As a pioneer in early childhood preventive and developmental practice, Care Corner Circle of Care Consultancy Services (CoCCS) offers consultancy & training, innovative solutioning, and tech-enabled service delivery for the social work and early childhood care and education (ECCE) sectors.

Our journey began when Circle of Care (CoC) was convened by Care Corner Singapore in 2013, with support from Lien Foundation and Quantedge Foundation. CoC has since had the privilege to work with different partners and families towards a common vision of developing a strong ecosystem of care to provide holistic support to children from low-income families.

The CoC programme had positively impacted over 700 low-income families, demonstrating a potential return on investment of up to 7 times in terms of increased lifelong family income relative to the initial investment.

CoC was also appointed as the official consultant to support KidSTART Singapore’s national scale-up via appointed KidSTART agencies across the island from 2021 to 2023.

Enhancing capabilities of early childhood, education and social service professionals through training and capability building platforms

Catalysing innovation through collaborative partnerships and a cross-disciplinary approach to maximise impact and reach

Leveraging technology to help partners reimagine their service delivery to enhance client experiences

Shifting Childhood Trajectories

Ways We Support

Consultancy & Professional Development

Our consultants provide capability building and professional development training to equip social workers and preschool educators with practical knowledge and tools. Some key topics we cover include:

  • Early Childhood Social Work Practice
  • Working with Systems
  • Executive Function-based Life Skills* adapted from ‘Mind In The Making’*
  • Understanding and Supporting Children with Needs

We journey with social workers and educators through platforms which are suited to their unique needs, such as trainings, workshops, group supervisions and communities of practice. Capability building sessions aim to equip professionals with knowledge and skills, facilitate the exchange of best practices between professionals, and support the transfer of knowledge to application.

*Definitions answered in FAQs below.

Digital Innovation Consultancy

Our team of practitioner-developers believe in leveraging technology to enhance service delivery to clients. Through collaborative partnerships and a cross-disciplinary approach, we strive to catalyse innovation and maximise impact.

Our consultancy specialises in utilising digital learning resources to help agencies reimagine their service delivery model, benefit professionals and enhance client experiences. From consultation to implementation, we provide tailored support to each agency’s unique needs and enable them to embrace tech-enhanced service delivery.

Parenting Tools (Buddy)

Buddy is an innovative app, developed by Care Corner Circle of Care Consultancy Services, dedicated to supporting families with young children, enabling them access to crucial resources at their convenience — striking a balance between high-tech and high-touch. It was conceived in response to the growing need for preventive developmental social work support, alongside limitations to scalability and sustainability.

Content on Buddy is designed with clients, social service professionals and educators in mind. The tool helps our practitioners focus on what truly matters – delivering personalised and meaningful support to families.

Find out more about our Buddy app:

Parenting & Children Workshops

We believe in equipping parents and children with essential life skills for better outcomes in life. Our workshops focus on promoting executive function-based skills, fostering optimal learning and socio-emotional development within the home environment. We aim to empower parents with the confidence and tools necessary to support their children through critical transitions in school and beyond. Through interactive sessions and practical guidance, we strive to strengthen the parent-child relationship and nurture a positive family dynamic.

We offer programmes relating to:

  • Promoting executive-function based life skills
  • Primary school transition support

We can tailor the programmes according to your unique target audience, whether it’s a parent-child focus or meant only for children.

EF-based Team Building Workshops

Join our exciting team-building workshop designed specifically for educators and social work practitioners to promote Executive Functions (EF) in children – all while having fun!

In this interactive, life-sized board game experience, you and your team will face challenges, solve puzzles, and strategise together. Through these engaging activities, you will:

  • Learn to strengthen teamwork, communication, adaptability and collaboration
  • Dive into key executive functions: cognitive flexibility, working memory and inhibitory control

These skills are essential for working with children, helping you better guide them in developing their own EF abilities. Perfect for teams in education and social services looking to make team bonding and learning both impactful and enjoyable!

FAQs

  • Training sessions to enhance KidSTART practitioners’ capabilities through knowledge sharing and framing of practice
  • Group supervision sessions for Team Leads and Child Enabling Executives to apply knowledge acquired in training sessions and deepen capabilities
  • Implementation coaching sessions to support KidSTART-appointed service agencies (KSA) in their initial phase of implementation, and to support Team Leads in leading the scale-ups in their respective agencies
  • Implementation review of operational barriers and enablers experienced by KSAs
  • Resource development e.g. formulated guides and resources for KidSTART practitioners, in collaboration with KidSTART Singapore Ltd

Executive function refers to the mental processes that enable us to manage our thoughts, actions and emotions to achieve goals. It involves:

  • Cognitive flexibility to adjust to changes and consider other perspectives
  • Working memory to retain and manipulate pieces of information
  • Inhibitory control to set priorities and resist impulsive actions or responses

Higher executive function skills have been linked to success in school and in life. It has been shown to be even more important than IQ for future success. While science tells us that developing these essential executive function-based life skills are critical in the preschool years, they can be developed throughout life: it’s never too late!

Reference: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/executive-function/

‘Mind in the Making’ is a research-based framework by Ellen Galinsky which outlines 7 essential life skills based on Executive Functions that every child needs to thrive. It shows what adults can do to strengthen children’s Executive Function skills.

The 7 life skills are:

  1. Focus and self-control
  2. Perspective Taking
  3. Communicating
  4. Taking on Challenges
  5. Making Connections
  6. Critical Thinking
  7. Self-Directed, Engaged Learning

Reference: https://www.mindinthemaking.org/life-skills

Thank you for your keen interest. Please write in to coc.consultancy@carecorner.org.sg, and our team will get in touch with you.

For any social service agency or educators that would like to reimagine their service delivery by leveraging on technology.

Quotes

I have gained a greater appreciation of the intersection between early childhood and social work. Thanks for the good opportunity for us to learn more about the roles of CEEs in child-centric practice.

M, Participant, Care Corner KidSTART

The case study and group discussions and group sharing were very useful. The sharing of implementation strategies by the trainer is very practical, applicable and useful. Thank you for sharing that!

K, Participant, KidSTART @ Fei Yue

Being a part of the CoC consultancy team providing consultancy support to KidSTART has been a tremendously enriching experience for myself. This opportunity has allowed me to be stretched as I consider how I might apply my learnings and practice wisdom of a social worker and leader into the learning and development of others.

Beyond this, the opportunity to shape early childhood social work (ECSW) practice amongst many practitioners and in this developing field of ECSW practice in Singapore has been a ‘dream come through’ for the CoC team. We found ourselves being even more convicted and confident in the work we do through this process.

Zoeleen, Trainer and Senior Consultant, Circle of Care

The sessions by CoC were very engaging for our teachers. The knowledge base of Executive Function and Life Skills promoted a better understanding of children’s development and how it can be supported in the classroom. Our teachers found this knowledge very helpful and some of them were keen to read up more on their own.

MOE Kindergarten @ Riverside

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