SINGAPORE - A new social services co-ordination centre will be set up to better identify child abuse cases, while all child deaths will be independently reviewed in future, in the wake of four-year-old Megan Khung’s death.

Mr Desmond Lee, Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration at the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), announced this in Parliament on Nov 5, as part of several measures to improve safeguards in the child protection system.

The new social services co-ordination centre, supported by technology, will help “us to better detect, sense-make and connect dots for cases from different touchpoints, such as social services, education, pre-school community and other sectors”, he said.

The centre will also provide tighter links to Police operations.

Mr Lee was responding to MPs’ calls for more centralised co-ordination and data integration when it comes to managing child abuse cases. A total of 15 MPs filed questions on Megan’s case, including Mr Xie Yao Quan (Jurong Central), Ms Rachel Ong (Tanjong Pagar GRC) and Mr Gabriel Lam (Sembawang GRC).

They asked the MSF if the panel’s proposed measures are sufficient to close systematic gaps or if stronger reforms are needed, as well as the threshold needed for the Child Protective Service (CPS) to remove a child from his or her abusive family. There were also questions if the MSF, which oversee CPS, would convene review panels to look into children who have been abused to death.

Mr Lee also said that all deaths of abused children known to social services would be independently reviewed in future. MSF will consult with the social service sector how best to do this, he added.

This is unlike in the past, where the ministry carried out bilateral reviews of incidents with the relevant social service agency.

Megan suffered over a year of horrific abuse by her mother and her ex-boyfriend, and died in February 2020.

In his response, Mr Lee also addressed questions on how the MSF will stren...