서울시복지재단

The Ministry of Education announced that it will designate and operate a total of 52 "base-type care institutions" tailored to parental demand by utilizing the care linkage between daycare centers and kindergartens and the advantages of each institution along with 11 metropolitan and provincial offices of education. The participating metropolitan and provincial offices of education are Seoul, Busan, Gwangju, Daejeon, Ulsan, Gyeonggi, Chungnam, Jeonbuk, Gyeongbuk, Gyeongnam, and Jeju Office of Education.

The base-type care institution is a project that designates a base institution among kindergartens and daycare centers and provides additional care, including infants in need of care from other nearby institutions (two or more) in the early morning, late evening, and holidays. Using the purpose of the reservation integration, both daycare centers and kindergartens can be used as base institutions, and infants of nearby agreement institutions can use kindergartens or daycare centers designated as base institutions without distinction.

This year, the care gap for parents will be resolved first by designating areas where care services are difficult to use due to lack of care institutions or low geographical accessibility. The metropolitan and provincial offices of education will designate a total of 52 institutions as base-type care institutions through public offerings, taking into account the conditions, location, and accessibility of the institution, and start pilot operations sequentially from April in accordance with the conditions of the Office of Education and the institution.

The institution designated as a base-type care institution will provide care services that reflect the needs of parents through prior consultation with nearby daycare centers or kindergartens. It provides services with high demand for care, such as "customized care" and "Saturday (holiday) care" that support morning and evening commuting hours, and actively utilizes programs specialized for ages 3 to 5 to improve the quality of education and childcare. This year, 24 customized care locations (17 daycare centers, 17 kindergartens) and 18 Saturday (holiday) care locations (13 daycare centers, 5 kindergartens) will be piloted.

The Ministry of Education held a business briefing session for the heads of base-type care institutions, and plans to organize a "base-type care support group" in six regions (Seoul, Busan, Jeju, Gwangju, Daejeon, Chungnam, Jeonbuk, Gyeonggi, Gyeongbuk, Gyeongnam, and Ulsan) to provide counseling (consulting).

The base-type care institution was an essential project for "care responsible for morning, evening, and holidays." There are many daycare centers and kindergartens nationwide, but there were not a few infants and toddlers who were neglected in the blind spot of care due to rigid usage hours.

Systematic infant care is the wish of a family raising a child, the basis for parents to go to work with confidence, and is a measure of the state's responsibility for future generations. For a long time, many infants and toddlers have been neglected in the blind spot of care due to problems such as limited time, segmented service structure, and lack of cooperation between institutions.

In particular, dual-income families, single-parent families, and non-regular workers often face situations where it is difficult to handle the child's child care gap. Kindergarten recommends the House of Representatives at 2-3 p.m., and daycare centers often end care after 7 p.m. Most institutions do not operate during vacations or holidays, so parents had to use private care services or take annual leave.

It is the pilot operation project of a base-type care institution promoted by the Ministry of Education and the Office of Education that has emerged to overcome these limitations. This project is not just an extension of care time, but a groundbreaking attempt to redesign the structure of care services and provide child-centered and home-centered services through collaboration between public institutions.

Our society has long emphasized the integration of kindergarten education and infant care. The 'integration of reserves' started from the policy flow of integrating the dual operating structure of daycare centers (under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health and Welfare) and kindergartens (under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education). This is a fundamental paradigm shift that goes beyond administrative integration and ties care and education into one system with the child's development and family reality at the center.

The base-type care institution is a field-based experiment that realizes this philosophy of retention integration. Kindergartens and daycare centers together create care bases in the region, break down boundaries between institutions, and efficiently link care resources to provide customized care services for parents. In this pilot project, a total of 52 institutions were designated as base-type care institutions. Each base institution has signed agreements with two or more nearby daycare centers or kindergartens, and children of those institutions are also included in the care service. Integrated care based on the actual needs of children becomes possible.

The biggest feature of base-type care institutions is by far the use of 'time expansion'. If the existing care was limited from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, care is provided from early morning to late evening, even during Saturdays, holidays, and vacations. In other words, it is possible to go to school before 7 a.m. and to the House of Representatives after 8 p.m.

This is of great significance in that it does not only increase time, but also provides practical options for parents and grandparents whose work patterns are flexible. In particular, this type of care service is urgently needed in areas where there are many shift workers, such as hospitals, manufacturing, and firefighting.

The Ministry of Education and the metropolitan and provincial offices of education did not simply use the size of the institution to maximize the effectiveness of the pilot project. Rather, the demand for care is high, but the area with insufficient supply, that is, the 'caring vulnerable area', is considered first. Pilot projects will start in places with low geographical access or lack of existing public care institutions, such as rural areas, near industrial complexes, and areas where new apartment houses are concentrated in new cities. In some urban areas, the proportion of dual-income families in desperate need of evening care was also high, or places with high demand for weekend childcare were also included.

A total of 11 metropolitan and provincial offices of education were selected according to these standards, and each office of education selected appropriate institutions for each region through public offering and screening procedures. Each base institution establishes a customized care plan to reflect the needs and reality of the local community, and gradually begins piloting accordingly.

Guardians such as parents raising infants and toddlers can apply by searching for a base institution. You can search for base institutions through government sites such as institutions where children attend, the website of the Office of Education, and policy briefing in Korea. It is difficult for everyone who wants to use it because there are not many yet, but if demand is high, base-type care institutions will expand annually.

Based on the pilot project, the Ministry of Education plans to analyze the operation performance of the system, organize best practices and complementary points, and decide whether to expand the country in the future. In order for the project to be established as a sustainable policy model, legal and institutional support and budget expansion must be carried out together with public interest.