data shows that there are currently more than 37 million infants and young children aged 0 to 3 in my country, and more than one-third of the families have a strong need to enter the nursing home.
"According to incomplete statistics, there are currently tens of thousands of childcare service institutions of various types across the country, but the overall supply of childcare services is still insufficient. More than 90% of the institutions in are private institutions and for-profit institutions, and the service objects are mainly infants and young children over 2 years old, and the charging prices are relatively high. The distribution of service resources in various regions is uneven. The enrollment rate of childcare service institutions is only about 6%. " said a relevant person in charge of the Population Monitoring and Family Development Department of the National Health Commission.
Parenting is both a family matter and a state matter. How can the childcare industry, which has strong market demand and continues to be hot, develop healthily? reporter conducted an investigation.
Guangzhou, teachers and children from a childcare center are playing the "Rainbow Umbrella" game. Guangming Picture
The cost is too high
The price of childcare is difficult to adjust
0 Li Mingyuan, who lives in Dachang Town, Baoshan District, Shanghai, has been in a private childcare service institution near his home since he was two years old. "The main reason for choosing this place is that the price is cheap, which is more than 3,000 yuan a month, and it is responsible for breakfast and lunch."
"This institution is average in scale and the number of teachers is moderate. Usually, it mainly brings games and takes some simple English classes. To be honest, it means 'reducing the burden' for parents. I am not unwilling to think that the childcare service in the past has better conditions. As a result, when I asked about it, the price was scary." Li Mingyuan said.
Li Mingyuan's words express the voices of many parents. "According to relevant surveys, the average full-day care fee in my country in 2021 is 2,700 yuan per month, and many first-tier cities are higher than 7,000 yuan per month, far exceeding the affordability of ordinary families." A relevant person in charge of the Population and Family Department of the National Health Commission said.
, founded in 2017, mainly provides childcare services for children aged 0 to 4. "The company currently has about 50 parks across the country, with an average of 40 to 60 stewards per park. Our service targets are mainly local mid-to-high-end consumer groups, and the average monthly fee in Beijing is more than 10,000 yuan." said Liu Xiaoli, president of Audemars Piguet.
"Compared to operating a kindergarten, the childcare industry has set a higher threshold." Liu Xiaoli introduced that according to relevant requirements, the childcare venue must be below three floors, which leads to a relatively high rental price. Taking Beijing as an example, a 400-square-meter childcare park can have a maximum monthly rent of 120,000 yuan. "At present, the childcare price of childcare service institutions in central urban areas of Beijing is about 6,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan per month. Once it is less than 6,000 yuan, it is difficult to recover the cost." Liu Xiaoli said.
"Compared with rent, labor costs are higher." Liu Xiaoli said that due to the lack of mature professional education support for childcare services, the lack of professional talents, which means that the company itself needs to undertake a lot of talent training. "Generally, new teachers recruited need to complete one to two months of training before they can take up their posts, which will incur a large amount of costs."
"In the above situation, the charging prices of childcare service institutions are difficult to adjust, resulting in families with weaker payment ability being unable to send their children in, which in turn reduces the profit margins of childcare service institutions." A relevant person in charge of the Population and Family Department of the National Health Commission said that although some places have taken countermeasures, the overall intensity is not large, and it is a drop in the bucket to reduce the price of childcare services.
In a childcare center in Xi'an, children are playing the game of "Eagle Catching Chicken". Guangming Picture
Quality improvement
Parents can only give hiring
Ms. Luan, who lives in Chaoyang District, Beijing, has a daughter "mooncake" of one and a half years old. "The little guy was basically raised by her grandmother when he was born. I have considered sending the child to a childcare service agency and visited several, but I always feel that there is no need for outsiders to take care of their family members. So I have to trouble the elderly." Ms. Luan said helplessly.
Ms. Luan’s situation shows the troubles faced by many families at present: parents need to go to work to maintain family expenses, so they have to worry about the elderly’s care. Once the elderly are inconvenient, the children will fall into a dilemma of no one to take care of."There are also many people around me who have tried to have a second and third child, but they are worried that they cannot take proper care of them, so they finally gave up their thoughts." Ms. Luan said.
Shenzhen Childcare (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., established in 2020, is affiliated to the state-owned enterprise Shenzhen Xingfu Health Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. It currently has 9 childcare parks in Shenzhen and provides 565 nursing seats. General Manager Ding Lingzhi introduced that in 2021, the company's survey found that now first pays attention to the safety and environment of the institution, with safety accounting for 88.61% and the environment accounting for 87.44%; secondly, it values teachers and qualifications, such as whether it has been registered, whether it is a demonstration childcare service institution; finally, it is food and fees.
Ding Lingzhi introduced that in terms of food safety, the company and Shenzhen Maternal and Child Health Hospital jointly developed recipes for infants and young children aged 0 to 3 in Shenzhen. They have formulated the "Food Safety Operational Specifications for Catering Services for Full-time Infant and Child Care Service Institutions" with the Shenzhen Market Supervision Bureau and relevant industry units, as well as independent research and development of a childcare system.
In January this year, Shandong Pretiyou Education Consulting Co., Ltd. (Lerong Children's Home) was rated as a "provincial demonstration childcare service institution". Wang Jian, the head of Lerong Children's Home Jinan Campus, told reporters that in order to further reassure parents, the government has also organized various skill training, such as kindergarten principal training, health care medical training, nursery training, chef security training, etc. At the same time, the government has also provided policy and financial support to childcare institutions from many aspects.
"html Infants and young children under 13 years old are the weakest groups, and the time to enter the caregiver is not fixed. After the outbreak of the epidemic, many families have received less or no caregiver, and the urgent need for childcare services has been suppressed. As an emerging service industry in recent years, if the government can intervene earlier, guide better, and promote better, I believe that more and more parents can agree with the childcare concept of childcare service institutions and hand over their children to us with confidence." Wang Jian said.
Staff from Shenzhen Xingfu Home Care Class accompany the children to pile up building blocks. Guangming Picture
Break the bottleneck
Provides strong talent support
During the investigation, the reporter found that many heads of childcare service institutions in said that the lack of professional talents is an important factor restricting the development of institutions.
Ding Lingzhi introduced that since no majors in the childcare industry have entered the market, the current employed persons need to be full-time college or undergraduate students related to education or majors related to preschool education and early education; in terms of qualifications, they need to be people with childcare workers, nanny teachers or kindergarten teachers qualification certificates.
"The main factors of recruitment difficulties are as follows: first, because the cost of living in Shenzhen is high, but the salary in this industry is not high; second, the industry lacks professional talents as a whole, which is difficult to solve in the short term; third, although the profession of childcare professionals was released in July 2022, there are currently no specific training rules and no promotion channels for rank; fourth, the low social recognition ultimately leads to the loss of talents." Ding Lingzhi said.
In order to solve related problems, Audemars Piguet began to explore cooperation with vocational colleges to jointly build childcare majors, and to put practical childcare courses into the vocational education sector. "In this way, students will be exposed to our courses and training as soon as possible, and they can intern in institutions around the third grade, and outstanding graduates can be retained in institutions and become professionals in the childcare industry as soon as possible." Liu Xiaoli said.
As a higher vocational college directly under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Beijing Social Management Vocational College has established early education majors and housekeeping majors in recent years, and has set up a series of theoretical basic courses and art skills courses, as well as professional core courses, such as infant physiological hygiene and health care, infant care, infant art enlightenment, and early childhood activity design and organization. Zhou Yang, a teacher at the School of Children's Education and Development of Beijing Social Management Vocational College, said: "We hope that through the study of these courses, students can master the characteristics of the growth and development of infants and young children aged 0 to 3 years old, and can carry out game activities and early education related to art enlightenment for infants and young children."
Recently, the National Health Commission and other departments issued the "Guiding Opinions on Further Improving and Implementing Active Reproductive Support Measures", which clearly put forward requirements such as "gradually implementing the professional qualification access system for childcare practitioners in accordance with the law", aiming to gradually improve the childcare talent training system.
" The school plans to open a healthy development major for infants and young children after upgrading to the undergraduate level, which is similar to the curriculum for the custody major. However, whether a childcare major is offered depends on whether the student enrollment is optimistic and whether the internship and employment are smooth. If the career development channel for skilled talents can be smooth as soon as possible, I believe it will provide strong talent support for the development of my country's childcare service . "Zhou Yang said.
policy support
meets the needs of the people's childcare
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, many childcare institutions have faced great survival pressure. On the one hand, there is almost no income after the closure of the school; on the other hand, rent costs and labor costs still need to be spent as usual.
From late January to early February this year, the Xi'an Infant and Child Care Service Industry Association relies on local childcare industry associations and leading childcare enterprises to carry out online questionnaires for childcare institutions nationwide. Ren Li, president of the association, introduced that the survey shows that the current fiscal and taxation and financial policies supporting the development of childcare services are relatively weak, and it is difficult to implement various support policies. Among the childcare institutions interviewed, 15.52% of the kindergarten construction funds Jin Source is targeted support from the government, 25.99% are loans. 10.83% of childcare institutions have applied for financing or loans from financial institutions, but have not been approved. Only 5.42% of the respondents have enjoyed preferential tax policies, and 75.81% have failed to enjoy preferential policies. The interviewed childcare institutions urgently need to "strengthen publicity and increase parents' willingness to send care" and "support from health and medical institutions". "Tax reduction and tax reduction and delayed tax payment" are the current urgent needs of private institutions.
According to the association's survey and official statistics, as of the end of July 2022, Xi'an has 616 childcare service institutions and 12,320 practitioners. Among them, 60 family-style childcare sites, 335 private pure childcare institutions, and 221 kindergartens at the bottom of the kindergarten.
"The government provides a series of policy guarantees for childcare service institutions. For example, the Municipal Health Commission organized special training for principals and practitioners of childcare institutions, and has trained 230 principals and 160 practitioners; the Municipal Development and Reform Commission and the Municipal Health Commission have made it clear that from September 1, 2022, the registered childcare institutions in our city will implement the resident price of water, gas and heat; the Municipal Education Bureau has increased the training of childcare services professional talents, and has trained 4,738 graduates of childcare services majors in secondary vocational schools across the city in the past three years. "Ren Li said.
Feng Liwen, executive deputy secretary-general of Guangdong Infant and Child Care and Early Development Industry Association, told reporters that in 2022, there will be about 6,000 registered childcare institutions in Guangdong, most of which are mainly medium-sized, with an average charge of 2,500 to 4,000 yuan. "At present, Guangdong has clearly included the construction of childcare service facilities in the province's economic and social development plan and local land space plan, and comprehensively used support policies such as land, housing, finance, and finance to guide social forces to actively participate. At the same time, public medical institutions are also required to take the lead in leading employers across the province to carry out universal childcare work to maximize the meeting of the growing childcare needs of the general public. "Feng Liwen said.
Jinan Hi-tech Zone is actively developing childcare services with diverse forms and standardized operations, striving to solve the problem of "operational hardships" of childcare service institutions. A relevant person in charge of the Development and Security Department of Jinan Hi-tech Zone introduced: "We have taken different support measures for different models in practice, and strive to provide all-round and full-cycle high-quality services for infant care work. For example, for independent entity types, enterprises and individuals are encouraged and supported to hold independent childcare entities in accordance with the law, and provide full-day care, half-day care, timed care and other services; for community embeddedness, brand infant and child care service institutions are supported to extend and penetrate high-quality service resources, service concepts and management standards to the community; for chain radiation, units and corporate organizations with outstanding advantages and rich experience are encouraged and supported to exert brand effects. ”
