Çocu… · Web viewSupporting Registered Employment of Women through Institutional Childcare Services (INST-CARE) Operating Structure: Directorate of the European Union and Financial

TREESP1.2.INST-CAREEmployment, Education and Social Policies

Sectoral Operational Programme

1. Title of the Operation: Supporting Registered Employment of Women through Institutional Childcare Services (INST-CARE)

2. Operating Structure: Directorate of the European Union and Financial Assistance (DEUFA) in the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services (MoFLSS) of the Republic of Turkey

3. Organisation Responsible for the Implementation of the Operation: Social Security Institution (SSI)

4. Compatibility and coherence with the Operational Programme

4.1. Title and number of the Programme: Employment, Education and Social Policies Sectoral Operational Programme (EESP SOP) (IPA II 2014-2020)

4.2. Title of the action: Action I: Employment, Activity I.II Promoting Employment and Employability

4.3. Recipient: Social Security InstitutionName of Beneficiary Institution : Social Security InstitutionAddress : Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu Strateji Geliştirme

Başkanlığı Ziya Bey Cad. No: 6 Balgat/ANKARA

Phone : +90 312 207 80 76-77Fax: : +90. 0 312 207 81 42E-Mail: : [email protected]

SROB : Mr. Mühiddin ŞAHİNAddress : Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu Strateji Geliştirme

Başkanlığı Ziya Bey Cad. No: 6 Balgat/ANKARA

Phone : +90 312 207 80 76-77E-Mail: : [email protected]

SROB Delegate and Contact Person

: Varol Dur

Address : Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu AB ve Dış İlişkiler Daire Başkanlığı Ziya Bey Cad. No: 6 Balgat/ANKARA

Phone : +90 312 207 78 73E-Mail : [email protected]

5. Description of the Operation5.1. Contribution to the achievement of the Operational Programme:

The “Employment” action of the Employment, Education and Social Policies Sectoral Operational Programme (EESP SOP) aims to promote accessible employment, improve working conditions and enhance policy-making and implementation. In this manner “promoting employment and employability with a focus on women, young and people in need of special policies” is one of its specific objectives. Low labour force participation (LFP) rate especially for women, youth and people in need of special policies is determined one of the key challenges that require intervention in the EESP SOP.

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Regarding the LFP rate of men, there is no significant divergence when compared to EU averages. However in terms of female LFP, Turkey performs the worst among EU countries. The main obstacles for women in entering the labour market are their caring responsibilities, lack of adequate skills and vocational qualifications and discrimination against women. As regards improving employability of women some of eligible interventions in the EESP SOP are listed below:

Supporting parents in accessing child, elderly and disabled care services; Supporting activities to develop/improve institutional care services for child, elderly and persons

with disabilities;

This Operation will put into practice these interventions by supporting women employees who are at risk of withdrawal from labour market due to care responsibilities of their small children through institutional childcare services.

One of the challenges in Turkey related to the Operation is the low attainment level in pre-school education. Pre-school education, also called "Early Childhood Education", increases children's sense of emotions, cognitive skills and develops their creativity. Moreover, attending ECEC has a direct relationship with future success of children and on overall quality of education.. Recent Ministry of National Education (MoNE) studies have demonstrated that students having participated in pre-school education show further social performance in general than their peers who have not been (MoNE, 2013). Furthermore, increasing the participation rate for pre-school education would free women from traditional gender roles, caring responsibilities within the family. It also would give them a chance to attend the labour force. Several empirical studies1 show that supporting institutional care is one of the most efficient ways to encourage mothers to join or return labour market after childbearing.

By supporting women employees who are at risk of withdrawal from labour market due to care responsibilities, this Operation will also support pre-schooling of small children.

a) Background and Justification of the Operation

i. Women Employment and Family/Work Life Balance In Turkey

LFP rate of women was 37.6% in 2017 in Turkey and it was 67.8% in EU-28 while male participation rate was 78.2% in Turkey and 78.9% in EU-28 (TURKSTAT, 2018; EUROSAT, 2018). Increasing the employment of women in the formal economy is essential for increasing economic growth and reducing poverty. Even if female unemployment rate is not very high when compared to male unemployment rate (ratio was 1.12 unemployed woman per man in 2015. For example, this ratio was above 2 for the same year in Greece), LFP rate of women is very low in comparison with other Southern European countries. With the 37,6% participation rate, Turkey was nearly 20 percentage points behind the second lowest of EU, namely Italy. However, a dramatic upward trend can be observed from Turkish data. This trend separates Turkey from other Middle East countries and converges to Southern European Countries. LFP rate of women has soared between 2005 and 2017 by 30% increase despite 2008 crisis. In addition to long lasting characteristic of this upward trend, taking into consideration of striking decrease in NEET (not in education, employment or training) rate for woman (62.13% in 2005 and 45.97% in 2014) and rise in mother employment rate (20.9% in 2005 and 30% in 2015) and women part-time employment (13% in 2005 and 18.99% in 2015), this increase proves significant transformation in Turkish labour market structure.

Turkey is experiencing one long term and one shorter-term transformation in this field. Firstly, short-term transformation is about women activity in the labour market. A quantitative and qualitative

1 Such as: “Yuko Kinoshita and Fang Guo, “What Can Boost Female Labor Force Participation in Asia?”, IMF Working Paper, 2015”, “Childcare And Female Employment: Review Of Selected Work In Visegrad Countries Forthcoming In The Icra Working Paper Series No 3 March 2013”, Daniela Vuri, “Do childcare policies increase maternal employment?”, IZA World of Labor, 2016: 241

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alteration, which indicates the increase in women participation rates and changing types of jobs those women have, can be observed in Turkish labour market. This upward trend is steady and fast. Secondly, as a historical transformation, Turkish population pyramid has been changing due to longer lifespan and decreasing birth-rate and, in parallel with that, family structure has been shifting from large families towards nuclear families and unconventional family types (Dayıoğlu & Kırdar 2010; Greulich, Aurélien & Inan 2015; 2016). As a self-feeding process, demographic transformation supports and accelerates women participation to education and labour market. It has also direct effect on women’s position in family life and on care responsibilities. Longer life span changes segmentation in life and thus the time allocated for education increases. Increasing educational attainment level urges women to seek for employment opportunities more actively. This situation pushes marriage age and age at first job. On the other hand, smaller kin networks cause pressure on nuclear families about childcare responsibilities. In that sense, short and long-term transformation processes have mutual relationship.

No matter, how strongly emphasised importance of aging demographic structure and decreasing birth rates, this tension creates a perception of insecurity, especially for women whose decision is the determinant when comes to establish a family and reproduction. In that sense, with contributions of examples from European countries, the scholars urged that the policies related empowering women’s education, improving gender equality in work and social life and implementing innovative employment incentives are very crucial not only for increasing women participation, but also for a more satisfied, secured society and, in parallel with that, more healthy family structures and, even for overcoming possible population crisis.

As indicated above, in Turkey women participation to labour force is increasing but this rate is much below desired level. The main reasons for low female employment in Turkey are (SSI, 2017);

The resolution of agricultural employment , The low educational attainment of women, The limitations of marital status and marriage in business life, The prevalence of informal economy and the gender-based division of labor as a norm in

society. Dominant traditional gender roles in society and care responsibilities.

All workers around the world face the challenge of finding a suitable balance between work and daily living/family life. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. 1 in every 8 employees in the OECD works 50 hours or more per week. Turkey is by far the country with the highest proportion of people working very long hours, with 34%, where the average is 13% (OECD, 2018). Furthermore, the more people work, the less time they have to spend on leisure time activities. In addition to that, according to time use survey, working women spend 5 times more time in family care than men (working women spent an average of 3 hours 31 minutes a day and men spent 46 minutes ) in Turkey (TURKSAT, 2015). This figure is another proof of how difficult to ensure work and life balance for women in Turkey.

The findings of the Turkish Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS) conducted by Hacettepe University (HU) show that family responsibilities are the biggest obstacle to women's working life (HU, 2013). Considering the age ranges, childcare seems to be decisive in the participation of women in the labour force. For example, 34.8% of women in the 25-29 age range and 37.9% in the 30-34 age range are unable to work because they look after their children. According TDHS results, marriage and pregnancy-childcare are among the first reasons for the withdrawal of women from the labour market. 24.8% of the women declared that they left their jobs after marriage and 14.3% from the pregnancy-childcare. Among women aged 20-34, the rate of leaving paid jobs due to marriage

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and pregnancy-childcare is high. When age groups are examined, the majority of women in the 20-44 age range are leaving their job due to marriage and pregnancy or childcare.

It is dramatically difficult for women to participate in the labour market while looking after their young children. Therefore, employed women either leave the labour market to look after their children or transfer childcare to other women, relatives and neighbours of the family. Inadequacy of childcare services or the high costs of services make it hard for women with young children to participate in the labour market. Therefore, incentives or subsidies to women for childcare services will help them to overcome obstacles on entering the labour market.

The redundancy and coverage of childcare alternatives are crucial to increasing post-natal employment for women. In the scope of study visits that were successfully accomplished in NANNY2 Operation funded under IPA I, it was observed that maintenance of high-level women employment takes a very important place in the developed European countries. In order to support women employment, Germany and France place a great importance to role of institutions in childcare. On the other hand, Finland is accepted as the most effective practice with its obligatory kindergarten system.3

Promoting work-life balance to increase women’s LFP in Turkey is a government objective as outlined in the 10th National Development Plan, including the promotion of alternative models such as flexicurity, parental leave, extending and increasing the accessibility of childcare (Ministry of Development, 2015). As in many other developed and developing countries, in Turkey policies and regulations were put into practice with the purpose of facilitating LFP of women and reconciling work and family life. Maternity/paternity leave, flexible/part time working opportunities especially for working mothers, breast-feeding leave, promoting institutional child/elderly care are some of the most prominent policies about this issue. However, there is still a great need of support for women to be encouraged to work.

ii) Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Turkey in the Scope of Family/Work Life Balance

As stated before, there is a strong and direct relationship between division of labour at home, especially in the area of childcare and working of women outside home. If ECEC is not institutionalized and family-centered models are not provided, the question of who would take the care of the child plays an important role in the decision of women to enter/continue the working life (Ecevit, 2013).

There are a number of studies showing that quality ECEC is beneficial to young children, their parents, and the general public. Supporting affordable and quality access to ECEC can support both female employment and early childhood development. In recent years, the prevalence of public schools has made progress in pre-school education services for the 5+ age group, but yet the targeted

2 Home-Based Child Care Services Operation” (NANNY) was carried out by SSI with a budget of 50 Million Euros during IPA I period. The purpose of the Operation was to promote registered employment of women by facilitating the labour market integration of women with small children who are at risk of withdrawal from the labour market , and supporting the formal work of women providing home-based child care services. Operation provided financial support to mothers to cover the social security contribution of the child caregiver (both the employer and employee contribution) and part of her salary up until the child who has been looked after reaches 3 years of age (including 36th month).Firstly, the implementation provinces of the project were determined as Antalya, Bursa and İzmir. With the addendum Ankara and İstanbul were included to the implementation provinces. Totally 26.532 women (11.360 mother directly and 15.232 child caregiver indirectly) benefited from the Operation and turned backed into labor market. Within this scope, approximately 30.883 pre-registrations were received for the Operation. Moreover, home visits were carried out during implementation phase to the beneficiary mothers’ home in order to control whether child caregivers are actually working or not. Totally 8,390 home visits were realized.3

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levels have not been reached. ECEC services in Turkey are provided by the public and private sectors. These private sector services have to receive an approval from MoNE or MoFLSS.

Table 1: ECEC Services in Turkey (2016-2017)Number of Schools &

Classes Number of Students

Pre-primary education (Public & Private) 29.293 1.326.123 Pre-primary education (Public) 23.820 1.124.727 Institutions Affiliated to MoNE 22.161 1.061.649 Institutions not Affiliated to MoNE 1.659 58.193 Pre-primary education (Private) 5.473 201.396 Institutions Affiliated to MoNE (private) 3.703 147.154 Crèches and Care Centers belong to MoFLSS 1.768 54.024 Crèches opened in enterprises (Labour Law) 2 218

Resource: MoNE Statistics for 2016-2017 Educational Year

Childcare institutions certified by the MoFLSS are providing care and education services for the age group of 0-6 years, while institutions of MoNE are providing care and education services for the age group of 3-6. Especially after three years old, parents are starting to prefer public or private pre-schools of MoNE to ensure early socialization for their children and prepare them for primary school years. As indicated at Table 1, in Turkey at 2016-2017 academic year, totally 1.326.123 children attended pre-school education at 29.293 institutions.

An upward trend can be observed in schooling ratio of pre-school education. While, schooling ratio for 3-5 years old was 26.92% in 2009/2010, same figure has reached 41.16% in 2016/2017 (MoNE, 2017). Although this steady increase proves that institutionalization in early childhood education is strengthening, the level is still far behind European countries. Again, one of the main reasons of this lagging behind is financial hardship of families for covering childcare facilities’ costs.

Table 2: Schooling Rates in Pre-Primary Education of Operation Provinces

ProvincesSchooling Rate in

Pre-School Education and Care (%) (3-5 age)

Number of Pre-school Education and Care

Institutionsİstanbul 34,15 1764Ankara 42,28 731İzmir 46,81 525

Antalya 55,62 387Bursa 43,43 306

Malatya 42,22 88Elazığ 41,03 54

CARE Total 43,64 3.855TR Total 41,16 8.719

Resource: MoNE Statistics for 2016-2017 Educational Year

As it is seen in the Table 2, average schooling rate in pre-school education in INST-CARE Operation implementation provinces is nearly 43.53% and the rates of the provinces varies between 34.15% and 55.62%. In Turkey totally there are 8.719 pre-school education and care institutions and 20.574 nursery classes within public and private schools. Total number of institutions in the operation provinces is 47% of total number of the institutions in Turkey. With this good representation rate, it is expected that the operation will support increasing the schooling rate in pilot provinces and in Turkey.

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Within the research study of MoFLSS in Turkey about Supply and Demand Status of Childcare in Turkey, supply and demand characteristics of ECEC are given below (MoFLSS, 2015):

a. Characteristics of Demand: High cost is an obstacle to benefit from private services for children in the 3-6 age

group. The fees that can be afforded for childcare services are much lower than the prices currently available on the market.

The utilization of services among the income groups has a regressive distribution. While 60% of children in the highest income quintile benefit from pre-school and centre-based childcare services, this is only 17% in the lowest-income decile.

Social norms are shaping the preferences of mothers for young children care. The accepted norm in the "age of sending children to early childhood education" is 3 years old for working mothers.

Safety, security and healthy emotional and physical development of the child are the most important determinants of the use of childcare services. These have emerged as the main determinants of the decision on when children should be sent to child care institutions.

The location of the child care institution is a very important determinant of the decision to use or not to use childcare services.

Working hours and days do not meet the needs of working mothers. Parents associate quality with child psychologists, university graduate teachers with

the existence of classes for single age group and low child-staff ratio. As the level of income increases, the quality assessment begins to outweigh. Employment status (working or not) of the mother is an important decision on the use

of childcare institutions. 82% of the special childcare institution users were working mothers.

b. Characteristics of Supply: Public service delivery is widespread. Public service providers account for 84% of all

childcare providers. The majority of the capacity consists of nursery classes in the primary education

institutions. There is a limited availability of services for children aged 0-3 years. Full-day service delivery is limited. Service providers in private sector offer higher quality service. There are severe conditions of legislation for opening an institution. Location and

building quality is more decisive in service costs and prices of private institutions.

As indicated above, high costs of services, inappropriate location and service times, social norms and employment status of the mother determines the decision of sending the child to the ECEC institutions. At the supply side of the services there are also some limitations: private service delivery is not widespread enough, and ECEC institutions for children aged 0-3 years are limited and opening an institution is not easy in Turkey.

Beside these demand and supply limitations of ECEC, receiving institutional care is more economical than receiving home-based childcare service. . For 2018, minimum monthly cost of home-based childcare service is about 2.500 TL (caregivers’ minimum wage and social security insurance costs). In “Supply and Demand Status of Childcare in Turkey” study average monthly care institution/ pre-school fee is calculated 790 TL for private ones and 504 TL for public ones (MoFLSS, 2015). Beside these fees; school service, food and stationery fees can also be requested by the institution/ pre-school.

At the workshops of the NANNY Operation, stakeholders emphasized the importance of ECEC and agreed that it is the most effective, permanent and inclusive childcare method for the future. It will be

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a very important step for the new operation to address this issue. If institutional ECEC can be supported by the INST-CARE Operation, it would provide a substantial increase in demand of the institutional ECEC sector without lowering the fees. Thus, both the public and private sector will be encouraged indirectly and will lead to the opening of more institutions and pre-schools. This will increase the scope of institutional childcare while reviving the sector. According to study visit reports of NANNY Operation, the main reason for fully registered and widespread ECEC sector in Europe is the high level of institutionalization. It is critical to provide affordable, adequate and supervised institutional childcare services to women with children in order to achieve the targeted women employment rate. In addition, the employees in these institutions will substantially be women. This will also indirectly contribute to the promotion of women employment by creating multiplier effect.

During the NANNY Operation, it has been observed that the institutional care services improve the quality of childcare and ensure early socialization of children. Both the study visits in Germany, France and Finland and the outputs of Strategy Document of NANNY Operation support this finding. This includes regular physical activities, performance based and artistic activities, and opportunities to discover hobbies and talents of children that are much more difficult to cover at home. At the impact analysis report of NANNY Operation, the quality of childcare at home and the education level of childcare givers in Turkey have been found inadequate. If the institutional ECEC system is supported by the INST-CARE Operation, childcare service could be done by educated teachers who are trained with academic standards and supervised by the state.

As experienced in direct grant management, SSI is established with the objective of the realization of a social security system at the contemporary standards that will provide individuals with social insurance and universal health insurance, empowered by law numbered 5502 and dated 16/5/2006. Regarding the institutional capacity of SSI, it is a large organization with 33.700 staff and it is easily accessible with its 81 Social Security Provincial Directorates and 538 Social Security Centers in 81 provinces of Turkey managing a budget of 288.560 million Turkish liras.

As a policy-maker, implementer of social security issues, SSI has de jure and de facto monopoly based on having exclusive competence in the field of activity and/or geographical area to which the grant relates pursuant to any applicable law; as stated in PRAG Section 6.4.2 “Grants awarded without calls for proposals ('Direct award')” as the activities offered sides with the authority of the SSI. The SSI is considered to be entitled to receive grant award without call for proposal in compliance with the EESP SOP Activity I.I, namely “Promoting Decent Work’ specific objective which is improving working conditions and combatting unregistered employment.

b) Brief Description of the Operation

Building on the variety of problems and suggestions mentioned above, the operation aims supporting women employment in the formal economy by supporting them for institutional ECEC with cash transfer which amounts to 100 € to cover partially institutional ECEC cost (including basic fee, school service, meal costs and stationery fee) and their costs of going to work, such as lunch and transportation.

The operation will basically support women; with children up-to 5 years of age (including 60 th month at the pre-application phase), working/returning or about to start working in the formal sector until her child reaches 72 months old.

Beneficiary mother can take the financial support only for one child. Financial support will be given for 24 months; monthly payments will be done to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries after payment controls. During financial support implementation, childcare institution/pre-school visits will be conducted by the members of the local support team and/or SSI staff to check whether the child attends institution/school on a regular basis.

In Turkey at the stage of enrolling in a childcare facility, a lump sum fee is paid which is called stationery expenses. In order to support mothers for this expenditure a lump sum financial support

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equals to 100 Euros will be given to all beneficiaries at their first month receiving the financial support mentioned above. The beneficiary mother who did not take any financial support shall not receive this lump sum support too. In total 13.000 mothers will benefit from this financial support (since number of total beneficiaries will be more than number of average beneficiaries).

5.2. Overall Objective:

The overall objective of the Operation is to enhance employment by supporting care services as a policy measure with a focus on women as one of special target groups in need of special policies.

5.3 Operation Purpose:

The purpose of the Operation is to implement a pilot scheme for promoting registered employment of women having small child by supporting them financially for institutional ECEC.

5.4 Indicative location(s): The operation will be implemented in seven provinces (Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Elazığ, İzmir, İstanbul and Malatya). In selection of the pilot provinces, the following criteria have been taken into account:

Socio-economic development levels of the provinces, Number of insured women in those provinces, Average number of working women taking a maternal leave in a year, Population of the provinces, Number of pre-school education and care institutions, Budget constraint of the operation.

According to the results of a study by the Ministry of Development titled “SEGE 2011”; the most socio-economically developed ten provinces in Turkey are İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Kocaeli, Antalya, Bursa, Eskişehir, Muğla, Tekirdağ and Denizli. These provinces are also among the most populated 25 provinces of Turkey according to the data of Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) for 2017.

On the other hand, according to the figures of SSI (2017), the following 10 provinces have the most insured women numbers who are working based on a labour contract: İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Bursa, Antalya, Kocaeli, Tekirdağ, Adana, Manisa and Denizli.

Besides, according to the numbers of working women taking a maternal leave in a year which were gathered from the data of SSI for the year 2014 are İstanbul (43.871 person), Ankara (9.156 person), İzmir (10.340 person), Bursa (7.196 person) , Antalya (6.571 person) and Kocaeli (3.948 person).

As it is seen above, the first six provinces in the insured women number ranking of SSI are consistent with the first six provinces of Socio-Economic Development Ranking of Provinces of the Ministry of Development.

Furthermore, due to these statistics, five out of seven pilot provinces were chosen from the first ten provinces according to the number of women employees who are working based on a labour contract (İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Bursa and Antalya) and due to their high social-economic development level. The other two provinces (Elazığ and Malatya)4 were selected by considering the geographical concentration approach defined in the EESP SOP and to measure the effect of the operation on smaller provinces in terms of social economic level and women activity in labour market. Compared to other less developed provinces, Elazığ and Malatya are selected according to their absorption capacity in terms of potential applicants and number of childcare facilities. In this way, the contribution and efficiency of the operation in different economic, social and geographical environment will be measured via impact analysis that will be conducted under the operation.

The operation provinces have been chosen according to social-economic development level, number of women insured and for reaching smaller provinces to measure the effect of the operation more

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properly. Quota for each province has been also determined based on these figures and results of NANNY Operation (Table 3).

Table 3: Average Monthly Quotas for Implementation Provinces (indicative)

Provinces Institutional CareQuotas (People)

İstanbul 3.250Ankara 1.500İzmir 1.500

Antalya 1.500Bursa 1.250

Malatya 750Elazığ 500Total 10.250

Note:

If the quote of one province could not fill the application coming from that province, the remaining contingent will shift to the other province or provinces proportionally that get over-application.

5.5 Duration:

Total duration of the operation is 36 months.

5.6 Target group(s):

Target group of the Operation is:

Women with child up to 5 years of age (including 60 th month at the pre-application phase) who are working or about to start/return to work in a registered job will be supported until the child reaches 72 months of age. The eligibility criteria of the beneficiary mothers will be as follows,

Being a citizen of the Republic of Turkey,

Being resident in one of the pilot provinces,

Being full-time working5 under the coverage of 4/1a, according to Law no. 5510 of SSI,

Having a child up to 5 years of age (including 60th month) at the date of the pre-application,

Having a child6 attending to childcare institution/pre-school,

Having written permission of the childcare institution/pre-school for visits of the operation staff to check whether the child attends on a regular basis,

Having written permission of the childcare institution/pre-school for controlling whether the mother is making a regular payment.

The conditions for the childcare institution/pre-school institution will be as follows:

Childcare institution/pre-school must operate under the supervision of MoNE or MoFLSS.

Childcare institution/pre-school should operate in one of the pilot provinces.

Childcare institution/pre-school should give written permission for visits of the operation staff to check whether the child attends on a regular basis and for controlling whether the beneficiary mother is making a regular payment.

5 Full time will be accepted as at least 25 days in a month due to operational reasons 6 Beneficiary mother can take the financial support only for one child.

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5.7 Results with measurable indicators:

Output Indicators Indicative Breakdown of the Outputs Target of

Operation Target 2020

Services and trainings for target groups

Unemployed people 0 25.000Women, young and disadvantaged persons ✔ 10.000Employers 0 2.500

Institutional capacity building

Trainings for the staff of relevant actors (including social partners) on additional/customised services 0 2.500

Entrepreneurship programmes, financial support mechanisms, job clubs established (esp. for women, young and disadvantaged persons)

0 25

Improvement of physical accessibility of employment service points 0 100

Number of social partners/ NGOs/local actors /SMEs supported to facilitate employment of disadvantaged persons

0 100

Awareness- raising

Persons accessed through awareness-raising campaigns/ events 0 50.000

Scientific & Technical Studies

Researches, field studies, reports, Impact Assessment, Monitoring & Evaluation Studies, Comparison/ Compliance Tables Regarding EU Acquis/policies

✔ 5

Coordination & cooperation mechanisms

Workshops, conferences, seminars, twinning/IO agreements, etc. with participation of relevant actors 0 50

Common Database/Monitoring Information System for İŞKUR and SSI 0 1

5.8 Indicative activities:

The operation consists of only direct grant component.

The operation will be implemented through four main stages: Preparation, Information and Publicity; Application; Monthly Evaluations and Payment; Ex-post Controls and Monitoring.7

a. Preparation, Information and Publicity

Communication strategy will be drafted. The communication strategy will include related topics such as current state and gap analyses, identification of the communication targets, tactics and messages, convenient tools, social media strategies and timeline for the communication activities. Trainings for project staff and SSI staff will be also delivered on the communication strategy and its components and public relations. Communication and Visibility Expert will work as the representative of SSI during preparation studies of the strategy.

Recruitment of central and local project team personnel will be realized.

Project offices in seven provinces will be furnished and equipment will be purchased.

Project visibility materials and social media accounts will be prepared.

The Project Computer Programme (PCP) will be created for the application of the project and will function interactively with the Programmes of SSI and as well as related Public Institutions or Ministry’s systems. 8

7 Please consult Annex I for further details about Operation Workflow.

8 SSI will provide PCP by using its national resources and using existing NANNY software.Page 10 of 17



Project staff will be trained about the aims and objectives of the project, usage of PCP, communication technics and some additional issues determined by SSI.

A mass communication campaign will be run during first 6 months of the Operation to promote the Operation which will be led by Communication and Visibility Expert based on the communication strategy.

The campaign covers an opening conference that will be held in Ankara to promote the Operation with the participation of around 250 persons.

Media meetings to promote the project in each province will be organized with the participation of around 20 persons.

An SMS Service for promoting the project and giving information to the final beneficiaries during implementation will be established.

During the campaign period, project information brochures and leaflets will be distributed.

Special attention will be given to all communication activities in a sense to reach the potential applicants and inform them..

b. Application

Towards the end of the mass communication campaign period, a call for application will be issued in the relevant provinces and the starting date of the applications will be declared.

Applications will be made to the Social Security Provincial Directorates (SSPDs) in the relevant provinces where applications desks will be set up. SSI staff and project support team staff will be charged to receive applications.

Applications will be received, evaluated and finalized through the PCP.

Application procedure itself is divided into two parts; provisional registration and final registration.

For provisional registration, a web portal working under preferably “e-government application” will be prepared by SSI IT Team, applicants will enter the portal with their Turkish Republic identification number and required data about the applicant that was in the SSI database will automatically come up. The other required data will be entered by the applicant. Full-time workers under the coverage of 4/1a, according to Law no. 5510 and unemployed women can make application at this stage. The provisional registration system will issue a sequence number to the applicants, entitle to receive financial support, in order of the application date and time and give a final registration appointment date and time in accordance with the use of this sequence (in other words applicants will be entitled to benefit from financial support in order of their application number in line with first-come-first-serve principle). Unemployed women should find eligible jobs until final registration stage9.

During final registration, applicants are expected to have qualifications listed at “5.6. Target Groups” and provide relevant documents listed at the provisional registration system.

After the application procedure, the approved applicant mothers will be listed in the Main and Waiting Lists of Beneficiaries.

9 The ones who cannot find suitable job until final registration date will be moved to waiting list. When any of the unemployed women who is in the waiting list find a full time job, she can apply for final registration. If there is an availability in the main list, she will start to get incentive in following the financial support-claim-creating-month.

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c. Monthly Evaluations and Payment

Monthly evaluations will be made to check whether the beneficiary mothers meet the payment criteria of the financial support for the month concerned.

The beneficiary mothers are required to work at least 25 days10 in a month.

The beneficiary mothers are required to pay the fee to the care institution/pre-school11.

After each monthly evaluation, the OCU and Central Support Team will create Final Payment List and send the list to the SSI Accounting Department that will forward the list adding payment orders to the bank where the project account is opened. This monthly evaluation is made around the 5 th of the second month following the month concerned and the support amounts will be paid until the end of that second month by the bank (for ex. evaluations and payments of January financial support will be paid in March).

The payment amount will be 100 €.

In case mother quit job or dismissed and her child continues to pre-school/care institution, three months will be given for mother to find a new job. After this three months waiting period, the mothers who cannot find a job will be shifted to the waiting list. If the mother finds a job after three months waiting period and she still meets the eligibility criteria, she will be taken to the main list again in case there is an empty quota.

The payment for each beneficiary mother will last up to 24 months.

d. Ex-post Controls and Monitoring

Ex-post Controls:

Local telephone services for each SSPD will be built up to inform potential applicants, receive modification requests of the beneficiary mothers and gather complaints as to the project. The requests and complaints will be evaluated and answered back in proper time.

Every month childcare institution/pre-school visits will be done by the members of the local support team and/or SSI staff to check whether the child attends institution/school on a regular basis that will be based on a 10%12 sampling method.

If any irregularity or abuse has been detected during these ex-post control procedures, financial support will be cancelled immediately and cancellation will be effective starting from the reporting month.

Monitoring Visits:

Monitoring visits will be made to the provinces in a monthly basis where the project implemented by SSI OCU Staff, Project Support Team Leader (STL) or his/her deputy and Central Senior Accountant in order to check proper implementation of the project. If deemed necessary, on the spot inspection will be carried out by SSI OCU Staff.

The results of the monitoring visits will be reported. Central support team members will report to the STL and STL herself/himself will report to SSI OCU. SSI OCU members will report to the SROB.

10 Rules regarding payments have been streamlined with the Action Plan of NANNY Operation to adapt the needs of labour market which includes the amendment related to reducing 30 days employment/month requirement to 25 days for beneficiary mothers taking into account the practice of unpaid leave in some of the companies imposed by the employers instead of paid regular leave. This action plan also enabled beneficiary mothers to receive support payments even under 25 days of employment in a month on the basis of force majeure situations such as medical conditions, strikes, lockouts, natural disasters and other similar cases.11 Monthly payments will be checked via automatic system that will established between SSI and the bank determined. If any other instalment or annual payment is in question, the beneficiary mother needs to prove her payments by using bank receipt(s) via visiting local offices. 12 %10 sampling method indicates %10 of beneficiary mothers in the relevant month.

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e. Research Activities

Research activities will be implemented in a successive and complementary fashion. Each activity will produce one side of overall study and all outputs will merge in single policy paper. Main aim of the research phase is to produce policy recommendation for proposed innovative model about covering childcare responsibility in a way supporting registered women employment. In this scope, mainly two research areas will be examined. While first area will be reconciliation mechanisms related to working time and permissions for work-life balance of parents, second area will be alternative and innovative maternity and parental benefits such as care insurance application. The research activities will be executed as follow:

Two desk study reports will be prepared on these areas, simultaneously. The reports will contain examination of current states and literature, determination of the best practices in the field, gap and need analyses in Turkish legislation. It will also determine the list of related stakeholders. SSI experts will be responsible for preparation of the desk research reports.

Two (2) workshops will be held in which social partners, experts and stakeholders from Turkey and Europe will participate. In the first workshop, working hours of parents, problems encountered regarding maternal/ paternal permissions or leave of employment, alternative reconciliation mechanisms between employee and employer will be handled. Second workshop will be a good opportunity to brainstorm and discuss on innovative methods for social protection of working parents. Considering good practices in EU, feasibility of new insurance alternatives for caring system in Turkey will be discussed. All related stakeholders, social partners, NGOs, international organizations and academia as well as public institutions will be invited to the workshops. The SSI OCU will determine indicative dates for each workshop. 80 participants including project support team and SSI staff from Central Organisation will join the workshops, to be held outside of Ankara for a minimum of three days. Final reports will be produced at the end of each workshop and, in this way opinions of the various stakeholders will be received and recorded.

Three study visits will be carried out to the best practice countries in Europe of work/life balance implementation, innovative approach on maternal/paternal benefits and insurance models for caring. These visits will be good opportunity to comprehend alternative models. The information derived from the study visits will create opportunity to test the validity of the opinions and information produced during desk study and workshops in an international setting. They will also produce information that allows policy makers to make comparison between different best practices. In addition, as the high level managers of SSI will also attend these study visits and they will see good practices on site, considering alternatives and implementing innovations will be quicker and easier. Study visits will be organized by OCU members with the help from the Central Support Team for 5 days and will include 12 people each. One interpreter and one project support team staff will join each visit group. After each visit, a report will be prepared containing negative and positive sides taken from the practice and recommendation for Turkey.

Apart from above mentioned three steps, an impact analysis will be conducted, separately. In order to ensure sustainability of the operation, the impact analysis will measure efficiency of the financial incentive programme implemented under this operation and test different scenarios for finding the best model for promoting registered women employment. The data

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needed for the impact analysis will be gathered from the beneficiary mothers and childcare institutions during the operation. The analysis will contribute to the development of right policies and strategies to increase formal women employment.

As part of this impact analysis, information on expectations of working women for institutional care services will be gathered from the working mothers as beneficiaries of the Operation. This part of the survey will be useful for working mothers while they are choosing appropriate institution for care services and empower them on the quality of the services they should be looking for. The other purpose of this survey also would be to understand to what extent the institutional care services are standardized and the quality standards developed by MoNE are being implemented in early childhood care and education institutions in cooperation with MoNE. Lastly, one more module will be added to the analysis to understand needs of supply side of institutional care services with relevant stakeholders by also conducting a survey with voluntary childcare institutions.

After these three steps of research phase and the impact analysis, all documentation and the information that was produced will be merged under one final policy paper. The policy paper will propose a concrete model to increase registered women employment via supporting institutional childcare services.

Above mentioned research activities will not only be complementary with INST-CARE operation, but also they will constitute a package with results of the NANNY’s Strategy Paper and Impact Analysis and the research activities that will be conducted under proposed EDU-CARE operation. In this way, SSI can submit a merged and rich content report to policy makers that cover all care options and models for increasing registered women employment. The merged report will include strength and weakness of each model, proposed legislative and institutional structure and financial implications.

The academic support will be taken during research activities if deemed necessary.

6. Implementation arrangements

6.1. Institutional framework: The operation will be implemented under the EESP SOP which is managed by MoFLSS as the OS which also fulfils tendering and contracting (including financial management and monitoring of contracts) tasks as the Contracting Authority (CA) for EESP SOP. The OS will be represented by Deputy Undersecretary of MoFLSS as the Head of Operating Structure (HoOS) while the CA will be represented by the Director of the DEUFR.

The overall management of the Operation will be carried out by the following actors:

Contracting Authority (CA) Operation Beneficiary (OB) Senior Representative of the Operation Beneficiary (SROB) Operation Coordination Unit (OCU) Operation Steering Committee (OSC) Technical Assistance Team (TAT), when applicable

The details are provided in the Operational Agreement, which shall be signed with the Operation Beneficiary (OB) as soon as possible after the approval of this OIS.

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6.2. Proposed monitoring structure and methodology:

Operation Meetings

The OB will be responsible for the invitation, organisation and the preparation of the minutes of the operation meetings.

Operation Management Meeting (OMM): OMM shall start by the signature of the Operation Agreement. The first meeting will be held as a launch event within 15 days after the signature of the Operational Agreement. OMM will be convened with the participation of EUD, OB (including SROB and OCU) and CA (Head of Department, PU, PMU, FMU, any other relevant representatives) in order to give the information regarding OIS, to monitor the possible risks/ irregularities, responsibilities of the parties, any legal amendments, activities of the Operation, discuss and assess the progress of the Operation and provide solution to the problems arising during the preparation and implementation of the Operation. All components of the Operation are discussed at the OMMs. These meetings can be chaired by SROB/SROB Delegate or OCU Coordinator.

Operation Steering Committee Meeting (OSCM): OSCM will be established to serve as a platform to share results achieved, follow-up the operation and exchange experiences, ideas etc. The SROB will initiate the establishment of a core OSC, which will be composed of representatives of OCU, TAT, OS, stakeholders such as Ministry of Industry and Technology , Trade Unions and Employers’ Unions, MoNE, Municipalities (7 cities under this operation), Vocational Qualification Authority (VQA), Ministry of Treasury and Finance, Directorate of EU Affairs, MoFLSS, Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) and the relevant NGOs and International Organizations. CA and the EUD are ex officio members of the Committee.

The OSC shall meet on a semi-annual basis and be chaired by SROB or SROB Delegate. First OSC meeting will be organized within 6 months after the signature of Operational Agreement. In order to ensure consistency between interventions and objectives of the operation, and to strengthen links among operation components, operation meetings (management and steering committee) can be combined with those of service contract (when available).

Reporting Requirements:

OCU will ensure that the responsibilities regarding delivery, check, control, verification and approval of reports and documents defined in the Operational Agreement and the contracts are duly performed.

Without prejudice to the reporting requirements of contractors/grant beneficiaries, in order to monitor the progress and ensure the consistency and complementarity of activities under different components of operation, the OB (with TAT’s support, when available) shall prepare and submit semi-annual “Monitoring Sheets” and “Risk Assessment and Management Table (RAMT)” to the OSC and CA regarding the overall progress of the Operation. This level of monitoring and reporting involves collecting and systematically consolidating the monitoring data of operation components to measure their achievements and contributions to the objectives and indicators of EESP SOP. Reports on irregularities or suspicious cases including quarterly NIL and follow-up reports shall also be submitted together with the monitoring sheet.

6.3. Required procedures and contracts for the implementation of the operation and their sequencing:

Components Call for Tendering Signing contract Contract Completion

Direct Grant N/A QIV/2018 QIV/2021

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7. Risks and assumptions:

Risks Insufficient participation of mothers to activities of the Operation.

Appointment of project personnel to other positions during project life span. Insufficient contributions to the Operation of social partners and related public bodies.

Assumptions There will be enough interest of the eligible mothers to participate in the programme. The support amount will be sufficient to mobilise mothers to stay at the work life. Provincial social security directors are willing and able to collaborate. Political and institutional stability and a smooth implementation of IPA instrument all over

the period of execution of the Operation will continue. Good coordination of operation activities will be done.

8. Expected impact of the operation on the target group and multiplier/spill over effects: It is expected that around 10.250 women will be able to stay at their jobs, return to work or

find job thanks to the operation support. Success of the implementation of the Operation as regards the promotion of registered

employment of both working mothers would cause an increase in the family incomes of these groups. That would decrease child poverty under the assumption that these resources are allocated to the common welfare of the family. This would also contribute to the breakage of circle of poverty and social exclusion through addressing the situations leading to the unemployment and disadvantaged position of women.

Creation of a financial support scheme which would promote increased registered women employment and an increase in the family income may cause economic pickup effect in the provinces where the project is implemented making it possible for other women to find jobs.

The Operation will also support pre-schooling of small children and it may trigger the opening of new care institutions/pre-schools. This way, it will also help increase women employment in some extent. Operation will also increase the parents' awareness of pre-school education.

9. Sustainability:

LFP rate of women is very low in Turkey due to the reasons explained at previous sections. By supporting women for institutional childcare and education, operation will encourage women to work. The operation is expected to show domino effect as encouraged women will encourage other women like relatives, neighbours and friends to joining labour market.

In order to provide and evaluate the permanence of the project, an impact analysis which will contribute to the development of right policies and strategies to fight against low LFP rate and high-unregistered employment of women will be conducted. It would also provide a comparison chance with the impact analysis results of NANNY project. In this way, two different financial support tools will be piloted in large scale and most efficient way can be deducted. In addition to directly analyse the impact of financial support scheme, results of the research reports about work life balance and maternity & parental insurance will also contribute to the development of a model for promoting registered employment of women having small child by supporting them financially for institutional childcare and education. After research phase and the impact analysis, all documentation and the information that produced will be merged under one final policy paper. The policy paper will propose a concrete model to increase registered women employment via supporting childcare. The designed model will be proposed to related authorities and policy makers, SSI and related public body experts and academicians.

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In parallel with some European Countries, Turkey will also suffer from ageing population problem coming years and these mechanisms and new insurance systems may promote willingness of having a child. Developing reconciliation mechanisms related to working time and permissions for work-life balance of parents is also very crucial for both increasing LFP rate of women and men.

10. Equal opportunity, minorities and vulnerable groups (where relevant): The Operation is directly related to the promotion of equal opportunity principle mentioned in the EESP SOP. It focuses on the formal employment of working mothers who have children up-to six years old. Considering that working mothers are among the most vulnerable group in terms of hold on to the formal labour market, supporting working mothers will contribute to strengthen equal opportunity in the labour market.

In Turkey, benefitting from childcare is strongly concentrated among high income families. By providing incentive to working mothers earning relatively low will help to break the negative effects of unequal distribution of income. In this regard, working mothers with low income will have the opportunity to benefit care services for their children. Besides, children of these families who do not have a chance to access ECEC services without incentive will have an opportunity to attend those services and by considering that attending ECEC is crucial in terms of future success of children, this Operation will also provide equal opportunity and help to decrease intergenerational poverty to a degree for children of vulnerable groups.

Throughout the implementation of the Operation, an appropriate gender balance will be considered on all the managing bodies and activities of the Operation. Also participation of civil society as representatives of various groups on the Operation activities will be given a priority. The good governance principle will also be one of the primary concerns of the Operation at all stages and levels. During the programming and implementation period open-manner with improved public participation, accountable-effective funding and follow up of Operation outcomes will be assured, shortly transparency of procedures and results will be a key aspect.

11. Requested financing from the European Commission: The Union contribution shall not exceed the

ceiling of 85% of the eligible expenditure.

12. Co-financing: The national contribution shall not exceed the ceiling of 15 per cent of the eligible expenditure.

DISCLAIMER

Deviation from the published version may occur during the preparation of contract dossier and other documents when more details regarding the interventions will be available.

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Documents

Çocu… · Web viewSupporting Registered Employment of Women through Institutional Childcare Services (INST-CARE) Operating Structure: Directorate of the European Union and Financial