not the intention, but if that was perceived, we have apologised as well.”

MSF said in April that the BSS report did not fully describe the severity of Megan’s injuries and gave no reason for the Early Childhood Development Agency to suspect that she was being abused. The ministry also said BSS did not escalate the case to the Child Protective Service (CPS).

An independent review panel later found that BSS had called CPS, but the CPS officer did not register the call in its logs.

Megan died in February 2020 after months of physical and emotional abuse by her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.

The review panel released its findings on the case on Oct 23, and

detailed several lapses at various agencies

, including CPS and the police.

On Nov 5, Mr Lee responded in Parliament to more than 20 questions filed by MPs on Megan’s case following the review findings. He also announced several measures to strengthen safeguards in the child protection system, including setting up a new social services coordination centre to better identify child abuse cases.

In a rare move, Leader of the House Indranee Rajah extended question time beyond the usual 90 minutes to provide more time for follow-up questions, and 13 MPs sought clarifications for about an hour.

Mr Xie Yao Quan (Jurong Central), who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Social and Family Development, said that while the move to independently review all cases of child deaths known to social services is “ground-breaking”, it must be done in a way that protects the officers directly involved, who bear the emotional brunt of these cases.

Adding that this can be done only if the child protection system has a culture of collective ownership, Mr Xie asked how this can be strengthened.

Mr Lee said: “It is a challenging, difficult and onerous responsibility that the sector bears for the protection of children and vulnerable persons, and when a tragic outcome like serious hurt or death happens, many feel it.”

Handling such cases means striking a balance between transparency and accountability – which is important to maintain public trust and confidence – and making sure that the morale, determination and will of front-liners and social workers are not broken, he said.

“Because if they are demoralised, if they feel that this work is too much to bear, then it will be even harder for us to maintain this sentinel system to protect the most vulnerable amongst us.”

Mr Lee added: “When things go wrong, and in this case, things went wrong, we bear it as a sector.”

He said child protection work involves “rings of concentric circles” that have to work collectively.

“For all that to work, we need to continue building this culture of collective ownership and of relationships between organisations,” Mr Lee said.

Protocols and standard operating procedures are important, but they cannot replace the need for strong relationships with all parties working together towards the common mission of taking care of the most vulnerable, he added.

Mr Xie asked why the independent review was done only after MSF’s first statement on the case.

Mr Lee said new information – including photographs – surfaced during the sentencing of the perpetrators involved in Megan’s case in April. This prompted the Government to convene an independent panel.

WP Non-Constituency MP Andre Low asked if there has been any retrospective review of ongoing or past cases in the light of the panel’s findings to ensure nothing is overlooked.

Mr Lee said that currently, a review is conducted whenever a child known to social services dies.

Going forward, MSF intends to share the findings and lessons learnt from such critical incidents with the wider sector to help build a stronger and more resilient child protection system, he added.

Mr Low also asked how the Government intends to increase the supply of social work professionals here.

Mr Lee said the Government is keen to work with institutions like the Singapore University of Social Sciences, which has a specialisation in protection work, to continue training Singaporeans who want to join this field of protecting vulnerable people.

There is a need for more social work professionals, social workers and caseworkers, Mr Lee said, adding that the Government will continue to ensure there is a steady pipeline of such individuals.

Ms Elysa Chen (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC) asked how the Government will measure the effectiveness of the new social services coordination centre.

Mr Lee said it will be assessed based on the sector’s overall cohesiveness, the ability to cooperate more effectively, and the capacity to identify high-risk cases earlier and intervene.

He added that the ministry will consult the sector and will have a clearer understanding of the centre’s intended capabilities once engagements are completed.