Gyeonggi, Seoul, Incheon Establish 'Seoul Metropolitan Area Childcare Council'...Jointly Respond to Low Birth Rate and COVID-19

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun Reporter] Gyeonggi Province has established the 'Seoul Metropolitan Area Childcare Council' with Seoul and Incheon to jointly respond to changing childcare environments including low birth rate and COVID-19.

On the 15th, Gyeonggi Province held the first meeting of the 'Seoul Metropolitan Area Childcare Council' with officials from Seoul and Incheon at the Gyeonggi Province Women and Family Foundation in Suwon, sharing excellent childcare policies and discussing improvement tasks for the government.

This regional council was established as the three nearby cities and provinces have become one living area, making physical childcare boundaries ambiguous, to jointly address related issues.

Examples include Hanam-si parents in Gyeonggi Province using Seoul childcare centers due to commuting to Seoul, or residents of Songpa-gu in Seoul using nearby Gyeonggi Province childcare services.

Gyeonggi, Seoul, and Incheon discussed at this meeting ▲efforts to eliminate blind spots in childcare policy for households residing in border areas between regions ▲sharing of three regional excellent childcare policies and specialized childcare programs ▲discovering and jointly proposing common childcare suggestions for the Seoul metropolitan area.

In particular, Gyeonggi Province shared ▲expansion of 'childcare center operational support' to resolve management difficulties of small-scale private and home childcare centers and improvement plans ▲plan to institutionalize budget editing standards for childcare center director positions ▲implementation plan for workplace survey on childcare staff labor environment and installation of dedicated grievance handling body for childcare staff according to the 'Ordinance for Protection and Promotion of Rights and Interests of Gyeonggi Province Childcare Staff' enacted last year, and methods to improve quality of childcare services and promote rights of staff.

The Seoul Metropolitan Area Childcare Council will hold regular meetings in the future and establish a practical cooperation system for active sharing of council activities.

Ji Ju-yeon, Director of Gyeonggi Province Women and Family Department, stated, "We have established a channel to jointly discuss and share childcare policy issues in the Seoul metropolitan area and jointly respond to overcome management difficulties at childcare centers," adding "We expect the three organizations to regularly convene the council to share excellent policies with each other and jointly establish childcare service development models suited to regional circumstances."