The Establishment of the Pension Service System in Our City Has Embarked on a Fast Track

           At the beginning of 2017, the number of elderly people aged 60 and over in Shijiazhuang City reached 1.765 million, accounting for 18.11% of the city's total population, 2 percentage points higher than the national average. In order to actively respond to the aging of the population, Shijiazhuang Civil Affairs Bureau focused on implementing the “Double Innovation and Double Service” community and home-based elderly care service project determined by city and provincial governments this year, and carefully planned 12 measures in six aspects to vigorously promote the socialization of elderly care services and make pension service system embark on a fast lane.

         Firstly, consolidate and enhance the achievements of the construction of home-based elderly care service centers and improve the quality of community and home-based care services. At present, there are 110 comprehensive home-based care service centers in 10 districts of the city. Each street (township) has been covered, there are 242 community and home-based care service centers, basically completing the grid layout of urban service facilities, and other counties (cities) has also basically achieved full coverage of urban streets. This year, we will hold the home-based care service center construction achievements demonstrations, home-based care service organization promotion, home-based care service center operation exchange meeting, and establish a typical to lead and demonstrate. We will promote the effective operation of all the new home-based care service centers while completing relevant construction inspections, and carry out matched operational service assessments. 

Secondly, strengthen training and assessment, and strive to improve the quality of elderly care services. This year, we will carry out special training for the leader of elderly care service institutes, caregivers and other related industry groups, promote the elderly care industry associations to play a more important role in the improvement of service quality. In conjunction with the assessment of the provincial star elderly care institutions, introduce and implement the assessment rules of the one to three-star elderly care institutes in Shijiazhuang City, the 5A assessment rules for the home-based care service center, and the evaluation rules for the gold, silver and bronze caregivers to fully achieve standardized management. We will continue to carry out in-depth inspections on the service quality for nursing homes, introduce more effective regulating measures, and strive to achieve all 55 basic indicators. 

          Thirdly, strengthen top-level design and policy support, and introduce relevant policies and plans. In recent years, the city has issued the 13th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of the Pension Service System in Shijiazhuang City and the Implementation Plan for the Construction of the Pension Service System in Shijiazhuang City, also compiled 5 provincial standards of Hebei Province such as Construction Specifications of the Home-based Elderly Care Service Center and Service Specifications of the Home-based Elderly Care Service Center; and 5 group standards of Shijiazhuang City such as Evaluation Standards for the Living Capacity of the Elderly and Construction Specifications of the Elderly Care Institutes, basically realized the construction of the regulation system for the elderly care industry. This year we plan to introduce and implement Several Measures to Open the Elderly Care Service Market in All Round Way and Raising the Quality of Elderly Care Services, and Implementation Plan for the Subsidy System for Home-based Elderly Care Services for the Elderly in Shijiazhuang City, and also establish and introduce the Special Plan for Social Welfare Facilities in Shijiazhuang City. Introduce the compatible relevant policies on community and home-based care service reform pilot and the comprehensive innovation pilot program for the rehabilitation aid industry. Fourthly, carry out a large inspection of the funds for the pension service system. At present, the city government purchase the home-based care service for six kinds of elderly in the main urban area including “three-without” elderly, the low-income elderly, the socially isolated elderly, the severely disabled elderly, the over-90-year-old seniors, and elderly who have lost their only child. Each month, subsidies from 100 yuan up to 500 yuan per person has been distribute in the form of service recharge, for the purchase of life care, rehabilitation, legal rights, cultural entertainment, spiritual comfort and emergency assistance services to social service organizations. In 2017, the total number of six types of elderly people in the city reached 15,273, and the total number of services per year was 204,623, with a total service amount of 5,792,700 yuan. This year, we must coordinate with the Shijiazhuang Finance Bureau to inspect the use of funds for the pension service system in the past three years, clean up relevant issues, and regulate the use of funds. Fifthly, implement the brand strategy of elderly care service. At present, there are 213 elderly care institutions in the city, and the total number of institutional beds is 32,916. Among them, there are 54 public elderly care institutions, about 0.8 million beds, 159 private elderly care institutions, and about 24,916 beds. The institutions support 15872 elderly people, and the average occupancy rate of the city's elderly care institutions is 48.2%. This year, we will continue to promote the construction of one or two high-standard large-scale elderly care institutions that meet the characteristics of the provincial capital; foster 3-5 elderly care service brands and carry out a series of brand promotion actions.

            Sixthly, continue to promote the work of two national-level pilots. At the end of 2016, the city was approved as one of the first batch of 26 home-based and community pension service reform pilot cities in 20 provinces and cities in 2017. At the end of 2017, the city has become a pilot project for comprehensive innovation in the national rehabilitation auxiliary equipment industry. This year, we will continue to promote the construction of the community and home-based care service reform pilot projects, implement some of the promotion projects, form supporting policies and summarize the experiences; promote the national rehabilitation auxiliary equipment industry comprehensive innovation pilot, introduce the pilot program and initially establish the industrial development park in Jingxing mining area.