Development of early care for children and their families in the Russian Federation

Abstract

Introduction. The features of the development of infrastructures, regional resource and methodological centers for early care for children and their families in the Russian Federation, the specifics of identifying children of the target group and families in need of early care services are considered.Goal: To develop scientifically based proposals for the further development of early care for children and their families in the Russian Federation.Materials and methods: Information from Federal Statistical Observation No. 1-RP "Information on early care for children of the target group" from 85 regions of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as Form No. 1 RP). General scientific methods (content analysis, analytical, system-structured, comparative, statistical) and methodological methods of systematization, comparison, generalization, interpretation using the standard Excel-7.0 software package for IBM PC are applied.The object of the study: Children from birth to three years of age who need early care services.The subject of the study: Early care services provided for children of target groups and their families in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.Results. Organizations providing early care services operate in all 85 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. According to statistical observation, in the period 2019–2021, there is an increase in the number of organizations providing early care services (in general, an increase of 21.4% was registered in the Russian Federation), regional resource and methodological centers of early care were established in 53 constituent entities. There is an increase in the number of organizations from the healthcare sector (by 3.8%), in the education sector (by 16.5%), in the social protection of the population (by 2.3%). Early care services for children and their families are provided in 17 constituent entities of the Russian Federation by non-governmental organizations. In the Russian Federation, 75 regional resource and methodological centers for early care for children and their families have been established in 53 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, 12 of them in the field of healthcare, 27 in education, 36 in social protection of the population. The number of children assigned to the target group in the Russian Federation amounted to 248,108 people (4% of the total number of children aged from birth to the age of three). The proportion of children in need of early care services in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in 2021 varies from 0.3% to 23.4%. According to the data of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as of 31.12.2021, the number of specialists providing early care services amounted to 38,484 people.Discussion. Since 2019, the constituent entities of the Russian Federation have been monitoring the state of early care for children and their families in the form of statistical observation No. 1-RP "Information on early care for children of the target group". Information is provided from 85 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. According to statistical observation data, as of 31.12.2021, 6429 organizations provide early care services in the Russian Federation. The formation and development of the infrastructure of early care services and the improvement of human resources are necessary conditions for the development of early care for children and their families in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. There is a positive trend in the growth of the number of specialists providing early care services. The results of the analysis of the statistical form No. 1-RP allow us to assess the state and level of development of early care for children and their families in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.Conclusions. The data from the monitoring results allow us to develop proposals for the development of early care services in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.