Social Welfare Policy and Delivery System

Social welfare in Singapore

Social, political and cultural context in Singapore

Singapore separated from UK in 1963, and from Malaysia in 1965. Only in four decades, the country has managed to grow rapidly. Singapore is a country where multiple races reside. However, its progress has made it be among the developed nations in the world. According to the figures of 2005, above 90% population possessed their own homes. The most important variables, Singapore has managed to achieve were a high rate of life expectancy, high rate of literacy, low rate of infancy mortality, a lower rate of crime, and an increased involvement of volunteers. In democratic countries like Japan and America, the social welfare provisions are differentiated and highly evolved whereas, Singapore has applied a residual system for welfare of the public, which is a feature of less democratic and less industrialized nations (Titmus, 1974). A chief portion of Singapore's success as a welfare state can be accredited to the political leadership the country has, and also to the planning done by the bureaucratic state, to deal with economic and social challenges (Vasil, 2000). The key principle for all the developmental work in Singapore is practical dealing with issues such as health, education, housing and community bonding.

Early social welfare development in Singapore

The history of development of social welfare in Singapore is long and shows the government's concern of establishing a state, highly committed to social welfare. Before world war two, charitable organizations fulfilled the responsibility for social welfare. However, after the war, a department for social welfare was setup in 1946 to help the government participate in the social welfare of civilians. The guiding principle for the designing of social welfare policies in Singapore is expressed in the charter of United Nations as promoting social welfare and better standards of life in larger freedom (ministry of social affairs, 1973). The government is well aware the economic development is important for social welfare. Hence, the objectives for economic development are aligned with that of social welfare. A key challenge experienced by the government is to provide a broad aspect where integrated development strategy would fit (Ministry of social affairs, 1973).

The government aimed to have economic progress and social welfare. An ingenious policy was designed by the government for reconciling both goals (the government of Singapore, 1991). The government strongly believed in the concept of self help. For fulfilling the needs of civilians, the people are grouped on the basis of their geographic areas, it councils for community development headed by a mayor. The needs of different communities are fulfilled by the community centres. Hence, different committees have been designed to fulfil civilian needs. These community centres also help in harmonizing the relation between communities. Hence, a centralized delivery of service would encourage the needs of various customers. Moreover, volunteer work was also encouraged in Singapore. By the programs for community development, the schools encourage their students to take part in different programs (strait times, ...