No.32 Creating Safe Spaces for Children After School

(Inagi Newsletter, June 15, 2014 issue)

As a new initiative for the new fiscal year, we started the "After-School Children's Program" from April 2014.
In Inagi City, we have traditionally enhanced the "Children's Center and After-School Childcare Program" as measures for elementary school students after school. The Children's Center is one of the child welfare facilities stipulated by the Child Welfare Act, aimed at providing healthy play, promoting health, and enriching emotional development. The After-School Childcare Program is a facility that supports play and daily life for first to third graders who return home after school but do not have a Parent or Guardian at home. Recently, with the increase in working Parents or Guardians, the demand for Children's Centers and After-School Childcare Programs has been steadily rising.
The Children's Center has no capacity limit, but the number of children that can be accepted is limited by the facility's capacity. The After-School Childcare Program has a capacity limit, and there are children on the waiting list who wish to enroll, making it a challenge alongside the waiting list issue for Childcare Centers in recent years. However, both services require dedicated facilities, and increasing the number of accepted children or establishing new facilities is not easy. Therefore, with the cooperation of the Board of Education and each elementary school, we decided to start a project to effectively utilize existing school facilities such as vacant classrooms and gymnasiums.
Although they are similar, the Children's Center and After-School Childcare Program are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, while the After-School Children's Program is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and their contents differ. In some cities and wards, there have been moves to integrate these programs, but since the Children's Center is a facility for free access, the After-School Childcare Program is a custody facility, and the After-School Children's Program provides a place to stay and monitoring after school, the personnel and services provided differ for each, so the current policy is not to integrate them. This new initiative will require more than 50 million yen annually even in the trial phase, but we have decided not to abolish the traditional After-School Childcare Program and to implement both.
The After-School Children's Program does not set a capacity limit and has no usage fees other than insurance, so it can essentially accept all applicants, which is expected to help alleviate the waiting list for the After-School Childcare Program. This fiscal year, we will conduct a trial for first to third graders in areas where there are children on the waiting list for the After-School Childcare Program (8 out of 11 schools), but we will verify the implementation status and consider expanding it to all schools and to include sixth graders in the future.
To support the healthy development of children who will sustain the future of Inagi, we will develop policies based on your opinions, so we appreciate your understanding.