SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) will establish a social services coordination centre, as well as improve protocols and coordination with the police for missing children following a review of the Megan Khung fatal abuse case.
Minister-in-Charge of Social Services Integration Desmond Lee also pledged in parliament on Tuesday (Oct 5) to improve the “frontline capability” of child protection and strengthen systems and oversight over the sector.
The death of the four-year-old in February 2020 after suffering months of abuse had earlier led to a review panel that found multiple lapses and shortcomings in the agencies involved in her case.
Mr Lee, who is also the Education Minister, said: “There were opportunities to pick up on the abuse, which might have prevented Megan’s death. Our responses clearly fell short.”
“On behalf of all the agencies and organisations concerned, we are deeply sorry for the outcome, and for the lapses at the Child Protective Service, and the Singapore Police Force, as well as the missed opportunities at Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA).
"We should have done much better.”
Mr Lee was responding to multiple questions filed by several Members of Parliament on the review panel’s report, querying the government on the protocols in place as well as the improvements that can be made to the child protection ecosystem.
In his response, Mr Lee said child protection rests on the “foundational principle” that parents are primarily responsible for their children, and the ministry does not and should not intervene unnecessarily.
“Families encountering the child protection system often find the experience stressful. They may be questioned by teachers, healthcare professionals, social workers and the police, which can feel intrusive and accusatory, especially if eventually no abuse is found.”
Mr Lee said social workers support parents to care for their children and intervene “only when the child is at risk”.
However, when there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that a child is in need of care and protection, child protection officers step in to implement safety plans or even remove the child from the home and family.
Protecting children also requires society’s collective effort, and neighbours, friends and relatives should offer help to parents facing caregiving stress and to report suspected abuse by calling the National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline (NAVH).
While Megan’s death five years ago had already prompted further enhancements to protocols, the minister highlighted that there is “still much more that can be done”.
The ministry will continue to engage and work closely with stakeholders to strengthen its internal systems and communication across agencies, he added.
“We must carefully calibrate our efforts even as we do more. Protocols and structured tools are important, but they should guide and not replace critical thinking, judgment and relationship building” said Mr Lee.
“We must never reduce child protection work or vulnerable protection work to a mere checkbox system.”
On the new social services coordination centre, Mr Lee said the centre will use technology to help the ministry “better detect, sense-make and connect the dots” for cases from different "touchpoints", such as the social services, education, pre-school, community and other sectors.
The new social services coordination centre will also provide “tighter links” to the police’s operations, Mr Lee added.
Today, child protection case management agencies have to lodge a police report within 24 hours and concurrently alert the Protective Service. Cases are also reported to the police within 24 hours.
Since May 2025, child and adult protective services have merged under MSF's Protective Service, which provides statutory intervention for children, vulnerable adults experiencing abuse, neglect or self-neglect, and egregious cases of family violence with imminent danger.
“When a case of suspected child abuse is reported to the police, the police will assess the case based on the facts and circumstances,” Mr Lee said.
“For cases assessed as higher risk, for example, involving serious physical harm or sexual abuse, the police will immediately intervene to ensure the child’s safety.”
Protective Service will keep a close watch on missing children reports made to the police by case agencies and work closely with the police.
Apart from conducting investigations when the police come across a case of suspected child abuse, they will also inform MSF for safety planning and social intervention, Mr Lee said.
In a bid to boost capabilities of frontline practitioners, Mr Lee said the ministry will continue to manage practitioner workload and ensure social workers are adequately resourced.
“The risk of burnout is real and it is difficult to attract and retain people in child protection work,” he said.
Over the past three years, the average caseload ratio for the sector has been around 18 to 21 per worker, but the variation across centres ranges between 12 to 30 per worker.
Protective Service has doubled child protection officers from around 45 in 2019 to more than 90 in 2024, and this number is set to increase.
“The additional resources have helped bring the average caseload per officer down from around 40, to 35 today,” Mr Lee said.
Additionally, support staff have been brought in and services were outsourced to handle ancillary tasks and augment resourcing for critical work.
“This enables protection officers to focus on social investigations, as well as supervision,” Mr Lee said, adding that the ministry will continue to step up training and competency development.
On questions raised about early and accurate identification of child abuse, and the liability issues that may arise when making a report, Mr Lee said that there are laws mandating reporting of child abuse.
Furthermore, if professionals and members of the public report child abuse in good faith, the Children and Young Persons Act (CYPA) protects them against civil or criminal liability.
MSF will look into how the ministry can better foster a safe environment for professionals to report suspected child abuse cases, Mr Lee said.
The ministry is also studying analytic tools to help connect the dots and see trends across agencies, allowing them to target efforts on higher risk cases.
“But having said that, we have to carefully validate these tools to avoid excessive false positives, which could overwhelm the system, and to avoid reinforcing stereotypes,” Mr Lee said.
Responding to questions about the thresholds involved in making reports of suspected abuse, Mr Lee said members can be assured that these reports are “simply to flag concerns”.
“It is the job of the social workers to support parents who may be struggling with caregiving, and the job of the police and child protection specialists to ascertain if abuse has occurred,” he said.
As for strengthening systems and oversight of the child protection ecosystem, Mr Lee said regularly auditing agencies managing child abuse cases, including Protective Service, will ensure accountability and transparency.
Protective Service currently works with child protection case management agencies to surface cases where they assess that the risk level exceeds what the agencies were designed to handle.
The ministry has also started to contact other social service agencies and organisations, which are not child protection case management agencies, to surface all suspected child abuse cases.
Mr Lee also highlighted that Protection Service conducts periodic practice reviews with external consultants to assess whether officers have made accurate case assessments and compiled with protocols.
“We intend to further strengthen our quality assurance framework by increasing the frequency of practice reviews and expanding the audit scope,” Mr Lee said, adding that the ministry will implement the enhanced measures by 2026.
19:11 Min
The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) fully accepts the recommendations of the review panel on the Megan Khung abuse case. It will follow up by focusing on three broad areas - improving the clarity of roles within the child protection ecosystem, fostering a stronger learning culture and providing more structured support for social service practitioners. Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration Desmond Lee outlined these key moves in reply to MPs’ questions in parliament on Wednesday (Nov 5). He said MSF and all the agencies and organisations concerned are “deeply sorry” for the outcome, lapses and missed opportunities, adding “we should have done much better”. Mr Lee pointed out that protocols and structured tools are important, but they must never reduce child protection or vulnerable protection work to a “mere checkbox system”.
In addition to the MP’s questions, Mr Lee set out the ministry’s responses to other recommendations from the review panel.
In its report, the review panel had laid out several recommendations to further strengthen the child protection ecosystem.
The panel had suggested an appeals mechanism should be established to address cases where there are differing views on risk levels and case management.
To this, Mr Lee said MSF will set up a Triage Assessment Panel by the first quarter of 2026, and determine which agency is best placed to manage the case.
The panel also recommended that MSF should review ECDA’s role in triaging potential intra-familial child protection cases.
The minister said by early-2026, preschools will report such cases directly to the National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline.
As for the panel flagging a wrong perception among practitioners that only family members can make a police report of a missing child, Mr Lee said there is now a “common understanding” within the sector that anyone can make a police report of a missing child.
The ministry will continue raising public awareness on this issue, he said.
On the panel's recommendation that lessons learnt from critical incidents should be routinely shared with community agencies, Mr Lee said all deaths of children known to social services will be independently reviewed in future, with lessons shared across the sector.
Finally, MSF will set up a protection practitioners care fund to implement capability building and well-being initiatives for protection practitioners, responding to the panel's recommendation for more structural support for social services practitioners. Further details on this will be announced in 2026.
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Minister-in-Charge of Social Services Integration Desmond Lee also pledged in parliament on Tuesday (Oct 5) to improve the “frontline capability” of child protection and strengthen systems and oversight over the sector.
The death of the four-year-old in February 2020 after suffering months of abuse had earlier led to a review panel that found multiple lapses and shortcomings in the agencies involved in her case.
Mr Lee, who is also the Education Minister, said: “There were opportunities to pick up on the abuse, which might have prevented Megan’s death. Our responses clearly fell short.”
“On behalf of all the agencies and organisations concerned, we are deeply sorry for the outcome, and for the lapses at the Child Protective Service, and the Singapore Police Force, as well as the missed opportunities at Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA).
"We should have done much better.”
Mr Lee was responding to multiple questions filed by several Members of Parliament on the review panel’s report, querying the government on the protocols in place as well as the improvements that can be made to the child protection ecosystem.
In his response, Mr Lee said child protection rests on the “foundational principle” that parents are primarily responsible for their children, and the ministry does not and should not intervene unnecessarily.
“Families encountering the child protection system often find the experience stressful. They may be questioned by teachers, healthcare professionals, social workers and the police, which can feel intrusive and accusatory, especially if eventually no abuse is found.”
Mr Lee said social workers support parents to care for their children and intervene “only when the child is at risk”.
However, when there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that a child is in need of care and protection, child protection officers step in to implement safety plans or even remove the child from the home and family.
Protecting children also requires society’s collective effort, and neighbours, friends and relatives should offer help to parents facing caregiving stress and to report suspected abuse by calling the National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline (NAVH).
While Megan’s death five years ago had already prompted further enhancements to protocols, the minister highlighted that there is “still much more that can be done”.
The ministry will continue to engage and work closely with stakeholders to strengthen its internal systems and communication across agencies, he added.
“We must carefully calibrate our efforts even as we do more. Protocols and structured tools are important, but they should guide and not replace critical thinking, judgment and relationship building” said Mr Lee.
“We must never reduce child protection work or vulnerable protection work to a mere checkbox system.”
Related:
IMPROVEMENTS IN CHILD PROTECTION WORK
On the new social services coordination centre, Mr Lee said the centre will use technology to help the ministry “better detect, sense-make and connect the dots” for cases from different "touchpoints", such as the social services, education, pre-school, community and other sectors.
The new social services coordination centre will also provide “tighter links” to the police’s operations, Mr Lee added.
Today, child protection case management agencies have to lodge a police report within 24 hours and concurrently alert the Protective Service. Cases are also reported to the police within 24 hours.
Since May 2025, child and adult protective services have merged under MSF's Protective Service, which provides statutory intervention for children, vulnerable adults experiencing abuse, neglect or self-neglect, and egregious cases of family violence with imminent danger.
“When a case of suspected child abuse is reported to the police, the police will assess the case based on the facts and circumstances,” Mr Lee said.
“For cases assessed as higher risk, for example, involving serious physical harm or sexual abuse, the police will immediately intervene to ensure the child’s safety.”
Protective Service will keep a close watch on missing children reports made to the police by case agencies and work closely with the police.
Apart from conducting investigations when the police come across a case of suspected child abuse, they will also inform MSF for safety planning and social intervention, Mr Lee said.
In a bid to boost capabilities of frontline practitioners, Mr Lee said the ministry will continue to manage practitioner workload and ensure social workers are adequately resourced.
“The risk of burnout is real and it is difficult to attract and retain people in child protection work,” he said.
Over the past three years, the average caseload ratio for the sector has been around 18 to 21 per worker, but the variation across centres ranges between 12 to 30 per worker.
Protective Service has doubled child protection officers from around 45 in 2019 to more than 90 in 2024, and this number is set to increase.
“The additional resources have helped bring the average caseload per officer down from around 40, to 35 today,” Mr Lee said.
Additionally, support staff have been brought in and services were outsourced to handle ancillary tasks and augment resourcing for critical work.
“This enables protection officers to focus on social investigations, as well as supervision,” Mr Lee said, adding that the ministry will continue to step up training and competency development.
On questions raised about early and accurate identification of child abuse, and the liability issues that may arise when making a report, Mr Lee said that there are laws mandating reporting of child abuse.
Furthermore, if professionals and members of the public report child abuse in good faith, the Children and Young Persons Act (CYPA) protects them against civil or criminal liability.
MSF will look into how the ministry can better foster a safe environment for professionals to report suspected child abuse cases, Mr Lee said.
The ministry is also studying analytic tools to help connect the dots and see trends across agencies, allowing them to target efforts on higher risk cases.
“But having said that, we have to carefully validate these tools to avoid excessive false positives, which could overwhelm the system, and to avoid reinforcing stereotypes,” Mr Lee said.
Responding to questions about the thresholds involved in making reports of suspected abuse, Mr Lee said members can be assured that these reports are “simply to flag concerns”.
“It is the job of the social workers to support parents who may be struggling with caregiving, and the job of the police and child protection specialists to ascertain if abuse has occurred,” he said.
As for strengthening systems and oversight of the child protection ecosystem, Mr Lee said regularly auditing agencies managing child abuse cases, including Protective Service, will ensure accountability and transparency.
Protective Service currently works with child protection case management agencies to surface cases where they assess that the risk level exceeds what the agencies were designed to handle.
The ministry has also started to contact other social service agencies and organisations, which are not child protection case management agencies, to surface all suspected child abuse cases.
Mr Lee also highlighted that Protection Service conducts periodic practice reviews with external consultants to assess whether officers have made accurate case assessments and compiled with protocols.
“We intend to further strengthen our quality assurance framework by increasing the frequency of practice reviews and expanding the audit scope,” Mr Lee said, adding that the ministry will implement the enhanced measures by 2026.
19:11 Min
The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) fully accepts the recommendations of the review panel on the Megan Khung abuse case. It will follow up by focusing on three broad areas - improving the clarity of roles within the child protection ecosystem, fostering a stronger learning culture and providing more structured support for social service practitioners. Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration Desmond Lee outlined these key moves in reply to MPs’ questions in parliament on Wednesday (Nov 5). He said MSF and all the agencies and organisations concerned are “deeply sorry” for the outcome, lapses and missed opportunities, adding “we should have done much better”. Mr Lee pointed out that protocols and structured tools are important, but they must never reduce child protection or vulnerable protection work to a “mere checkbox system”.
RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATIONS FROM REVIEW PANEL
In addition to the MP’s questions, Mr Lee set out the ministry’s responses to other recommendations from the review panel.
In its report, the review panel had laid out several recommendations to further strengthen the child protection ecosystem.
The panel had suggested an appeals mechanism should be established to address cases where there are differing views on risk levels and case management.
To this, Mr Lee said MSF will set up a Triage Assessment Panel by the first quarter of 2026, and determine which agency is best placed to manage the case.
The panel also recommended that MSF should review ECDA’s role in triaging potential intra-familial child protection cases.
The minister said by early-2026, preschools will report such cases directly to the National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline.
As for the panel flagging a wrong perception among practitioners that only family members can make a police report of a missing child, Mr Lee said there is now a “common understanding” within the sector that anyone can make a police report of a missing child.
The ministry will continue raising public awareness on this issue, he said.
On the panel's recommendation that lessons learnt from critical incidents should be routinely shared with community agencies, Mr Lee said all deaths of children known to social services will be independently reviewed in future, with lessons shared across the sector.
Finally, MSF will set up a protection practitioners care fund to implement capability building and well-being initiatives for protection practitioners, responding to the panel's recommendation for more structural support for social services practitioners. Further details on this will be announced in 2026.
Related:
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