Strengthening Assurances Throughout Life

Photos by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) and Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF)

At the opening of the First Session of the 15th Parliament on 5 September 2025, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam spoke about the importance of having comprehensive social support systems in place to ensure fairer outcomes, through helping Singaporeans sustain social mobility, and navigate through challenging and uncertain times.

The Government will enhance assurances and roll out initiatives to build a fairer and more inclusive society that supports Singaporeans at every stage in life. These include nurturing our youth, doing more for our families, supporting the vulnerable, and caring for our seniors. The Government will journey with Singaporeans and ensure we emerge stronger, with no one left behind.

The following agencies have outlined key initiatives and focus areas under the theme of “Strengthening Assurances Throughout Life”:

• Ministry of Health (MOH) (opens in new tab)

• Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) (opens in new tab)

• Ministry of Education (MOE) (opens in new tab)

Ministry of Health

1. Expanding Capacity

• From now to 2030, we expect to add 2,800 (or 25%) more acute and community hospital beds with the new Eastern General Hospital and redeveloped Alexandra Hospital.

• By 2030, we target to open six new polyclinics and 10,000 nursing home beds.

• Beyond 2030, we will open the new general and community hospital in Tengah and redevelop the Singapore General Hospital and National University Hospital campuses.

2. Transforming Manpower

• Grow our healthcare manpower by another 20% by 2030

• Broaden and deepen the expertise of our healthcare workforce by making workforce transformation in public hospitals a key priority, and enabling nurses and allied health professionals to take on modular work-study training pathways.

• Formalise Family Medicine as a speciality given its growing importance to population health.

• Acute hospitals will adopt a more holistic and patient-centred model.

3. Revolutionising Healthcare Through Technology

• Make imaging AI a national capability in public healthcare by end-2026.

• Launch an AI assistant on the consolidated HealthHub app.

• Progressively introduce AI predictive and preventive care for early intervention to delay or prevent the onset of serious illnesses.

• Deepen research in genomics and introduce more cost-effective precision medicine therapies.

4. Enhancing Population Health

• Upgrade Grow Well SG to help our young build healthier habits and mitigate health risks.

• Place special focus on youth mental health.

• Rigorously enforce against vaping, especially etomidate vaping.

• Improve Healthier SG by better supporting health plans and expanding coverage for mental health conditions, and encouraging less sodium and fat intake and a more active lifestyle.

• Help seniors age actively within the community through Age Well SG, with an expanded Active Ageing Centre network, better coordinated community-based care support, and public hospitals’ Community Health Posts; existing housing estates will be transformed into Age Well Neighbourhoods.

5. Strengthening Healthcare Affordability and Sustainability

• Continue to review our S+3M system (Subsidies, MediShield Life, MediSave, and MediFund) to ensure that healthcare remains affordable.

• Strengthen the role of General Practitioners in enhancing population health and looking after chronic patients in the community.

• Work with the industry to address significant wastage and cost escalation in private healthcare, which has been made worse by overly generous health insurance policies.

Ministry of Social and Family Development

1. A Singapore Made for All Families

• Ensure that all children have access to affordable and quality early childhood services, support caregivers to look after loved ones, and provide affordable and accessible counselling support for families facing relationship challenges.

• Review the Mental Capacity Act to better support families with vulnerable adults, and strengthen safeguards against misuse or abuse of the Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA).

• Enhance home-based, community, and employment support, as well as expand lifelong learning opportunities, to enable persons with disabilities to live and participate fully in the community.

2. Opportunities to Succeed and Overcome Adversity

• Enable lower-income families to gain stability, self-reliance and social mobility through expanded ComLink+ support, and help those with young children to enrol in and attend preschools through KidSTART.

• Strengthen the legal framework for protecting survivors of domestic violence through a new Domestic Violence Act.

• Review the family services landscape to deliver services in a more holistic and family-centric manner and ensure stronger outcomes for families with complex issues.

3. A Strong and Future-Ready Social Sector

• Strengthen the role of the National Council of Social Services (NCSS) as sector developer.

• Accelerate the adoption of technology across the sector and deepen partnerships with research institutes, to enhance social services.

• Grow the adoption of the Sustainable Philanthropy Framework and amplify contributions and impact of giving through SG SHARE and to Community Chest.

Ministry of Education

1. Strengthen Students’ Holistic Development

• Equip students with future-ready skills and competencies, and provide them with more time and opportunities to develop 21st Century Competencies and pursue other interests;

• Reduce over-emphasis on academic results, such as by revising the Primary School Leaving Examination scoring system and the Junior College admission criteria;

• Strengthen support for students’ social-emotional development and well-being by working with parents and stakeholders through Grow Well SG to encourage healthy habits and support mental wellness; and

• Ensure all schools remain open to students from all backgrounds and create more opportunities for interaction.

2. Enhance Support for Students of Different Strengths and Needs

• Provide more opportunities to stretch our students at different stages of their education, including refreshing our approach to support higher-ability learners with the review of the Gifted Education Programme, and enabling more students to pursue Mother Tongue Language at a higher level in secondary school;

• Stronger partnerships with the community through initiatives like ComLink+, and providing schools with resources to support children from families with complex needs; and

• Continue to support our students with Special Education Needs (SEN) by strengthening teacher capacity in both mainstream and Special Education (SPED) schools, as well as enhancing accessibility, affordability and quality in SPED schools, and help these students in their transition into employment or community pathways.

3. Equipping Singaporeans for an Artificial Intelligence-transformed future

• In schools and IHLs, students will learn how to use AI responsibly and acquire the competencies needed for an AI-driven workplace with guidelines to ensure that AI enhances and does not compromise learning;

• Train educators to use AI meaningfully and guide students effectively; and

• Raise AI literacy broadly through SkillsFuture so that those in the workforce can become confident AI users.

4. Empower Singaporeans to Learn for Life

• Strengthen the quality and industry relevance of training, expand upskilling and re-skilling pathways, and uplift the professional standards of adult educators to support lifelong learning; and

• Whole-of-society effort involving individuals, employers and training providers to take SkillsFuture further and to meet industry needs.

Read other key initiatives and focus areas outlined in the President's Address (opens in new tab):

• Securing Singapore’s Place in a Changing World (opens in new tab)

• Refreshing our Economic Blueprint (opens in new tab)

• Building a Distinctive City and Endearing Home (opens in new tab)

• Strengthening our Sense of “We” and Social Cohesion (opens in new tab) 

• Upholding Trust and Effective Government (opens in new tab)