[MHLW] A Study Group Held on Support for Children with Disabilities at Dedicated Daycare Centers

On August 4, 2022, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) held online the first "Study Group on Support for Children with Disabilities at Dedicated Daycare Centers”.

The Child Welfare Act [Amended], which came into effect in April 2012, reorganized and centralized the support system for children with disabilities, enabling them to receive support services in their immediate areas. However, as awareness of developmental disabilities has spread and women have entered the workforce, the number of service users has increased, and the user profile has changed. In light of this situation, the "Study Group on the Modality of Support for Children with Disabilities at Dedicated Daycare Centers" was convened to discuss the roles and functions that daycare support services shall fulfill for children with disabilities as their target population, and their report was compiled in October 2021.

Based on this report, the Persons with Disabilities Division under the Social Security Council summarized the "Review of the Comprehensive Support for Persons with Disabilities Act [Amended] – 3 years after its enforcement (Interim report)" on December 16, 2021. Then accordingly, the Child Welfare Act was updated on June 15, 2022, which includes the unification of child development support centers and clarification that these centers shall play a central role in supporting children with disabilities in communities.

With the view of the commencement of the updated Act on April 1, 2024, the MHLW established the "Study Group on Support for Children with Disabilities at Dedicated Daycare Centers" to examine how to implement the updates and other necessary matters precisely.

This study group will consider not only more specific measures for the enforcement of the updates but also the roles and functions of child development support and after-school daycare services, the promotion of inclusion in the community, and other issues related to daycare support for persons with disabilities.

The matters to be considered include the following.

1.Direction of child development support centers

  • How the child development support centers should be staffed to fulfill their core functions, and what kind of consultation and assistance the child development support centers should provide to local daycare service providers for children with disabilities.
  • A mechanism to raise the quality of services at all daycare centers for children with disabilities in communities centered on child development support centers.
  • The direction of "welfare-type" and "medical-type" of daycare centers after their unification

2.The direction of these types of "Comprehensive Support” (tentative name)" and "Specific and Specialized Programs” (tentative name) of child development support services and after-school daycare services

  • Working on these types of developmental support, according to the characteristics of the impairment, which cannot be regarded as highly specialized and effective.
  • The potential for appropriate evaluation of services provided to children with disabilities who need developmental support according to their utilization status (concurrent with preschool attendance, parental employment, etc.), considering the length of support time, etc.

3. Transition to general child care support measures

  • The modality of more appropriate evaluation regarding visitation support for disabled children at regular daycare centers.  The standard duration of support.
  • The modality of appropriate evaluations regarding transitional and concurrent support provided by daycare centers. How the processes to promote inclusion should be organized.

4. Assessment index for children with disabilities to receive daycare support.

  • How the new assessment index should be in place to identify the content of developmental support needed by an individual child with disabilities (including how indicators should be operationalized and utilized)

5. Improvement of the quality of daycare services for children with disabilities

  • Points to improve the self-evaluation and parent evaluation forms set forth by the respective guidelines for child development support and after-school daycare services, their positioning in the operation standards, etc.
  • Specific details from the external evaluation of a third party
  • Specific mechanisms to consolidate the results of self-evaluations and parental evaluations at each daycare center for children with disabilities and link them to the provision of better support

The study group plans to compile a report in March 2023 after holding hearings with organizations for children with disabilities.

For more information, visit the website below.
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_27047.html

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