'Seoul-style Shared Childcare Centers' Expanded to All Districts... 40 Communities in 25 Districts

Mandatory Application of Eco-Friendly and Inclusive Childcare Models, Upgrading Various Programs Including Play
Support for Ecological Environment Creation Costs and General Support Staff Allowances

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 24th that it will expand the ‘Seoul-type Shared Daycare Centers,’ which have been implemented in 8 autonomous districts and 14 communities since August last year, to all autonomous districts in Seoul.

The ‘Seoul-type Shared Daycare Centers’ is a representative childcare pledge project proposed by Mayor Oh Se-hoon. It is a joint childcare model that groups 3 to 5 national/public, private, and home daycare centers within walking distance into one community to raise children together. According to the mid- to long-term childcare master plan announced last year, it will be expanded to all autonomous districts this year.

Seoul City aims to expand operations to a total of 40 communities this year, including the daycare centers participating since last year. From the 28th of this month to the 8th of next month, they will publicly recruit 26 new communities and 92 daycare centers. Each autonomous district can gather participating daycare centers and apply by selecting 1 to 2 communities. Seoul City will complete the selection through a selection committee review by February and start operations from March.

In particular, from this year, various forms of childcare models and play programs will be applied to the Seoul-type Shared Daycare Centers to create synergy effects and improve the quality of childcare. The childcare models of ‘Eco-friendly Daycare Centers’ and ‘Together Daycare Centers’ will be mandatorily applied, and various programs such as play-centered programs desired by each community will be supported.

Childcare-related professional organizations such as the Seoul Foundation of Women & Family and the Seoul Childcare Comprehensive Support Center will provide consulting, and community members can autonomously plan childcare programs reflecting the results. Programs that could not be implemented due to cost burdens, night childcare, new play programs, shared school vehicles, and various other ideas can be discovered and executed as childcare programs.

Seoul City has also significantly improved operations by regularly listening to the voices from the field, such as childcare staff, to ensure that the Seoul-type Shared Daycare Centers, which are expanding to all autonomous districts this year, can be operated more substantively. They have reduced the paperwork burden such as performance submissions and allowed flexible budget execution, while supporting a specialized program fund (5 million KRW) to develop and implement various childcare models and play programs.

Additionally, they newly support facility-specific ecological environment creation costs (700,000 KRW annually) and community general support staff allowances by autonomous district (190,000 to 240,000 KRW monthly). The activity allowance for teachers and directors (50,000 to 100,000 KRW monthly) has also been expanded from 4 to 5 teachers. When assigning assistant teachers, priority is given to shared daycare centers (1 person), and operating expenses for community operation councils (100,000 KRW monthly) continue to be supported.

Meanwhile, at the first Seoul-type Shared Daycare Centers performance report meeting held at the end of last year, 14 communities announced that participation in the Seoul-type Shared Daycare Centers increased exchanges between daycare centers, changing competitive relationships into cooperative ones, and that costs were reduced through joint purchases and shared use of teaching materials.

Kim Seon-soon, Director of the Seoul City Women & Family Policy Office, said, “Last year, we confirmed that overall service improvement is possible simply by sharing resources and cooperating through the Seoul-type Shared Daycare Centers,” and added, “We expect that the expansion to all autonomous districts this year will establish coexistence and cooperation activities in daycare centers as a culture.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.