\n<\/p>\n
Access to HealthHub was not the only challenge the foster parents raised, with some also struggling to get into other platforms their foster child needed.<\/p>\n
Mark has been a foster parent since 2021 to a seven-year-old who has been diagnosed with global developmental delay and autism. The boy is under a long-term court order, he said.<\/p>\n
However, Mark struggled to set up the boy\u2019s Child Development Account (CDA) and only managed to do so earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the account is not set up, the child will miss out on the top-ups from the government.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CDA is a special savings account that can be used for a child\u2019s educational and healthcare expenses.<\/p>\n
The First Step Grant is automatically deposited into the CDA and subsequent savings are co-matched by the government, up to a cap.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the longest time, we\u2019ve been trying to get it set up. But the process and workflows are always tied back to the natural parents. So if the natural parents are not proactive and engaging, it will take a long time to get it set up,\u201d Mark said.<\/p>\n
He added that he has long-term plans to pay for the boy’s health and education, and the funds in the CDA account would be useful. But when Mark set up the account earlier this year, a new issue arose.<\/p>\n
He said the account details were sent to the biological parents, but he has been unable to retrieve them as they were not \u201cproactively involved\u201d in working with the foster care worker to pass the information on to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we have a weird situation where the parents can affect bad long-term outcomes for the child \u2026 The biological parent is not fit to take care of the child physically, but yet they are supposed to be fit to take care of the child for other matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
MSF said it supports foster parents by providing a monthly fostering allowance ranging from S$1,100 to S$1,800, depending on the child\u2019s age and needs, to help defray childcare and other out-of-pocket expenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fostering allowance has taken into account all related expenses to support the child. In addition, foster children are eligible for childcare, student care and medical subsidies,\u201d the ministry added.<\/p>\n
Claire told CNA that she previously had challenges accessing her foster children\u2019s Parents Gateway platform, a government mobile app that connects parents with schools, facilitating digital consent forms, announcements, and school activities.<\/p>\n
“I managed to get on it, but the school needs to facilitate otherwise foster parents can\u2019t get on it,” she said.<\/p>\n
“A lot of information comes through Parents Gateway, so you need to be on there,” she added.<\/p>\n
Claire added that in her situation, the foster child\u2019s biological parents remain the main contact point for school matters. \u201cUnless they are removed as the main contact, correspondence goes to them automatically.\u201d<\/p>\n
MSF told CNA that it is open to considering arrangements between foster and biological parents where appropriate, particularly to facilitate reunification of the child with the biological parents, and where it is in the child\u2019s best interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cMSF will require more time to study this further as every child\u2019s circumstance and caregiving arrangement is unique.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
NOT JUST HEALTH RECORDS Access to HealthHub was not the only challenge the foster parents raised, with some also struggling to get into other platforms…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--ZzsT3f4E--\/c_crop,h_466,w_830,x_0,y_0\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2025\/02\/18\/bstudio_moh_hsg2_img02.jpg?itok=nLfjqWjC","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2311,23483,3503,10382,20497,1714,2323,112,12438,10423],"class_list":["post-55375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-access","tag-appointments","tag-children","tag-disabilities","tag-foster","tag-health","tag-medical","tag-parents","tag-records","tag-struggle","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}