| Title | Cheongju City Dreams of Happy Infant Care for Children and Infant Care Staffs Alike |
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| Writer | Childcare Division |
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Cheongju City Dreams of Happy Infant Care for Children and Infant Care Staffs Alike
- Raising the Quality of Public Infant Care Service through KRW 220 Billion Investment in 42 Projects - Cheongju City has kicked off its efforts to create a happy infant care environment for all in earnest to strengthen publicness of infant care and create aninfant care environment where children can enjoy themselves and smile alongside the infant care staffs. The city will invest KRW 220 billion into 42 projects, such as those aimed at increasing the expenses to improve the labor conditions of infant care teachers or increasing the budget for children’s snacks in childcare centers, and launch various projects to provide safe and public infant care services that parents can entrust their children to. ▶Enhancement of Trustworthy Public Infant Care Cheongju City is endeavoring to expand national or publicchildcare centers to achieve a usage rage of 40% by this coming 2022. To this end, it established 6 national or publicchildcare centers last year and has currently established 8 this year. As national or public childcare centers are currently being operated to prioritize infant care services for vulnerable social groups such as time extension infant care (infant care after 7:30 pm), they are favored by parents. Another benefit of these centers is their low teacher turnover rate; as infants and children are sensitive to changes in their environment, this allows the centers to provide stable infant care environments. In order to bring these new national or public childcare centers up to snuff, the city will designate seasoned directors with a wealth of experience in running childcare centers as mentors. This customized mentoring project will allow these mentors to pass down tips and information on how to better run and manage the centers. Among the private childcare centers and home-based childcare centers, those with excellent records will be chosen and provided funding for operation expenses. As of January of this year, there are currently 55 public-type childcare centers with outstanding infant care infrastructure that are capable of providing excellent infant care services, and KRW 3.1 billion in funding will be provided as operation expenses for these centers. ▶Expansion of Customized Infant Care Services The city is currently implementing temporary infant care services that allow parents to entrust their children in units of time when emergencies arise. Those eligible for these services are children between 6 to 36 months of age who a) do not attend or are entrusted to a kindergarten or childcare center and b) receive child home-care allowances. There are total of 13 institutions providing infant care service in units of time. Another customized infant care service is provided by time extension childcare centers, which look after children safely at night. In the case of families where both parents must work or parents with long commutes to jobs far from home, seeking infant care services for their children at night can result in psychological and economic pressure. Thus, the time extension childcare centers, which are operated from 7:30 pm to 12:00 am, were designated to alleviate such concerns and allow parents to work with peace of mind. Even infants and children who are entrusted to a different childcare center in the daytime are eligible for these time extension childcare centers, and the project will pay for up to 60 hours of time extension infant care services each month in full for eligible families .. The Cheongju Child Care Information Center provides one-stop infant care support services such as support on childcare center functions and support for home nurseries, and also operates 3 toy rental centers to help reduce household budgets and provide regional infants and children with various high-quality toys effective for developing their five senses and mental capabilities. ▶Creation of a Safe and Pleasant Infant Care Environment Cheongju City is providing funding for expenses to inspect the play equipment of childcare centers to create a safe playing environment for children, and provided KRW 13,487,000 to 79 centers for said purpose in the past year. This year’s recipients will be childcare centers that installed play equipment and completed installation inspections or regular inspections this year or those that completed installation inspections or regular inspections last year but did not receive funding for said expenses. In addition, out of concern for the health of infants and children vulnerable to high concentration fine dust, the city is carrying out a project to supply air purifiers to childcare facilities, and is also planning to provide KRW 11,000 in funding per air purifier per month as operating expenses (changing filters, rentals, etc.) for air purifiers installed in all childcare centers in Cheongju City starting 2019. Last year, the city completed its project to support the purchase of 2,059 air purifiers for 515 childcare centers. In addition, as a fundamental countermeasure to incidents where children are left in the childcare center vehicles, the city will support the supply of ”sleeping child confirmation equipment” in transport vehicles operated by 441 childcare centers (KRW 200,000 per vehicle for 621 vehicles for a total of KRW 124 million). This is expected to create an environment where infants and children who rely on center vehicles can go to and from centers in safety. ▶Expanded Improvements to Labor Conditions of Infant Care Staffs New projects undertaken this year will dispatchi-Happiness (infant care) helpers at daycare centers and provide overtime pay to infant care staffs. In order to guarantee hours of recess for infant care staffs in accordance with the Labor Standards Act for Infant Care Staffs, i-Happiness (infant care) helpers will be dispatched to 76 childcare centers, and 4,006 staff members will each be provided KRW 20,000 in overtime pay each month to motivate infant care staffs and improve their labor conditions. These efforts are expected to create a better infant care environment, so that parents can entrust their children to childcare centers without worry. A city official stated, “We will do our best to create an environment where infants and children can stay safe and in good health while also improving the quality of infant care services by improving the labor conditions of infant care staffs.” ▶Inquiries: Infant Care Support Team, Childcare Division (☎043-201-1933) |
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| 이전글 | Support Center for Agricultural Food Processing Technology Revitalizes Agricultural Food Convergence Industry |
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