The social service landscape has evolved from the time that SPD was set up 60 years ago. Needs have evolved as Singapore progressed over the years, marking an exciting time for the sector – both for the people in it and the people we serve. The Government and numerous community groups have started programmes to uplift vulnerable and marginalised groups so that they are not left behind.

In this “Coffee with Your Pal” series, we catch up with our chief executive officer, Mr Abhimanyau Pal, and check in with the sector veteran on issues facing the sector. 

In the series’ first interview with Mr Pal, we chatted with him on the National Council of Social Service’s (NCSS) announcement on 1 April 2024 with regard to the latest salary guidelines and benchmarks for jobs in the social service sector. What does this mean for the sector? Is this all good news?

UPDATES:  How are the salaries for SPD staff determined?

Mr Pal: We remunerate our staff according to their job responsibilities, experience, and qualifications.  We used to take reference from NCSS’ salary guidelines to ensure that our staff are competitively remunerated but for the first time, in February 2024, the Ministry of Health (MOH) made the salary guidelines for the community care sector available in the public domain.  So, in developing our own internal salary structure, we take reference from the salary guidelines of both the Ministry of Social and Family Development/NCSS and MOH.

UPDATES: NCSS has recommended that salaries in our sector be raised by about 8 per cent. What does this revised salary benchmark mean for the sector?

Mr Pal: I believe NCSS recommended an average of 8 per cent salary adjustment based on the different salary data available. It is important to note that the recommended increase is an “average”.  Besides referencing the salary guidelines, SPD also conducts internal salary reviews regularly. Hence, some of our job grades may already be very close to NCSS’ recommendations.

One rationale behind this latest salary recommendations was to attract and retain talent in the sector. SPD is fully supportive of this initiative.  The guidelines offer salary benchmarking, enabling social service agencies (SSAs) to have some equity across the social service sector, helping to set standards and enabling SSAs to attract talents equitably. But this could also potentially present other challenges for some SSAs.  

UPDATES: What are some of these challenges?

Mr Pal:  Some may take the view that the responsibility of funding programmes should be borne largely by the Government, but when programmes are not funded fully, SSAs could engage and collaborate with community partners in a 3P (Public, Private, People sectors) collaboration approach that SPD has often advocated for.  However, others could take the stand that the costs of healthcare and social care should rest solely on the Government, which is often not the case. This is where challenges arise.

Firstly, SSAs need to raise funds to supplement Government funding, but many donors only want to give directly to the clients served and not so much to support manpower cost. However, manpower costs take up a substantial portion of operating expenditure. Therefore, there is a need to help donors understand and appreciate that we need funds for manpower costs as professionals are required to deliver the rehab service and care support that our clients need.

Secondly, besides the programmes that the Government funds, there exists some small service gaps where there are emerging needs. However, it would not be easy to allocate public funds to run these initiatives when their efficacy is not proven. This is where SSAs could initiate pilot projects for trial and data collection. That said, having to align to the NCSS salary guidelines may put even more stress on SSAs to have to secure more funds to ensure equity in how we renumerate our staff across the organisation, including for programmes that are not Government-funded. 

I believe challenges will always be there, and we need to work together to find ways to overcome them.

UPDATES: Is there a need to adjust salaries? Why?

Mr Pal: It is absolutely necessary to adjust salaries periodically to ensure that we remain competitive and fair when it comes to remunerating our people.  We are fortunate to have many colleagues join the social service sector, spurred by their passion for the cause. But they have bread and butter concerns too.  It will not be realistic for us to assume that monetary compensation is not important to them. With rising costs, timely salary adjustments could help our staff, especially those with lower salaries, to defray higher living expenses.

Furthermore, all healthcare and social care service providers are competing for a small pool of allied health professionals to sustain their service delivery.  Having a competitive salary would help to attract more talents to join the sector.  That said, we have to be mindful that we do not attract people focused on better salary, without the passion to serve.

While we are supportive of the new salary guidelines, we hope that the Government could provide more support to SSAs to help us keep pace with the salary increases in a sustainable way.

UPDATES: Your final thoughts on this subject.

Mr Pal: When I first entered the social service sector in the 1990s, the sector attracted people who were passionate about the cause. Their focus was to serve, and not so much on salary. However, together with several of my contemporary colleagues, we advocated for salary equity so that professionals in the sector would be fairly compensated as their peers in other industries.  

It is important to have the right people join the sector.  Over the years, I have realised that they are those who are passionate and committed to serve, and willing to make reasonable sacrifices along the way.  We do not doubt the importance of salary, but there is a need to keep the passion to serve strong. This is a balance we need to strike.