A few days ago, 17 departments including the National Health Commission and the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Guiding Opinions on Further Improving and Implementing Active Birth Support Measures" ("Guiding Opinions"), calling for the acceleration of the establishment of an active birth support policy system. Fertility levels and the promotion of long-term balanced development of the population provide strong support.
"The "Guiding Opinions" consider marriage, childbirth, parenting, and education as a whole, and effectively solve the family's worries." Hu Qiangqiang, a spokesman for the National Health and Health Commission, said.
Among them, speeding up the construction of a childcare service system is a very important aspect of implementing active birth support measures.
Hao Fuqing, deputy director of the Social Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the "14th Five-Year Plan" outline involves many industries and fields, among which there is an indicator of "the number of infants and young children under the age of 3 per 1,000 population". .
"It is the first time in the history of my country's economic and social development that small childcare has been incorporated into a major plan. It shows that all aspects attach great importance to the development of childcare services, and the importance of developing childcare services is self-evident," he said.
Five key words to support the development of childcare services
"The survey shows that about 1/3 of the families in the city have childcare needs, but in reality the supply is still insufficient, especially the supply of inclusive services is a shortcoming." Hao Fuqing said, "Research in various aspects shows that, The development of childcare services has an obvious effect on reducing the burden on families and increasing the willingness to bear children. Therefore, in order to support the development of childcare services, the "Guiding Opinions" focus on five key words - basic, inclusive, investment, charging, lighten the load.”
Basically, it is to strengthen basic public services.
The "Guiding Opinions" proposes to expand the function of community nursery services, improve basic public service facilities such as infant care, implement public nursery service capacity-building projects, and highlight the basic livelihood guarantee for young children.
Inclusiveness means increasing inclusive services.
Develop public nursery institutions, encourage social forces to invest, support employers to organize, build community service outlets, and explore family nursery models.
Investment means increasing investment support.
Expand the scope of application for nursery construction projects, provide construction subsidies for investment within the central budget, and give appropriate support to eligible inclusive projects.
Charges are to standardize the charges for various services.
It is clarified that the charging standards of public nursery institutions shall be formulated by the local government, the supervision of the fees of inclusive nursery institutions shall be strengthened, and the price of nursery services shall be reasonably determined.
To reduce the burden is to reduce the operating burden of the organization.
In addition to the special support for investment in the central budget, the water, electricity and heat of childcare institutions are implemented at the price of residents' living. All localities should also introduce a package of policies to support the development of childcare institutions.
Carry out childcare services for employers
The "Guiding Opinions" proposes to support qualified employers to provide welfare childcare services for employees.
This meets the real needs of many families.
In this regard, Hong Sha, deputy director of the Women's Workers Department of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, said that since last year, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions has carried out childcare services for employers, which is a specific measure for trade union organizations to help employees solve childcare problems in the new era.
On the one hand, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and the National Health and Medical Commission have jointly issued a notice to start the national loving childcare employer recommendation and declaration work, so as to drive and support qualified employers to provide childcare services for employees.
In the nursery model, employers are encouraged to guide social forces to participate in the construction and operation of nursery institutions by purchasing third-party services, and government agencies, state-owned enterprises and institutions are encouraged to take the lead in setting up nursery institutions within their units.
For employers that use their own venues to provide free or low-cost support, priority can be given to recommend applications.
In terms of support and guarantee, certain policy and financial support will be given to employers and relevant trade union organizations that have successfully recommended and declared.
In terms of service guidance, a national caring and childcare work expert group will be jointly established to provide public welfare lectures, counseling and training for various places.
On the other hand, jointly hold a promotion meeting on the provision of childcare services by employers, summarize and exchange work experience, and deploy recommendation and application work.
At the same time, strengthen communication and coordination with relevant ministries and commissions, fully mobilize the forces of all parties, and actively support employers to participate in the special campaign for inclusive childcare services and the creation of national demonstration cities for infant care services.
From 2020 to 2022, a total of 200,000 new brackets will be added
In recent years, China's supply of inclusive childcare services has continued to expand.
According to Du Xixue, Inspector of the Population and Family Department of the National Health and Health Commission, from 2020 to 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Health and Health Commission will continue to carry out special campaigns for inclusive childcare services, and have issued an investment of 2 billion yuan within the central budget to drive local governments. The social investment has exceeded 5 billion yuan, and a total of 200,000 new nursery places have been added, promoting an increase in the effective supply of inclusive nursery services.
At the same time, health departments at all levels have further promoted the integration of medicine and education, and strengthened business guidance, consulting services, and supervision and inspection of health care work in nursery institutions; by implementing basic public health services and providing maternal and child health care services, health education services, Actively popularize scientific childcare knowledge, and provide scientific childcare services for nursery institutions and parents.
"After all, my country's modern daycare service system started from scratch and started late. Although some progress has been made in the past two years, as of the end of 2021, the number of childcare services per 1,000 population is 2.03, which will be reached by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan. There is still a big gap between the 4.5 goals and the expectations of the people." Du Xi said that the "Guiding Opinions" further clarified specific measures in terms of reducing the operating costs of childcare institutions and improving the quality of childcare services.
Focusing on the established goals, all localities and relevant departments will make efforts in the same direction to jointly accelerate the pace of building the childcare service system, and make due efforts to implement positive fertility support measures.
Improve the system of policies and regulations, and improve the standard and normative system
In recent years, China has created a favorable environment for the development of childcare services by gradually improving the system of policies and regulations and improving the system of standards and regulations in an orderly manner.
In 2019 and 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Care Services for Infants and Young Children under 3 Years of Age and Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of Nursing Care Services for the Elderly, and proposed the basic principles, development goals and policies for care services. measure.
Since 2020, the newly revised and formulated Population and Family Planning Law, Juvenile Protection Law, and Family Education Promotion Law have all added or established special provisions, stipulating the development of childcare services.
Correspondingly, the "14th Five-Year" public service plan, the "14th Five-Year" medical and health service system plan, and the "14th Five-Year" national health plan and other special plans have made specific arrangements for the development of childcare services. While the framework of the legal system has been continuously established and improved, all localities have also actively incorporated childcare services into their local policies and regulations implementation plans and development plans, and incorporated them into practical projects for the private sector, and actively organized and implemented them.
At the same time, the Development and Reform Commission and other relevant departments have given strong support to this work.
For example, the Ministry of Education has added childcare-related majors at the undergraduate and vocational education stages; the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation have introduced preferential tax and fee measures for community childcare services, and included the cost of childcare services for infants under the age of 3 into the special individual income tax Additional deductions; the All-China Federation of Trade Unions actively promotes employers to develop childcare services, etc.
According to Du Xixue, since 2019, the National Health and Health Commission and relevant departments have successively formulated and issued the establishment standards, management specifications, registration and filing methods, nursing guidelines, infant injury prevention guidelines, nutritional feeding guidelines, and fire safety guidelines. , and the training outline for the person in charge of the nursery institution and the nursery personnel, etc., and revised the national vocational skill standards for nursery teachers and other related nurseries.
"Especially, actively support and guide local governments to do a good job in the management of industry services, and at the same time strengthen supervision, promote the standardized start of nursery institutions, and the healthy development of the industry." He said.
Xiong Jian