보건복지부 영문홈페이지

Government will fundamentally prevent child abuse,

ensure the safety of children at childcare centers

-      Government unveils the ‘Measures to Eradicate Child Abuse at Child Care Centers’ –

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (Minister: Moon Hyung-pyo) announced ‘Measures to Eradicate Child Abuse at Child Care Centers’ after complementing what was discussed at the party-government meeting on Jan 16^th.

-      To date, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has been revisiting the overall childcare policies from the perspective of parents and has been gathering opinions from experts and caregivers involved in day-to-day operation of child care centers.

* On-site visit by Minister Moon (Visited Korea Childcare Promotion Institute on Jan. 19), Intra-governmental meeting presided by Vice Minister, Policy meeting with parents, Experts, childcare center directors and teachers (Presided by Director-General for Childcare Policy on Jan 21)

-      Based on the opinions and information gathered, the Ministry developed a series of measures to ensure that child abuse never recurs at child care centers.

These measures aim to prevent and eliminate child abuse, foster qualified caregivers, and create a healthy childcare environment where parents feel comfortable to engage in their children’s rearing.

-      The key initiatives are 1) applying stricter punishment for child abusers and facilitating reporting of suspected cases of child abuse, 2) mandatory installation of CCTV at child care centers, 3) increasing parental engagement, 4) tightening the qualification management of directors and teachers at child care centers, 5) improving working conditions of teachers at child care centers, 6) increasing public childcare infrastructures and 7) offering childcare supports customized to end-users.  

[Key Contents of the ‘Measures to Eradicate Child Abuse at Child Care Centers’]

Applying Stricter Punishment for Child Abusers, and Facilitating Reporting of Suspected Cases of Child Abuse

-      Any child care center will be immediately shut down when a child abuse is reported, even if it is the first time for that child care center to report (‘One Strike-out Policy’*), and the license of perpetrators, whether they be director or teachers, will be permanently rescinded.

*The existing three strikes-out policy → one strike out policy (in case of severe child abuse)  

When a child abuse case is identified, a consultative body consisted of parents, child experts (child protection organizations) and local government will be set up and develop a plan which may includes psychological therapy and transferring the children to other childcare center.

-      Name of child abusers and involved child care centers will be disclosed, and when hiring teachers, child care centers will be able to check whether prospective candidates have any criminal records on child abuse.  

-      Award for reporting child abuse will be doubled from the present amount (Max. 10 million won → 20 million won) and the penalty for not reporting child abuse by those who have the obligation to report will be raised (5 million won → 10 million won)

* Under the current Children’s Welfare Law, those who are obligated to report child abuse cases are directors, and childcare workers.

Mandatory Installation of CCTV at Child Care Centers

-      All child care centers will be obligated to install CCTVs, and parents will be allowed to view the CCTV footage in case a child abuse is suspected.

* Details about who, when, and how to view the footage, penalty for refusing to release the footage and privacy policy etc. will be determined after gathering the opinions from childcare experts.  

Possible infringement on teachers’ rights will be minimized by incorporating various expert opinions.

-       The information on the number and types of CCTVs installed, and child abuse prevention training programs will be added as essential information disclosure items.

Increasing Parental Engagement 

-       Evaluation and certification system for child care centers will be replaced by compulsory evaluation system, and the supplier and document-centric evaluation will be redesigned into parent-oriented evaluation, which includes satisfaction survey.

Evaluation results will be graded for parents’ easy understanding and be disclosed online.

* A concrete plan will be developed in the first half of 2015 after incorporating the opinions of experts and childcare workers on-site.

-       “Parent’s Peace of Mind Certification” will be introduced for areas that require special attention, such as feeding, facilities, and transportation vehicles to give peace of mind to parents.

-       Parental monitoring of childcare centers will be reinforced, and child care centers engaging parents will be designated as ‘open childcare centers’*. As such, the environment of child care centers will be created in a way to facilitate parental engagement.  

* Child care centers which hold open classes to parents and take part in parent support groups.

-       Offer infant and toddler parents with the ‘Checklist of Possible Indicators of Abuse’ so that they could easily check at home whether their children were abused at childcare centers.

* In addition to the checklist that is easily understandable and usable by parents, a detailed reference manual will be provided.

Tightening the Qualification Management to Develop Qualified Caregivers

-       Introducing an national examination system to verify childcare teachers’ professional knowledge and integrity

Only those who have completed childcare related courses including personality training and safety training and took personality test will be qualified for the examination.

-       The current three-stage qualification program will be reduced to two-stage, and the government will review introducing a childcare degree program in the long run to give the graduates of the program the qualification for the examination.

-       When hiring teachers at childcare centers, it will be mandatory to check whether prospective candidates took personality test, completed OJT if they are experienced, or have any criminal records on child abuse.

-       Training courses essential to teachers in their day-to-day work, such as addressing children’s behavior problems will be augmented in refresher training programs, and a system of evaluating education institutes will be introduced.

Improving the Working Conditions of Caregivers at Child Care Centers

-       Teaching assistant will be assigned in order to improve the working conditions of teachers at child care centers, who work long hours and whose workload is heavy.

When a teacher takes a leave of absence for job training, a substitute teacher will fill in.

-       Counselors for childcare-teachers will be posted at the Support Center for Childcare to offer mentoring based on their field experience.

* Counseling services include how to communicate with parents, and mentoring to first year teachers.

Increasing Public Childcare Infrastructures

-       Public childcare infrastructures will continue to be built, including 200 public type child care centers and 150 national childcare facilities in 2015.

Support Childcare Customized to End-Users

-       Increase childcare facilities offering care on an hourly basis, and increase support for home daycare by, for example, providing ‘child care guidelines.’

* The support to present was focused on childcare facilities rather than home child care, thus the support did not fully meet the various needs of parents.

Minister Moon said, “We hope the measures will improve the quality of child care in the mid to long term” and added that “the government is firmly committed to eradicate child abuse and make child care centers safe where parents can entrust their children.”

-       With regard to the amendment of laws and regulations required to implement the measures, the government plans to enable the amendment bills pass the national assembly in February and proactively incorporate various opinions from the National Assembly and other parties.

 

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