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Ms Indranee said the upcoming National Day Rally would be the \u201cfirst wave\u201d of measures arising from the workgroup, with more to come.<\/span><\/p>\n She said the workgroup\u2019s engagements had shown that the cost of raising children, childcare and other forms of support were \u201cvery much on people\u2019s minds\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe felt that, given the nature of this issue, we can actually advance some of our recommendations, which we did, and that\u2019s what (Prime Minister) will be speaking about at the National Day Rally,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s fair to say he will be focusing on support, what greater support we can give to families.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In his National Day Message, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said a \u201cmajor review\u201d was underway of how the government supports Singaporean families not just at the point of marriage and parenthood, but throughout their life\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n One major area that will not be dealt with at the National Day Rally is workplace culture and norms, Ms Indranee said.<\/span><\/p>\n The workgroup has received feedback not only on work-life balance, but also on matters such as applying for leave and how flexible work arrangements are implemented, she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ms Indranee said there was \u201cclear consensus\u201d that workplace issues needed to be tackled, but this would require more time because the workgroup was seeking to balance the interests and concerns of employers and employees.<\/span><\/p>\n She pointed to the role played by employers, human resource professionals and line managers in shaping employees\u2019 experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n For instance, a parent taking shared parental leave could have a very different experience depending on the response of their supervisor.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf your line manager is empathetic, happy for you that you have a child, it makes it so much easier,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n But even if the leave is approved, a manager who reacts as though it is an imposition sends \u201ca very different signal\u201d, she added.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo, learning how to create better workplace norms and cultures, I think, is a very important part of this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a combination of the more tangible measures, but you also need the intangibles, the software, and how people approach things, and that is actually quite hard to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ms Indranee said the review was taking a holistic view of a family\u2019s journey, rather than looking only at support around the birth of a child.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen a baby is born, it doesn\u2019t stop there, right? A child has to go through childcare, goes through primary school, goes through secondary school,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn the review, we\u2019ve taken a holistic view at the whole journey of a family, and we want to make sure that families are well supported at all stages.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Singapore\u2019s total fertility rate fell to a record low of 0.87 last year. Fewer than 30,000 live births were recorded in 2025 for the first time in 60 years, an 11.4 per cent drop from 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n About 24,700 marriages were registered last year, down 6.2 per cent from 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n Ms Indranee said the latest figures had \u201csharpened\u201d the focus on marriage and parenthood.<\/span><\/p>\n With fewer marriages in recent years likely to translate into fewer children, she said it was better to step up efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThose that we can do early, we do early. Those that take a bit longer, then we will take as much time as we need to do those properly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In her speech, Ms Indranee said that reversing the country’s downward fertility trajectory requires a “whole-of-nation effort” beyond government policies.<\/p>\n She highlighted that everyday actions – such as understanding employers fostering family-friendly workplaces, supervisors granting flexibility for family matters, neighbours offering support, commuters giving up seats to pregnant women, and community volunteers stepping in – make a “meaningful difference” to families.<\/p>\n “What we must do at a national level is to build a Singapore where families are supported and cherished. Everyone has a role to play in this,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “FIRST WAVE OF MEASURES” Ms Indranee said the upcoming National Day Rally would be the \u201cfirst wave\u201d of measures arising from the workgroup, with more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--55TjT9d9--\/c_crop,h_772,w_1374,x_0,y_71\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/08\/15\/101475.jpg?itok=Clg7bioa","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10590,2183,1709,4355,7415,5261,3496,21262,15183,717,654,21626],"class_list":["post-76710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-advances","tag-birth","tag-early","tag-falling","tag-indranee","tag-lose","tag-marriage","tag-parenthood","tag-proposals","tag-rates","tag-time","tag-workgroup","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76710","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=76710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}WORKPLACE CULTURE AMONG AREAS BEING STUDIED<\/span><\/h2>\n
HOLISTIC SUPPORT<\/span><\/h2>\n
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