Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan played the "father card" in a televised political speech today (14th), detailing the childcare achievements in the past four years from maternity and childbirth medical care, designated nursery care, no salary reduction during reduced hours, to public and private child care subsidies. He also introduced new benefits such as the "Good Pregnancy 2U Plus" transportation subsidy increased to 10,000 yuan, the first 30,000 yuan "confinement plus food allowance", and announced that you can receive 70,000 yuan in cash after giving birth to your first child, all-round reducing the burden of childcare for parents.
Jiang Wanan said that as a father, he knows that welcoming a new life is the happiest moment for a family, and that raising children is a lifelong responsibility. Having gone through these experiences, he can empathize with these emotions. Over the past four years, he and the city government team have been doing one thing to reduce the burden of childcare on parents. From the first day of pregnancy, we begin to relieve everyone's physical fatigue, mental panic, tight time, and heavy wallets.
Jiang Wanan said that as soon as he took office, he launched the Good Pregnancy 2U special car, which provided each pregnant woman with an electronic fare of 8,000 yuan, giving mothers additional transportation support during prenatal checkups and outings. By the end of October this year, the cumulative service of the Good Pregnancy 2U special car had exceeded 1.22 million trips, with an average of about 30,000 trips per month, which has indeed responded to the transportation needs of mothers. Therefore, we have added Haopeng 2U Plus, increasing the transportation subsidy from 8,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan, and extending the use period from 6 months after delivery to 1 year, allowing mothers to continue to receive transportation support for postpartum visits, taking their children to the doctor, or even just taking their children out.
Jiang Wanan said that after giving birth, mothers need not only convenient transportation, but also adequate rest and care. The Beijing Municipal Government has increased the maternity bonus, doubling it to 40,000 yuan. It has also launched the country's first post-natal care bonus, with a subsidy of 30,000 yuan per child, which will be officially launched next year. Therefore, when you give birth to your first child in Taipei, you can receive 70,000 yuan in cash, which essentially reduces the financial burden of confinement and postpartum care on the family.
Jiang Wanan said that he hopes that novice parents will not feel helpless because they don't know what to do when facing their children. In order to provide women and children with more complete medical care, this year we will officially upgrade the Maternal and Child Hospital of the Municipal United Hospital to a dedicated maternal and child hospital to create a truly family-centered and warm medical environment. We have specially set up a family delivery room in the hospital area to provide one-stop maternal and infant care services from labor, delivery to postpartum recovery. We also introduce multiple birth options such as water birth to reduce the stress of the mother during the birth process.
Jiang Wanan said that they have also launched a 60-minute special clinic for novice families. Novice parents only need to register once, and they can get inter-professional assistance from pediatricians, nurses, nutritionists and social workers at one time. They can get all-round answers from children's healthy development, daily parenting to consultation on social welfare resources. After the consultation, our team will also provide an exclusive care plan based on the needs of individual families, and a dedicated person will continue to track and connect resources to accompany new parents in raising children with peace of mind.
For families with special care needs, the hospital also has the country's first residential long-term care facility for children, "Tongyu Home", which provides rehabilitation, respite and emergency placement services for disabled, seriously ill and special needs children, becoming the most solid backing for long-term care for families.
In addition, Jiang Wanan also said that he wanted to share an experience of being a father. His wife used the daycare service in Taipei City when she was taking care of her second child, and the actual experience was very good. In fact, in those few hours, you can not only deal with your own affairs, but also have the opportunity to take a breather. Sometimes what parents need is not other people to tell you how to take care of their children, but someone to help share the burden.
Therefore, in the past four years, they have expanded the capacity of on-site care services. The number of designated on-site care services has increased from 4 locations before taking office to 45 locations now, an increase of 11 times. There are at least three locations in each administrative region, and last year alone the number of hours of designated on-site care services exceeded 40,000, and the number of people served reached 13,000. On this basis, in September this year, we further launched the country's first free 8-hour electronic care voucher for newborns, allowing new parents to have some breathing time during the most difficult early days of parenting.
Jiang Wanan said that Taipei City has taken the lead in the country in promoting the policy of reducing childcare working hours without reducing wages. As long as companies are willing to let employees with children under 12 years old at home reduce their working hours by one hour a day, the city government will subsidize wages, so that parents can leave work early or work flexibly at night, without having to constantly rush to pick up their children every day. At present, more than 480 companies have participated and nearly 900 employees have benefited. We are very happy to see that the central government has also announced follow-up, and it is expected to be implemented nationwide next year. In the future, we plan to increase our efforts and encourage more companies to participate in this grand event.
Jiang Wanan said that as children grow up day by day, family expenses also increase, and every expense is real pressure. He hopes that parents will not have to choose between the needs of the family and their children because of financial factors. In the past four years, we have continued to increase the number of public childcare places and have also started with the subsidy system to reduce the burden on parents in providing childcare. Before I took office, there were 81 public care institutions, enrolling 1,712 children. By the end of this year, it is expected to expand to 108 institutions, providing 2,628 places, an increase of nearly 900 places, and an increase of more than 50%.
It means not only adding a few childcare centers, but also giving more families the opportunity to find relatively affordable and stable public childcare services near their homes. Starting from July this year, subsidies for friendly childcare will be further increased. Not only public childcare, but also quasi-public childcare will also increase subsidies. Among them, the monthly subsidy for quasi-public care has been increased to 8,000 yuan, reducing the monthly burden on parents of each child to about 2,500 yuan, and the cost gap with public care has narrowed to 1,000 yuan. For the second child and above, whether you choose public care or quasi-public care, the city government will provide full support.
Regarding private kindergartens, Jiang Wanan said that he launched the "Baby I Love You" private education subsidy as soon as he took office. In September this year, he further relaxed the subsidy conditions for families with children aged 2 to 4 years old, so that families with an income of less than 1.8 million yuan can also benefit. In addition, five-year-old children attending private kindergartens in Taipei City will receive an additional NT$5,000 subsidy per semester to further narrow the cost gap between public and private kindergartens.
