Seoul City to Expand 'Seoul-type Childcare Centers' to 800 Locations by 2025... Strengthening Public Childcare

Strengthening Publicness of Private Childcare Services through System Improvement after 3 Years
Expanding Support and Easing Entry Barriers Reflecting Environmental Changes and Field Demand

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 6th that it will significantly improve the system of the ‘Seoul-type Childcare Centers,’ introduced by Mayor Oh Se-hoon in 2009, and expand the number to 800 centers by 2025. Currently, there are 463 Seoul-type Childcare Centers, and along with public childcare centers, the plan is to continuously expand them to increase the share of public childcare in Seoul to 70.3% by 2025.

The Seoul-type Childcare Centers system guarantees high-quality childcare services by providing support for labor and operating costs, enhancing accounting transparency, and encouraging the recruitment of qualified teachers for private and home childcare centers that pass a certain standard of official evaluation.

Seoul City plans to promote five major strategies under ‘Revitalizing Seoul-type Childcare Centers 2.0’ to boost Seoul-type Childcare Centers, which are the main drivers of public childcare alongside the expansion of public childcare centers, by increasing support and easing entry barriers. First, support for Seoul-type Childcare Centers will be significantly expanded. ▲The childcare environment improvement fund, previously supported only once upon new certification, will be expanded to include participation in functional reinforcement projects ▲Support for assistant teachers and childcare helpers, previously provided for 4 hours a day, will be extended to 6 hours a day ▲Wages for cooks, previously supported only for facilities with 40 or more children, will be expanded to facilities with 20 or more children ▲Director’s seniority pay support will be increased from 80% of one month’s seniority pay to 80% of two months’ seniority pay ▲Active support for participation in childcare-related policy projects will be provided through substantial additional points.

Evaluation indicators will be reasonably improved to reflect environmental changes and field demands. By improving indicators that reflect the changing childcare environment such as low birth rates and COVID-19, focusing on quality-centered evaluation, and awarding additional points considering socially vulnerable groups, the burden on the field will be eased and substantive evaluations will be promoted.

The basic requirement of a 70% or higher enrollment rate will be relaxed to 60%, and new indicators for eco-friendly meal expenses and operating expense execution rates will be introduced to strengthen actual benefits for enrolled children. A prior notice system for evaluation indicators will be implemented so that evaluations can be prepared in advance reflecting the changed indicators. In addition, pre-education and individual consulting will be provided for facilities that fail official evaluations, and the application period for new certification evaluations will be shortened from two years to one year, allowing annual applications.

Seoul City will improve the existing post-evaluation method to a pre-education and customized consulting-centered evaluation to promote ‘quality improvement’ rather than ‘failure.’ Pre-education and consulting will be supported for newly applying facilities, and evaluation indicator consulting will be provided before the expiration of the Seoul-type certification period to support re-certification entry.

The method of manually evaluating documents will also be improved to an evaluation through the Childcare Center Management System to reduce the burden of document preparation and enhance the speed and accuracy of evaluations. Additionally, a Seoul-type explanatory video will be produced and provided to make the Seoul-type entry process easier to understand. FAQs including inappropriate cases pointed out during re-certification evaluations will be shared to prevent similar cases in the future.

To maintain the professionalism and continuity of evaluations, the capacity of managing entities will also be strengthened. A Seoul-type Support Team will be newly established in the department responsible for childcare policy in Seoul City to exclusively support Seoul-type Childcare Centers, and a Seoul-type Childcare Center Support Center will be set up at the Seoul Women’s Family Foundation to manage and support official evaluation targets through education and consulting. The recruitment period for field inspectors will be extended and educational capacity development will be supported to enhance their expertise.

Furthermore, promotion of Seoul-type Childcare Centers will be strengthened. Explanation sessions related to the expansion of support and indicator improvements for Seoul-type Childcare Centers will be held from May to actively encourage new participation, and promotional posters for ‘Revitalizing Seoul-type Childcare Centers 2.0’ will be produced and distributed to autonomous districts, childcare centers, and district childcare support centers.

Kim Seon-soon, Director of the Seoul City Women and Family Policy Office, said, “Reflecting environmental changes such as low birth rates and COVID-19 and the demands of the childcare field, we plan to expand support for Seoul-type Childcare Centers and ease entry barriers,” adding, “Along with the expansion of public childcare centers, we will significantly increase Seoul-type Childcare Centers to raise the share of public childcare in Seoul to 70% by 2025.”

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