Great event! Great news for the elderly care service sector!

On January 7th, the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Deepening the Reform and Development of Elderly Care Services were released. This is the first time that China has issued opinions on elderly care services in the name of the Party Central Committee and the State Council.

Suggestions are put forward from the aspects of elderly care service network, service form, etc., to better ensure that nearly 300 million elderly people have a sense of security and enjoy a happy old age. This is a major and important matter that concerns social harmony and stability, as well as the overall development of the country.

Clear Opinion 'Goal'——

By 2029, the elderly care service network will be basically established; By 2035, the elderly care service network will become more sound, and all elderly people will enjoy basic elderly care services.

Clear Opinion 'Path'——

From improving village (community) elderly care service facilities and stations, to consolidating the basic role of home-based elderly care, from accelerating the filling of rural elderly care service shortcomings, to strengthening the construction of elderly care service talent teams... The opinions put forward more than ten "practical" measures, demonstrating foresight, systematicity, and comprehensiveness.

It can be said that with this opinion, there is a clear "task book" and "roadmap" to promote the mature and standardized elderly care service system that is suitable for China's national conditions.

Where are the new opinions?

The opinion clearly answers for the first time what is the suitable elderly care service system for China's national conditions——

A hierarchical classification, universal accessibility, urban-rural coverage, and sustainable development elderly care service system.

The opinion proposes for the first time to accelerate the improvement of the three-tier elderly care service network covering urban and rural areas——

The county-level comprehensive elderly care service management platform plays a demonstrative and guiding role, the township (street) regional elderly care service center plays a hub role, and the village (community) elderly care service facility stations play a close advantage to the elderly. The entire county (district) is connected to a network of elderly care facilities, making services more convenient and accessible.

Opinion proposes for the first time the classification reform of elderly care institutions——

The opinion clearly divides elderly care institutions into three types for the first time: bottom line guarantee type, universal support type, and fully market-oriented type, promoting the formation of a service pattern with bottom line guarantee, basic needs service, universal supply, and market selection.

How to implement the opinions?

The opinions clarify the responsibilities of the government, market, and society in deepening the reform and development of elderly care services——

The government should play a leading role, strengthen planning guidance, policy support, organizational guarantee, supervision and management of elderly care services, and expand the supply of inclusive, basic, and fallback elderly care services.

The market should play a role in allocating resources, fully stimulate market vitality, support various market entities to actively participate in elderly care services according to market-oriented principles, improve social operation mechanisms and support policy implementation evaluation mechanisms, and promote the scale, clustering, and branding development of the elderly care service industry.

Society should play a role in participation, strengthen the function of social mutual assistance, build a social support and elderly care service pattern led by grassroots party organizations, coordinated by grassroots mass autonomous organizations, and participated by social organizations, social workers, volunteers, and other forces.

Authoritative interpretation:

What services are worth looking forward to in deepening the development and reform of elderly care services?

1、 Determine the institution as a professional support

This is a significant change, previously referred to as: home-based, community-based, and institution supplemented. Institutions have evolved from supplementary roles to professional support. In practice, although home and community services have a larger number of people, their professionalism is not as good as institutions. Institutions have professional service personnel, and without institutional support, it will be more difficult to establish a network of elderly care services. The experience of medical institutions in China can also be learned from. With hospitals as support, community service centers can be established to radiate the surrounding areas, providing closer medical services through community service centers. An internationally mature approach is also to provide home-based and community-based elderly care services to surrounding areas through elderly care institutions, forming a three-tier service network centered on institutions. This is more in line with market laws and has higher efficiency.

2、 Emphasize the construction of a three-level service network

For the county-level elderly care service system, establishing a three-level elderly care service network of county township (street) village (community) is a more complete and systematic way to solve the problems of elderly care services. The county-level provides technical support, talent training, etc. This is in line with the reality of China and can better establish a grassroots elderly care service system.

3、 Clarify the three types of elderly care service forms

Home care services provide elderly people with bedside and side care services, emphasizing professional family care beds. Based on the actual situation of family care in China, family member care technology training is proposed to complete care work through family members. Home care and six assistance services are the core contents of home care. The aging adaptation of families and communities is also a very important task.

Community elderly care services provide strong support for home-based elderly care, which is also a work being carried out in various places, especially in Beijing. By 2024, 100 community elderly care service centers will be completed, and various elderly care services including home-based elderly care will be carried out based on these social domain elderly care service centers.

Among the three types of elderly care services, the role of institutional elderly care professional support is the most commonly expressed, emphasizing the full play of the role of elderly care institutions in technological innovation demonstration, service skill training, equipment promotion and application, and promoting the extension of professional services to home and community. At the same time, it also emphasizes institutional elderly care services that are guaranteed as a bottom line, inclusive, and market-oriented competition, as well as care for elderly people with disabilities and dementia.

On the basis of the three types of elderly care service forms, three aspects were emphasized: one is the integration of medical care and elderly care, integrating care; the other is to fill the gaps in rural elderly care services; and the third is to strengthen and improve the comprehensive supervision of elderly care services, emphasizing the improvement of elderly care service standards and evaluation systems. Improve the registration and filing management of elderly care institutions, strengthen the supervision of advance fees, etc.

4、 Clearly define the elderly care industry

Clearly define the government's leadership in the elderly care service industry, with the supply of inclusive, basic, and fallback elderly care services mainly led by the government. At the same time, clarify the role of market allocation of resources in the development of the elderly care service industry. The elderly care service industry mainly follows the principle of marketization, guiding various market entities to participate, and the government implements supportive policies. Promote the scale, clustering, and branding development of the elderly care service industry. Clarify the assessment and evaluation of state-owned capital's participation in the development of elderly care services. In terms of the development of the elderly care service industry, it is explicitly mentioned to encourage foreign investment in the domestic elderly care service industry and enjoy national treatment. Vigorously develop the silver economy, strengthen the research and promotion of elderly products, enrich the scene of elderly care services, and unleash the potential of elderly care consumption. Develop the market for elderly care through tourism, develop new forms of health and wellness tourism according to local conditions, and promote the construction of tourism and elderly care destinations.

In addition to the elderly care services and industries mentioned above, other forms of elderly care services have also been clarified, including social support elderly care services involving social organizations, social workers, volunteers, and others. Time banking has always been a hot topic of discussion in the industry, and this time the opinion clearly proposes to explore the establishment of a time savings management system for elderly volunteer services. The opinions also encourage the establishment of charitable trusts, social donations, and other means to support the development of elderly care services. Guidance was also provided on elderly education, legal aid, and elderly human resources.

5、 Strengthening the guarantee of elements for elderly care services

Opinions are proposed from five aspects to strengthen the guarantee of elderly care service elements. Firstly, scientific planning should be carried out to establish an elderly care service system, provide guarantees, build supporting elderly care service facilities for single animal communities, construct elderly activity centers, renovate idle resources, and improve land quality and fire safety. Secondly, there are fiscal support policies, mainly including ensuring basic elderly care service funds, central budget support for the construction of elderly care service systems, long-term care insurance, and preferential policies for water, electricity, and gas in elderly care service institutions, as well as rent reductions for venues. The third is the construction of a talent team for elderly care services, mainly to enhance the attractiveness of the elderly care profession, pilot programs for public funded training, and skill training. The fourth is to vigorously develop pension finance, and what the pension industry is most looking forward to is supporting eligible pension projects to issue real estate investment trust funds in the infrastructure sector. Other options to meet the credit financing needs of elderly care service institutions. Increasing government financing guarantees is also very important, and some practices in Shanghai are very good. The fifth is to enhance service capabilities through technology, increase research and application of elderly care technology and informatization, and promote the improvement of the elderly care service system through technology. Smart elderly care in our country will be further developed.

The opinions released this time are more specific and comprehensive, as well as more targeted and actionable. From the opinions, it is recommended to focus on the following three aspects regarding opportunities in the elderly care industry:

1、 Professional elderly care institutions have development potential

On the one hand, inclusive elderly care institutions that follow policies will have good development prospects. On the other hand, professional market-oriented elderly care institutions, especially those that provide elderly care services that cannot be solved by family care for disabilities and dementia, have been proven feasible in the market.

2、 The silver economy has enormous development prospects

Vigorously develop the silver economy, strengthen the research and promotion of elderly products, enrich the scene of elderly care services, and unleash the potential of elderly care consumption. Currently, promoting consumption is a very important policy, and the silver economy is an important part of the consumption sector. By innovating service scenarios, the potential of elderly care consumption can be unleashed.

3、 New business models such as health and wellness tourism are worth looking forward to

Since 2020, the elderly care industry has been greatly affected, with health and wellness tourism being the most affected. In the past two years, it has gradually recovered. With the further acceleration of China's aging population, young and elderly people still dominate in the current period. From the opinions, we also see that health and wellness tourism, as an important part of the elderly care industry, is not within the scope of the elderly care industry. The opinions clearly propose to develop the tourism and elderly care market, develop new forms of health and wellness tourism according to local conditions, and promote the construction of tourism and elderly care destinations. For young and elderly people, this is a huge market and currently the most promising content of the elderly care service industry.

The opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on deepening the reform and development of elderly care services are a new starting point, marking a new era in the development of elderly care services in China. Through studying the opinions, we can deeply feel the increasingly clear prospects of the market, and the elderly care service industry has truly become a sunshine industry that benefits the country and the people.