fc_judgments: 24

Data source: lawnet.sg/lawnet/web/lawnet/free-resources

This data as json

_id _item_id tags date court case-number title citation url counsel timestamp coram html _commit
24 2b0908a6bf3ccc86eb0a3c73a0456d51df9753d2 
[
    "Children and Young Persons Act \u2013 Care and Protection Orders \u2013 Youth progressing well and mother enjoying strong social and community support \u2013 Child Protector seeking early discharge of Care and Protection Order"
]
 2024-04-18 Youth Court Care and Protection Order No 183 of 2021 Child Protector v GIH [2024] SGYC 1 https://www.lawnet.sg:443/lawnet/web/lawnet/free-resources?p_p_id=freeresources_WAR_lawnet3baseportlet&p_p_lifecycle=1&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&_freeresources_WAR_lawnet3baseportlet_action=openContentPage&_freeresources_WAR_lawnet3baseportlet_docId=%2FJudgment%2F31397-SSP.xml 
[
    "Rahmatunnisa binte Abdul Majeed (the Home) for the Child Protector",
    "The youth in person",
    "The parents of the youth in person",
    "Mr Josephus Tan and Mr Syahrin Mohd Salleh as advisers."
]
 2024-04-25T16:00:00Z[GMT] Patrick Tay Wei Sheng <root><head><title>Child Protector v GIH</title></head><content><div class="contentsOfFile"> <h2 align="center" class="title"><span class="caseTitle"> Child Protector <em>v</em> GIH </span><br><span class="Citation offhyperlink"><a class="pagecontent" href="javascript:viewPageContent('/Judgment/31397-SSP.xml')">[2024] SGYC 1</a></span></h2><table id="info-table"><tbody><tr class="info-row"><td class="txt-label" style="padding: 4px 0px; white-space: nowrap" valign="top">Case Number</td><td class="info-delim1" style="padding: 4px">:</td><td class="txt-body">Care and Protection Order No 183 of 2021</td></tr><tr class="info-row"><td class="txt-label" style="padding: 4px 0px; white-space: nowrap" valign="top">Decision Date</td><td class="info-delim1" style="padding: 4px">:</td><td class="txt-body">18 April 2024</td></tr><tr class="info-row"><td class="txt-label" style="padding: 4px 0px; white-space: nowrap" valign="top">Tribunal/Court</td><td class="info-delim1" style="padding: 4px">:</td><td class="txt-body">Youth Court</td></tr><tr class="info-row"><td class="txt-label" style="padding: 4px 0px; white-space: nowrap" valign="top">Coram</td><td class="info-delim1" style="padding: 4px">:</td><td class="txt-body"> Patrick Tay Wei Sheng </td></tr><tr class="info-row"><td class="txt-label" style="padding: 4px 0px; white-space: nowrap" valign="top">Counsel Name(s)</td><td class="info-delim1" style="padding: 4px">:</td><td class="txt-body"> Rahmatunnisa binte Abdul Majeed (the Home) for the Child Protector; The youth in person; The parents of the youth in person; Mr Josephus Tan and Mr Syahrin Mohd Salleh as advisers. </td></tr><tr class="info-row"><td class="txt-label" style="padding: 4px 0px; white-space: nowrap" valign="top">Parties</td><td class="info-delim1" style="padding: 4px">:</td><td class="txt-body"> Child Protector — GIH </td></tr></tbody></table> <p class="txt-body"><span style="font-style:italic">Children and Young Persons Act</span> – <span style="font-style:italic">Care and Protection Orders</span> – <span style="font-style:italic">Youth progressing well and mother enjoying strong social and community support</span> – <span style="font-style:italic">Child Protector seeking early discharge of Care and Protection Order</span></p> <p></p><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td width="80%"><p class="Judg-Hearing-Date">18 April 2024</p></td><td><p class="Judg-Date-Reserved"></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p> <p class="Judg-Author"> District Judge Patrick Tay Wei Sheng:</p> <p class="Judg-1"><a id="p1_1"></a>1       A youth had been neglected by his parents since childhood and had been committed to a children’s home (the “Home”) until adulthood to protect him from delinquency. Yet so extraordinary was his progress in the Home that the Child Protector applied for his early discharge from it nearly two years before the end of that placement. I granted the application and now record the reasons for my decision.</p> <p class="Judg-1"><a id="p1_2"></a>2       The youth was 19 years of age. Since 2011, he had been placed on care and protection orders under the Children and Young Persons Act 1993 (2020 Rev Ed) (the “CYPA”) because of his neglect by his parents. The first of these orders had been made when he had been just six years of age. Thereunder, he had initially been placed in the care of a foster family.</p> <p class="Judg-1"><a id="p1_3"></a>3       In 2021, this foster placement was terminated when the police began investigations into the youth for his involvement in a criminal offence. While those investigations continued, the youth was committed to the Home, which was a place of safety, until he turned 21 years of age, pursuant to a further care and protection order. At the conclusion of the investigations into the criminal offence, the youth was issued a conditional written warning for 12 months.</p> <p class="Judg-1"><a id="p1_4"></a>4       The power of the Youth Court to discharge a care and protection order before its expiry is found in s 54(17) of the CYPA. It provides that the Youth Court may, on the application of the Director-General of Social Welfare or a child protector, discharge the care and protection order if it is “in the best interests of the person in respect of whom the order was made”.</p> <p class="Judg-1"><a id="p1_5"></a>5       The family circumstances of the youth were challenging. His father had been repeatedly incarcerated for drug-related offences and had since 2021 been serving eight years’ imprisonment for a sexual offence. His mother had been repeatedly incarcerated for drug-related offences and was on long-term anti-psychotic medication for Drug-Induced Psychosis and Opioid Dependence. His elder brother had recently served 18 months in the Reformative Training Centre for drug-related offences. And his two younger siblings were, like him, the subject of care and protection orders because of their neglect by their parents.</p> <p class="Judg-1"><a id="p1_6"></a>6       Yet the committal of the youth to the Home galvanised his mother and him to improve their lot. His mother sought help from the Institute of Mental Health for her mental health conditions. She shared her challenges with the professionals there and acknowledged that her mental health conditions had precipitated her neglect of her children. She followed the treatment regime on which she was placed, which treatment stabilised her condition to the extent that the frequency of her treatment was reduced to just thrice a year. And she availed herself of the support of her community, which included her relatives and social workers, to buttress her capacity to support the youth.</p> <p class="Judg-1"><a id="p1_7"></a>7       More importantly, the youth had progressed remarkably after his entry into the Home. He had enrolled in a vocational course to gain work experience while earning an income with which he could support his family. As part of that course, he was attached to the culinary division of a hotel. His manager at the hotel reported that he performed well in his work, showed strong leadership qualities, and was well on his way to achieving his vocational qualification. Indeed, within the culinary division of the hotel, the team on which the youth had been placed was “selected to prepare menu and food during the Grand Prix event that was held in Singapore and during a Farewell event at the Istana for former Singapore President, Mdm Halimah Yacob”.<span class="FootnoteRef"><a href="#Ftn_1" id="Ftn_1_1"><sup>[note: 1]</sup></a></span> The youth expressed that he was “proud of himself and is thankful for the opportunities opened to him”, “aims to pursue his studies in the Polytechnic in Culinary Arts”, and “aspires to be a professional Chef at international level”. And the Home invited the youth to apply for its in-house scholarship were he to pursue those studies.<span class="FootnoteRef"><a href="#Ftn_2" id="Ftn_2_1"><sup>[note: 2]</sup></a></span></p> <p class="Judg-1"><a id="p1_8"></a>8       With the guidance of a case worker from the Ministry of Social and Family Development (the “MSF”), the youth learnt to manage his finances. From his attachment at the hotel, he received $1,900 each month. From these monies, he purchased groceries and other necessities for his family and gave his mother a further $100 each month. He even presented monetary gifts to the foster family that had taken him in during his younger years.</p> <p class="Judg-1"><a id="p1_9"></a>9       Even as the youth desired to return to independent living under the care of his mother, he remained cognisant of the challenges presented by their circumstances. To prepare for such independent living, the youth made efforts to overcome those challenges. For his mother, he worked on identifying the triggers that escalated her mental health conditions and on managing her in the event of such an escalation. For himself, he sought treatment with the National Addictions Management Service (the “NAMS”) to address the delinquent tendencies that had necessitated his committal to the Home. He completed this treatment and the NAMS assessed his risk of re-offending to be “low”.</p> <p class="Judg-1"><a id="p1_10"></a>10     The Home put together a comprehensive discharge plan for the youth. Access sessions for the youth to meet his family had been arranged on a weekly basis since late-2021. These sessions went smoothly, and overnight access sessions were arranged for the youth to spend his weekends with his family since late-2022. To secure the independent living of the youth going forward, the Home devised, and the youth agreed to, the following arrangements:</p> <p class="Judg-Quote-1">a)    [The youth] to complete his [vocational course] till Oct 2025 and to enlist for National Service after that.</p> <p class="Judg-Quote-1">b)    [The youth] to be attached with [the Home’s] Transition Support Officer (TSO) to support his reintegration transition. This will be for a period of 6 months after discharge.</p> <p class="Judg-Quote-1">c)    [The youth] can seek support from NAMS Counselor on his [addiction] issues if he needs support in the future …</p> <p class="Judg-Quote-1">d)    [The youth] can apply for [the Home’s] Scholarship award in 2024. The [Home’s] Scholarship is awarded to former residents who plan to further their studies in post-secondary education. The [Home’s] scholarship is worth up to $2500 per annum and it will be disbursed monthly to the former resident. The money received can be used for their school needs including food, transport, and other necessities.</p> <p class="Judg-Quote-1">e)    [The mother of the youth] will continue to work closely with FSC Social Worker and IMH.</p> <p class="Judg-1"><a id="p1_11"></a>11     Ultimately, the newfound caregiving ability of the mother and maturity of the youth allayed the concerns that had necessitated his committal to the Home. The skills that the youth had acquired in the Home and from his vocational course equipped him to support himself and his family. The discharge plan arranged by the Home and embraced by the youth put him in good stead him to live independently as a productive member of society. It was thus in the best interests of the youth to discharge the care and protection order that had committed him to the Home and return him to the care of his mother. On the advice of Mr Josephus Tan and Mr Syahrin Mohd Salleh, the advisers whom with me comprised the Youth Court in these proceedings pursuant to s 38 of the CYPA, I so ordered.</p> <p class="Judg-1"><a id="p1_12"></a>12     Much of the work in the child protection ecosystem is unsung. This case testifies to the good that it does. Mired in neglect and delinquency the youth had been. Working together, the MSF, the Child Protective Service, the NAMS, and the Home rescued him.</p> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"><p class="Footnote"><sup><a href="#Ftn_1_1" id="Ftn_1">[note: 1]</a></sup>Progress Report 9/2/24 at paras 7.4.2 and 7.4.3</p><p class="Footnote"><sup><a href="#Ftn_2_1" id="Ftn_2">[note: 2]</a></sup>Progress Report 9/2/24 at para 10.1(d)</p></div></content></root> 1300

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