"Combing through a series of childcare support policies issued since 2019, I think that both the state and the health department are becoming more and more pragmatic, and the ultimate purpose is to solve the problems of difficult birth and raising, and really serve the people and consider the happiness of the people." In recent years, China has introduced a series of childcare support policies to promote the development of childcare services and has made positive progress. Hao Yonggang, the operator of the family-style childcare center and the founder of the Mommy Assistant Baby Care Center, deeply felt: "The policy has given more choices to practitioners in the childcare industry. ”
Childcare institutions are important places to undertake infant and young childcare services. At present, the types of childcare services in China are diversified, not only including the more common institutional care and kindergarten nursery, but also a new childcare model - family-style childcare. These service models have their own advantages, but compared with other types, family-style childcare services have once become "uncertain" in the childcare service industry due to their small scale, vague supervision, and difficult filing.
The teacher at the nursery takes the baby for a walk.
So, what practical and effective role does the introduction of a series of supportive policies play in promoting the development of family-style childcare services? In actual operation, how do the relevant departments of the state further formulate policies and resolve obstructions? Recently, the china women's daily all-media reporter interviewed the operators of family-style childcare centers and relevant experts, contributing wisdom to promoting the development of family-style childcare services.
From "skeptical" to "firm"
The Mommy Assistant Baby Nursery Center founded by Hao Yonggang is a family-style childcare center, which currently has 7 homesteads in Beijing, based on the community to provide professional babycare and education services for families with 0- to 3-year-old babies.
Generally speaking, home-based childcare is an emerging model of individual, family or institution providing care services for infants and young children in the form of a fee in a residential home. This model has become an important part of the early care system in many countries because of its advantages of embedding in the community, proximity convenience, and low input cost, but it is still in the exploration stage of "crossing the river by touching stones" in China.
At present, ensuring "early childhood education" through the development of family-style childcare is not only an important stage task in building a diversified childcare service system, but also one of the institutional goals for the development of infant and young child care in China.
The staff of the childcare center and the children make games.
Over the years, Hao Yonggang has experienced from entering the industry to testing the waters to gradually entering a good situation, but the process has not been smooth. Sites are hard to find, communities are not licensed, fire certifications are hard to obtain... A series of difficult problems once made him suspect that he might have made the wrong choice to start a family-based childcare center.
Nowadays, his childcare center has not only "blossomed everywhere" across the country, but also become the "National Key Recommended Integrity Brand Unit" of the Organizing Committee of the China Integrity Brand Wanli Activity, and has been listed on the 2021 Early Childcare Industry Recommendation List of the Maternal and Infant Business Research Institute, which has been recognized by parents. He said bluntly that behind this is inseparable from the support of a series of national support policies.
For a long time, the high threshold and high investment in the childcare service industry have been the consensus of the industry, especially for family-style childcare, venue, cost, supervision, etc. are all major obstacles to entry. For Hao Yonggang, the pragmatism of the policy is reflected in the solution of these problems.
In October 2019, the "Standards for the Establishment of Childcare Institutions (Trial)" and the "Management Norms for Childcare Institutions (Trial)" organized and formulated by the National Health Commission came into effect, so that childcare institutions have rules to follow; at the end of 2020, the "Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of Old-age Childcare Services" issued by the General Office of the State Council proposed to establish a registration and filing system for family childcare centers, study and introduce family childcare point management measures, and effectively promote the development of socialized services for family-based childcare... For Hao Yonggang, these are like rain in time.
In particular, in April this year, the Beijing Municipal Health Commission issued the "Notice on Clarifying the Filing of Fire Protection Materials for Childcare Institutions", which clarified that childcare institutions do not need to provide fire protection related materials when filing, implement fire design review and acceptance or filing spot checks for construction projects, and conduct daily fire supervision and inspection of social units. This problem of "stuck neck" for family-style childcare practitioners has been solved, and many people have directly called out: the spring of the era of family-style childcare is coming.
"The pragmatic style of the state and the government in formulating policies has made me full of confidence in the development of the childcare industry and more determined to choose to provide family-based childcare services." Hao Yonggang said.
More than 60% of white-collar parents approve of family-style childcare
Liu Zhongyi, a researcher at the Chinese and Development Research Center, pointed out in the article "International Experience and Its Enlightenment of Family Care" that family care is in line with the expectations of most families in China for the ideal parenting style. He introduced that through a random sample survey of ideal childcare methods, it was found that more than 60% of young white-collar parents expressed their affirmation and expectations for family-style childcare.
Ms. Luo, 43, lives in wudaokou community in Beijing's Haidian District, and she often works overtime and travels in the securities industry, and she gave birth to her son Dongdong at the age of 40. After the end of the maternity leave, due to the elderly and unable to take the baby independently, the two child-rearing sisters-in-law hired had left for personal reasons in a short period of time, and Ms. Luo had to start considering sending the winter and winter, who was only one year and two months old, to the childcare institution.
After careful investigation and comparison, Ms. Luo finally chose a family-style nursery in a closed community.
Ms. Luo told reporters that the main reason for the final choice of family-style childcare points, in addition to being close to home and convenient for field visits, the kindergarten stipulates that the per capita area of children is about 8 square meters, and each store has a full upper limit, under the premise of ensuring the quota of monthly childcare children entering the kindergarten, the children who receive temporary cards according to the limit not only ensure the children's activity space, but also avoid respiratory cross infection caused by excessive density of personnel.
Children are having a professional experience.
What are the advantages of home-based childcare compared to other childcare institutions?
In addition to low operating costs and relatively affordable fees, Zhou Nianli, a professor at the Department of Preschool Education of the Faculty of Education of East China Normal University, believes that the existence of family-style childcare services is necessary. First of all, the best living environment for infants and young children aged 0 to 3 is to carry out childcare and parenting at the family in the family care point, and infants and young children do not have a strong sense of alienation, which is conducive to the establishment of parent-child attachment. Secondly, the kindergarten is located in a residential building, and the neighborhood is closer and easier to build trust, which is a key factor for parents to choose a family care point.
These advantages also make family-style childcare known as a new outlet in the childcare industry.
Clarifying the development direction of family-style childcare still needs policy escort
The affirmation and expectations of parents, as well as the high-quality realization of "early childhood education", make the official positioning of family-style childcare more urgent.
Positively, the state's attitude towards the promotion of family-style childcare is becoming clearer.
The "14th Five-Year Plan" clearly points out that to ensure "early childhood education" through the development of family-style childcare is an important stage task in building a diversified childcare service system, and it is also one of the institutional goals for the development of infant and young child care in China. In March this year, the "Notice of the Healthy China Action Promotion Committee on Printing and Distributing the Implementation Plan for the Trial Assessment of healthy China Action from 2019 to 2020" clearly stated that the "Measures for the Management of Family Childcare Points" should be studied and drafted, and the system norms such as registration management, personnel qualifications, service specifications, supervision and management should be clarified. In June this year, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Health Commission jointly formulated the "14th Five-Year Plan" to actively respond to the aging of the population and the implementation plan for childcare construction, which also proposed to explore new models and new formats of childcare services such as the development of family childcare points.
Next, how to formulate the relevant policies of family-style childcare services and how to ensure that they can be effectively implemented have naturally attracted great attention from practitioners and industry experts.
The teachers at the childcare center take the children to play games.
Qian Yu, associate professor of the Department of Preschool Education of East China Normal University, believes that the new model of family-style childcare can complement each other and form a balance with other types of childcare institutions, but based on the current national conditions, to promote the healthy development of family-style childcare, at least to solve the triple problem.
First, there is a lack of environmental safety standards for family-style nurseries. Qian Yu believes that there may be hidden environmental safety hazards in the family, and the government needs to put forward meticulous and strong requirements for the safety of the family-style childcare environment.
Second, health care requirements are difficult to meet. Compared with large childcare institutions that have the conditions to be equipped with full-time health doctors and cooks, health quarantine can accept the supervision of community hospitals or local health departments, and family-style childcare points are less difficult to supervise due to their small size.
Third, the qualifications of personnel are difficult to control. "If family-style childcare does not meet the standard requirements for the training of personnel in childcare institutions and the appointment of officials to work, it is difficult to promote and continue." Qian Yu pointed out.
The triple problems listed by Qian Yu are exactly what family-style childcare practitioners face.
Hao Yonggang is eager to introduce a registration and filing system for family childcare points as soon as possible to lower the entry threshold; clarify the qualification assessment of practitioners and set up a blacklist of childcare personnel; break down policy barriers, optimize the business environment for childcare, and implement the policies issued by the state to support the development of various types of housing for childcare.
In Qian Yu's view, at present, the certification of family-style childcare is more difficult to achieve, she suggested that it can be piloted in some areas first, clarify environmental safety, health care and teacher qualifications, determine the responsibilities of the supervision group, and at the same time popularize the common sense of child protection to parents, multi-pronged, quality first, in order to let parents really rest assured and recognized.
As Ms. Luo said, "The choice of childcare institution is not based on how good the advertising is, but on the word of mouth of the parents of children who have actually attended the nursery school." ”
Source/China Women's Daily (ID:fnb198410)
Author/China Women's Daily all-media reporter Zhou Yunxi Intern Lin Xinyang
Photo/Courtesy of the interviewee
Review/Zhifei