(May 30, 2025)

       JDEB [2025] No.22

Attention: all Childcare Institutions and all relevant Entities:

With a view to implementing the Preschool Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Several Measures for Accelerating the Improvement of the Fertility Support Policy System and Promoting the Construction of a Fertility Friendly Society (SC GO G [2024] No.48), the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Preschool Education and Childcare Services, and the Several Measures of Shanghai Municipality for Accelerating the Improvement of the Fertility Support Policy System and Promoting the Construction of a Fertility Friendly Society (SMPG GO G [2024] No.24), Jing’an District will, by adhering to a people-centered approach, actively explore the establishment of a comprehensive 0-3-year-old childcare service system, and strive to enhance the affordability, accessibility, and convenience of childcare services, so as to ensure that the benefits of educational reform and development will be shared more broadly and equitably among all citizens.

    Jing’an District hereby formulates and issues the Jointly Nurturing the Healthy Growth of Every Child — the Action Plan for Jing’an District Childcare Service“Budding Project”(2025-2027). All childcare institutions and all relevant entities are requested to earnestly study and proactively implement the plan in light of their actual circumstances.

Attachment: Jointly Nurturing the Healthy Growth of Every Child — the Action Plan for Jing’an District Childcare Service “Budding Project” (2025-2027)

Attachment:

Jointly Nurturing the Healthy Growth of Every Child

— the Action Plan for Jing’an District Childcare Service “Budding Project”

Delivering education that satisfies the people is a vital embodiment of the “People’s City” vision. As a key component of whole-life-cycle care, childcare services serve as a critical pillar in improving the basic public service system. The collective efforts of society to nurture the healthy development of every infant and young child hold irreplaceable significance in optimizing the population development strategies and strengthening the foundation for the nation’s long-term growth.

To implement the guiding principles of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee on “strengthening the development of inclusive childcare service systems,” and to comply with the the Preschool Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Several Measures for Accelerating the Improvement of the Fertility Support Policy System and Promoting the Construction of a Fertility Friendly Society (SC GO G [2024] No.48), the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Preschool Education and Childcare Services, and the Several Measures of Shanghai Municipality for Accelerating the Improvement of the Fertility Support Policy System and Promoting the Construction of a Fertility Friendly Society (SMPG GO G [2024] No.24), Jing’an District, being committed to its people-centered approach, is comprehensively advancing the Three-Year Action Plan for High-Quality Education Development in Jing’an District (2025-2027) by:

• Pioneering a comprehensive 0-3 childcare service system,

• Launching the regional “Budding Project” for childcare services,

• Comprehensively enhancing the affordability, accessibility, and convenience of childcare services,

• Ensuring that the benefits of educational reform reach all citizens more extensively and equitably, and

• Establishing Jing’an District as a most child-friendly community.

Regional Consensus

I. Upholding the Unity Between Goal-Oriented and Demand-Oriented Approaches

With the fundamental objectives of “enhancing public welfare” and embodying the “human touch” of a people-centric city, Jing’an District will advance systematic reform of childcare services. It will address practical challenges including:

•The conflict between traditional parenting concepts and modern scientific childcare knowledge,

• Insufficient supply of childcare services, and

• Limited channels for integrating education, parenting, and healthcare.

Through establishing mechanisms for scientific, effective, and sustainable development, the District will provide targeted and professional childcare services to:

• Foster healthy growth of infants and young children, and

• Promote family harmony and wellbeing.

II. Promoting the Parenting Philosophy of “Nurturing Buds with Care and Safeguarding Growth with Commitment”

Guided by the physical and psychological development patterns of children aged 0-3, Jing’an District will provide professional and diversified education-parenting-healthcare services to families in need. Through sensitive, warm, and scientific care, the District will foster children’s holistic development in safe and stable environments, so that every child will experience:

• Love and security,

• Joy and wellbeing,

• Learning and development,

• Respect and attachment, and

• Exploration and experimentation.

This ensures each child receives tailored professional support, thus enriching family happiness and nurturing society’s future.

III. Advancing Steadily under the Service Principles of “Government Leadership, Universal Access, Collaborative Diversity, and Safety and Quality”

Leveraging the government’s leading role in enhancing childcare service capabilities, Jing’an District remains committed to safeguarding and improving public welfare through development. By fostering multi-department and cross-sector collaboration and concerted efforts, the District will:

• Refine the integrated education-parenting-healthcare service system for all age groups,

• Expand the supply of affordable childcare services to meet family needs,

• Elevate the quality of professional childcare to create warm growth environments for infants and young children, and

• Ensure that parents enjoy worry-free childcare services.

Regional Initiatives

I. An Initiative to Enhance the Quality of Community “Baby Care Centers”

Focusing on quality improvement and providing babies with professional and warm services, Jing’an District will upgrade to “Baby Care Center 4.0”. Guided by community needs, demographic distribution, and the structure of the community, this initiative will:

• Keep improving the service networks to better meet parents’ occasional childcare needs,

    • Expand service offerings by adding evening and weekend care sessions,

       • Create the Care Guidelines for Jing’an Baby Care Centers and the Companion Handbook to provide scientific parenting guidance,

    • Establish a rotating specialist advisory program to standardize safe care procedures, implement care protocols, and facilitate the use of the Handbook, and

• Refine the comprehensive quality guarantee mechanism to evaluate the operation of the Baby Care Centers and enhance regional service capabilities.

II. An Initiative to Develop Capable and Excellent Kindergarten “Baby Care Centers”

Leveraging their professional resources, kindergartens will extend their services to younger babies by establishing nursery classes, and creating specialized, warm, and affordable “Baby Care Centers”. These will deliver targeted services through a “1+X” service model:

“1” means comprehensive services, in which  

    • Kindergartens achieve 100% integrated childcare coverage,

    • All public and private kindergartens in the District offer nursery classes, and

    • Kindergartens with adequate capacity provide programs for babies only a few months old.

“X” means specialized services, which:

    • Offer flexible scheduling with half-day/full-day modular programs,

    •Pilot a “Deputy Health Principal” program in select kindergartens to coordinate education-parenting-healthcare activities,

       • Offer à la carte parent-child experiential activities for 1-3 year-olds in every sub-district and town, and

    • Develop progressive parent-accompanied nursery curricula to ease children’s transition from home to group care.

III. An Initiative to Enhance Child Wellbeing Through “Education-Parenting-Healthcare”

This initiative pioneers cross-sector collaboration between health and education departments through the following “Four Explorations”:

1. A Professional Alliance, which means an “education-parenting-healthcare tri-sector research consortium” to

• Implement a rotating leadership system, and

• Conduct regular symposiums to address education-parenting-healthcare integration challenges and difficulties.

2. A Research Program, which, jointly with Shanghai Children’s Hospsital, studies a “Multidimensional Child Health & Development Support System” through data analysis, case studies, and field validation so as to explore an innovative, long-term mechanism of medical-education integration.

3. A Service Package featuring:

•“Help-Kit” – A scientific nutrition profile system co-developed with Shanghai Shibei Hospital,

• “Smart-Stick” – A health management series co-created with Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital,

•“Jing’an Parenting Companion” – A developmental tracker for infants’ key behavioral milestones, co-designed with Jing’an Early Education Research Center,

•“Bonding Buddy” – Attachment-focused parenting support jointly provided with Jing’an Family Education Guidance Center, and

•“First 1,000 Days Hub” – A maternal and child health platform jointly established with Jing’an Maternal and Child Health Center.

4. A Child Wellness File, which:

• Is co-developed by physicians, educators and parents,

• Covers health records, behavioral observations, and parent engagement,

• Implements full-cycle management encompassing prevention, screening, intervention and reinforcement, and

• Ensures timely health interventions and scientific and effective guidance.

IV. An Initiative to Digitally Empower Scientific Parenting Guidance

The initiative highlights the comprehensive guidance, coordinated leadership, and practical pioneering role of Jing’an District’s three-tier network, comprising the Early Education Guidance & Research Center, sub-district scientific parenting guidance stations, and kindergarten parenting guidance points, as well as enriches the “4+N Collaborative Parenting Curriculum”, with families, communities, schools and students cooperating in various areas.

Specifically, the initiative will:

• Drive the “Six Outreach” parenting guidance program — delivering childcare support to office buildings, tech parks, public venues, communities, households, and neighborhood Baby Care Centers,

• Broaden online coverage of the “Birth & Beyond” scientific parenting guidance,

• Guide parents to recognize infants’ and young children’s developmental traits and systematically understand age-specific behavioral milestones, providing big data support for deepening scientific understanding of early childhood development patterns,

• Flexibly use AI technology to co-create “Smart Buds” courses and develop smart interactive Q&A platforms for parenting support, and

• Enable local health departments to roll out 10 premium health/nutrition classes annually, with a view to strengthening family competencies in health management, scientific feeding and early intervention, as well as supporting babies’ all-round development across physical health, language acquisition, motor skills, and socio-emotional intelligence.

V. An Initiative to Support Childcare Practitioners’ Professional Development

Under the Party leadership, this initiative addresses needs for infant and young child care in the new era by integrating multi-disciplinary resources to build three types of specialized support teams with a focus on the synergy of parenting, education, and psychology:

1. Core education-parenting-healthcare teams that are composed of:

• Teachers holding both teaching certificates and infant caregiver certificates, and
• Licensed pediatric specialists.

2. Teaching-research teams that:

• Conduct deep-going studies in the forms of projects and programs through immersive job shadowing, tracking-based mentoring, and dialogic teaching research; and

• Enhance caregivers’ practical competencies and problem-solving capacities, so as to develop a sustainable education-parenting-healthcare coordination mechanism.

3. Community volunteer teams that

• recruit members from university students (education/nursing/health majors), full-time parents, and retired medical professionals in the community, and

• Foster a childcare ecosystem created by multiple stakeholders with shared resources and benefits.

VI. An Initiative to Create a Child-Friendly Ecosystem

Leveraging the role of the regional childcare and preschool education joint conference, this initiative fosters a child-friendly ecosystem where “society understands childcare, and childcare integrates with society”. Key measures include:

1. Refining the mechanism for dynamic adjustment of childcare service provision.

This mechanism, based on demographic shifts, staggers the use of preschool education resources, and provides kindergarten caregivers with guarantee measures such as staffing and class-size, so as to ensure the sound development of childcare services in all regions.

2. Improving the mechanism for childcare service quality supervision.

This mechanism is people-centered, focusing on service accessibility, scientific guidance, and collaborative efficiency to significantly reduce families’ burdens in childbearing, parenting, and education, thereby advancing the development of a child-friendly urban area.

The District will:

• provide holistic support for positive parenting practices,

• offer comprehensive support to enhance teachers’ knowledge of infants’ and young children’ s cognitive and socio-emotional development,

• expand multi-dimensional healthcare-education collaboration frameworks, and

• mobilize society-wide synergy for cooperative child-nurturing.