China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter first Rongjie.
Elderly care is related to people's livelihood, and strengthening the construction of elderly care talent team is the key to promoting the high-quality development of elderly care services. Recently, the Representative Working Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress announced 10 typical cases of high-quality deliberation of deputies' proposals and handling of deputies' suggestions, among which "strengthening the construction of high-quality elderly care workers and promoting the high-quality development of elderly care services" was listed.
At the first session of the 14th National People's Congress, a number of deputies to the National People's Congress put forward suggestions on improving the policies and measures for pension services and improving the remuneration of pension service personnel, which were identified by the General Office of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress as key supervision suggestions, led by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and supervised by the Social Construction Committee of the National People's Congress.
To this end, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has conducted in-depth field research in 10 provinces, 25 prefectures (cities, villages (communities) and 62 pension service institutions, and identified the crux of the problem and corresponding countermeasures that restrict the construction of the team of elderly care workers through recommendations. In late January 2024, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, together with 11 departments, formulated the "Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Pension Service Talent Team" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which is China's first comprehensive policy document on the construction of pension service talents.
Xu Xiao, a representative of the National People's Congress and chairman of the construction and development of Kaifeng City, said that he was "very satisfied with the content of the reply and praised your work" when listening to the reply to the "Suggestions on Strengthening the Cultivation of Elderly Service Talents".
A number of NPC deputies suggested improving the policy.
With the acceleration of the aging process of the population, the lack of talents, low professional quality, and unstable team in China's pension service industry are becoming increasingly apparent. The problem of pension is becoming increasingly severe, and the pressure on young people to support the elderly is increasing, so it is urgent to improve various pension policies and build a diversified and sustainable pension system.
At the first session of the 14th National People's Congress, Deputy Li Longqi put forward the "Proposal on Further Building a Diversified and Sustainable Pension System", Deputy Wu Huifang put forward the "Proposal on Improving the Policy of Mutual Aid Volunteer Service for the Elderly", and Deputy Zhao Mingzhi put forward the "Proposal on Improving the Level of the Elderly Care Team".
Xu Xiao suggested further broadening the channels of vocational skills training, accelerating the development of vocational education for senior services, supporting colleges and universities to build health care industry colleges, guiding colleges and universities to build industry colleges with pension service institutions, and supporting research institutions and universities to set up think tanks for aging data research.
In view of the low level of professional skills of elderly care workers, Zhao Mingzhi, a representative of the National People's Congress and a member of the Shengli Bridge General Mail Business Department of the Zhongshan District Mail and Delivery Division of Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China Post Group, suggested that the identification of the professional skill level of elderly care workers should be carried out in a unified manner, and the development of corresponding national vocational skill standards and evaluation specifications should be accelerated, so as to ensure the service level of the industry, and strengthen the vocational skills training and professional ethics education for elderly service practitioners.
Guide and promote the construction of a team of elderly care workers.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs implements the deployment requirements for the handling of recommendations by NPC deputies, communicating with multiple NPC deputies on the handling situation one by one, responding to the content of the recommendations one by one, and promoting the high quality of the handling content. On September 26, 2023, the Ministry of Civil Affairs held a symposium on key supervision and suggestions for accelerating the construction of the team of elderly care workers at the first meeting of the 14th National People's Congress. Xu Xiao, Zhao Mingzhi, Li Longqi and other NPC deputies put forward suggestions and measures based on their own work and personal experience. Before the symposium, the Ministry of Civil Affairs organized representatives of the National People's Congress to go to Beijing Home Care Service Comprehensive Demonstration Center and other elderly care service institutions to investigate the construction of the team of elderly care workers.
At the same time, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has transformed the work of handling the suggestions of the deputies into specific actions to guide and promote the construction of the team of elderly care workers.
The relevant person in charge of the Department of Pension Services of the Ministry of Civil Affairs led a team to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security twice to discuss the improvement of the professional skill level system and level evaluation mechanism for elderly care workers, and to add special technicians and chief technician technical positions (posts) to the existing skill levels, and to set up apprentices, so as to form a new eight-level vocational skill level (post) sequence and broaden the career development channels of elderly care workers, these measures have been written into the "Opinions".
In response to the suggestions of Huo Xiaoli, Zhao Mingzhi and other deputies to the National People's Congress on improving the vocational skills evaluation system, the Ministry of Civil Affairs guided and promoted the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Civil Affairs and the Department of Human Resources, Social and Social Security to issue the "Jiangsu Provincial Elderly Care Professional and Technical Qualification Conditions (Trial)" in August 2023.
Promote the establishment of a pension service talent system guarantee.
In order to strengthen the institutional guarantee for the development of pension service talents, the Ministry of Civil Affairs took the lead in drafting the "Pension Service Law of the People's Republic of China" (text proposal), promoted the inclusion of the second category of projects in the legislative plan of the 14th National People's Congress, and proposed to set up a special chapter on pension service personnel, clarifying the professionalism, academic education, on-the-job training and other contents of pension service talents focusing on elderly care workers, so as to provide institutional guarantee for the construction of elderly care workers.
At the same time, the formulation of policy documents, the investment of financial resources, and the development of project activities related to the construction of the elderly care team have been listed as the comprehensive evaluation of the key work of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 2023. Up to now, a total of 16 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country have issued policy documents for pension service talents.
It is understood that in response to the suggestions on improving the professional honor and identity of elderly care workers, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions organized a national first-class vocational skills competition - the 2023 National Civil Affairs Industry Vocational Skills Competition, which will include elderly care workers in the competition.
*: China Youth Daily.