SINGAPORE – A new government unit has been set up to better detect and prevent child abuse by connecting the dots between information about families with child protection concerns held by law enforcement and other agencies.
In its first two months of operations, the SAFER (Sensemaking Alerts for Frontline Engagement and Response) Unit at the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) has surfaced about 600 cases for further review.
It then flagged 70 cases to the ministry’s Protective Service (PSV), which manages high-risk abuse cases, and child protection case management agencies to step up support for the families involved.
Of the 70 cases, one case was previously unknown to MSF or other agencies, while most of the other cases were already known to the authorities over concerns such as abuse and neglect.
But new developments in these cases, such as a parent’s arrest for drug offences or police reports about family members, prompted a closer look at plans to keep the children safe.
An MSF spokesperson said it is focusing on children under seven for a start as young children are particularly vulnerable and less able to recognise, articulate or report harm.
The SAFER unit, officially launched on Sept 22, is one of the ministry’s initiatives to strengthen the child protection system in the wake of Megan Khung’s death.
Megan was four years old when she died in 2020 after being abused by her mother and her former boyfriend for over a year, in a case that drew public scrutiny and numerous questions in Parliament.
An independent review of her case found multiple breaches across agencies, including an officer from the Child Protective Service (CPS) – now known as the PSV – who failed to log a call by Megan’s pre-school seeking help and police officers not following processes.
None of the agencies were also able to piece together the various calls or information provided to form a fuller picture of the danger that Megan was in until it was too late.
SAFER is designed to address this gap.
For a start, the unit will include information from the Central Narcotics Bureau, the police and MSF agencies, such as case records from the National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline (NAVH) and pre-school data from the Early Childhood Development Agency, on families with children below seven where there are child protection concerns.
The unit is currently manned by a “handful” of staff with experience in managing abuse cases.
The MSF spokesperson said it would analyse data relevant to assessing a child’s safety and well-being such as pre-school attendance records, pre-school withdrawals, offences involving a child as a victim of harm, and drug and sexual offences.
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