Recently, the Huai'an Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, together with the Municipal Education Bureau and the Municipal Disabled Persons' Federation, issued the Huai'an City Action Plan for the In-Depth Implementation of the "Seedling Care Program" (Trial). The "Seedling Care Program" will provide foster care services to 70 eligible children in Huai'an who are facing hardships, with each child receiving care for at least 30 days. This is expected to relieve the caregiving burden on families.

The Program offers centralized foster care for seriously ill and disabled children from families experiencing difficulties, leveraging the facilities and professional expertise of child welfare institutions and juvenile relief and protection agencies, while not altering the legal guardianship obligations of their guardians. In 2025, the Huai'an Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau and the Huai'an Charity Federation piloted the "Seedling Care Program," providing personalized services to 52 children. Based on the lessons learned from the pilot program, this Action Plan is dedicated to expanding the Program's coverage, improving its quality, and driving continuous upgrades.

The Action Plan specifies that the service recipients are children in hardship with Jiangsu Province household registration, aged 3 to 16, who have been assessed as suitable for institutional foster care. The Action Plan also stipulates that a personalized "one child, one strategy" service plan should be tailored for each child, encompassing ten key service areas: Daily care, rehabilitation training, special education, talent development, guardianship management, mental health support, parent training, home guidance, peer education, and community integration.

The Action Plan also specifies a series of safeguard measures: Allocating dedicated funds to upgrade hardware facilities, forming professional service teams, further integrating medical care, education, rehabilitation, and community services, introducing social resources such as charitable donations and non-profit organizations, and establishing a comprehensive supervision mechanism. All services are provided free of charge. Project funds are allocated exclusively to their intended purposes, and children's personal information is strictly protected to ensure standardized, transparent project operations.