The individualized childcare services or babysitters and family crèches will be able to work based on the entrepreneur’s patent until 2024. The head of the Parliament’s commission on social protection, health and family Dan Perciun said the extension of the deadline for using the entrepreneur’s patent for such services was agreed with Moldova’s development partners. The draft law on alternative childcare services was subject to a new round of public debates before being submitted to Parliament, IPN reports.
Under the bill, the work of family crèches and the opening of mini-crèches at companies will be legalized. The carers will work based on the entrepreneur’s patent, will have professional qualifications and will be obliged to have an operating certificate from the National Public Health Agency.
“We have three types of services: individualized services provided by babysitters, alternative family-type childcare services and alternative childcare services provided by employers. To be able to work within individualized and alternative childcare services, the carers need to have a patent. In the case of services provided at the workplace, the employer decides what type of contract to offer to carers - individual or for the provision of services,” said project coordinator at the Center “Partnership for Development” Alina Andronache.
“If it goes to a mini-crèche, the children should be fed and we need to decide how these children will be fed – from the own casserole or a cooking facility will be needed. The National Public Health Agency will need to authorize this facility from sanitary-veterinary viewpoint,” said the Agency’s representative Sergiu Sîrghi.
“The entrepreneur’s patent is the proposed fiscal regime. We had discussions with representatives of the EU Delegation and agreed that the entrepreneur’s patent would be used until 2024, while after 2024 there will be independent activity. The National Public Health Agency will be notified of the intention to operate a family crèche or a crèche run by the employer and the institution will provide a response within ten days. For next year, we have the UNICEF-funded Lego project to the value of 500 million lei. Through a British agency, we also obtained 1.5 million lei for such services,” said the head of the Parliament’s expert commission Dan Perciun.
According to official data, the coverage with crèche services for children younger than three in Moldova stands at 20%. Also, only 39% of the women with children under three work.
