[Info File] The “Children and Families Center” Launches

What is the "Children and Family Center"?

In June 2024, the "Child and Family Center" was established as an organization that integrated the functions of the previous "Comprehensive Support Center for Child-Rearing Generations" and the "Comprehensive Support Center for Children and Families." The purpose of the center is to provide consultation services that integrate the functions of maternal and child health and child welfare, and to provide seamless and comprehensive support to all pregnant women, child-rearing households, and children

Source: Compiled by the author

According to the "Children and Family Centers" document compiled by the Agency for Children and Families, as of May 2024, there are 1,015 child and family centers in 876 municipalities.

Each child and family center is required to have one "chief supporter." A chief supporter is a staff member who "possess sufficient knowledge of both maternal and child health and child welfare functions and can make overall judgments." There are three qualification categories.

The first category is for those who hold qualifications related to maternal and child health and child welfare, such as public health nurses, social workers, or child and family social workers, and have a certain level of practical experience. This category accounts for 77.4% of the current chief supporters, approximately 80% of whom are public health nurses.

The second category is for those with experience in consultation support work in both maternal and child health and child welfare functions (or either of them) and an understanding of both roles. The third category is for those recognized by the municipality as equivalent to the above categories.

Integrating individual support and community management

Source: Compiled by the author

Next, let's look at the characteristics of the work. There are two distinctive features of the work of the Child and Family Center. The first is the creation of a "support plan." A support plan is a specific support plan that combines family support programs, maternal and child health services, other services, and local resources while confirming the wishes of children, pregnant women, and other individuals. It can be considered equivalent to a care plan under long-term care insurance.

The 2022 amendment to the Child Welfare Act added new programs to the specific support menu. These include the "Childcare Families Home Visit Support Program," which provides support for household chores through home visits; the "Child Development Support Center Program," which provides a place for children to stay and helps them develop lifestyle habits; and the "Parent-Child Relationship Development Support Program," which supports parents and their children in building parent-child relationships. These programs can be considered more in-depth than previous childcare family support programs.

The second is collaboration with related organizations and management of local resources. When implementing support plans, the center connects recipients with related organizations and coordinates collaboration between organizations. It also develops resources that are lacking in the local community. These can be said to follow the system of local child-rearing support.

Child and Family Centers provide integrated maternal and child health and child welfare functions, and have been built by absorbing know-how on individual case support such as nursing care and management of local child-rearing support. In the future, the key will be to develop human resources with expertise in comprehensive support related to parents and children and child-rearing families, in line with the structure of the system.

(Article revised and expanded from the February 2025 issue of EN-ICHI FORUM)

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