2014 보육정책의 성과와 과제

Abstract

Since 2013, there has been a drastic change in the nature of childcare policy, such as generalized childcare and rearing expense support for all income levels, and the focus of childcare policy is now changing from quantitative outcome to quality improvement in childcare services. This study is a part of continuous research of 6 years, with year 5 analysis conducted in 2014. At the time of drastic change in childcare policy, this study has its purpose in 1) building database of childcare policy by reviewing overall childcare policies of th central and local governments, mainly about annually budgeted services, and 2) proposing achievements and tasks for short/mid-term childcare policies. This study analyzed current status of childcare policy based on statistics on childcare policy and related data from the central and local governments, and it performed a survey to identify improvement areas for 'child home care allowance' and 'childcare center waiting list management system' which had been selected as in-depth subjects. The survey on child home care allowance was conducted among 1,000 families receiving child home care allowance and another 1,000 families using daycare services; the survey on childcare center waiting list management system was performed among 700 families using childcare center and 300 directors of childcare centers. Key findings from the analysis are as follows. First, supply rate of childcare center in 2013 was 64.4% and utilization rate of childcare centers compared to number of children was 53.7%, which were increased vs. previous year; however, utilization rate of national/public childcare centers vs. total childcare centers was 10.4% which was not changed since 2010, and there showed a large gap by region in daycare supply rate and rate of meeting admission quota. Second, childcare budget in 2014 was total 9,600,000,000,000won, accounting for 0.7% vs. GDP, and when adding up childhood education budget, it is estimated to be total 14,920,000,000won or 1.08% vs. GDP. These numbers show the minimal level of OECD recommendation has been accomplished. Third, the portion of budget for service quality improvement such as childcare infrastructure building or function reinforcement was less than 1%, and qualitative aspects of the service did not meet up the quantitative achievements as shown in low sustaining rate vs. high passing rate for assessment accreditation and mere 0.72% of sub teacher-to-teacher ratio. Fourth, it was found that child home care allowance increased at-home rearing satisfaction and it had effectiveness in delaying use of institution. Also, under condition of increased child home care allowance, intention of extending at-home rearing period reached as high as 34.1%. Fifth, while parents' satisfaction on waiting list management system was high, excessive duplicated waiting was pointed out as a problem. Based on these key findings, this study proposed tasks for childcare policies as follows. First, there needs reasonable supply of quality institutions, compared to demands by region. Second, there needs budget expansion in improving service quality, advancing from the current budgeting focus on relieving parents' burden. Third, the assessment accreditation system should be utilized to actually secure quality of childcare service by connecting assessment results and financial support, etc. Fourth, child home care allowance clearly has its role as an at-home rearing support system, and allowance raise to some extent may be necessary for 0-1 year olds to relieve actual burden of at-home rearing families. Fifth, for successful implementation of waiting list management system, it is judged that number of duplicated waiting should be reasonably managed around 3-5 institutions, and system improvement is necessary to check preferred daycare admission date and priority list of institutions in waiting at the time of registering for waiting list.