As of 2017, approximately 2,800 babies and toddlers with special needs, ranging in age from six months to three years, receive rehabilitative care and enhancement in approximately 125 rehabilitation daycare center facilities throughout the country. Facilities are supervised by the Rehabilitation Department, Community Care Services, the Disabilities Administration, and are operated as franchisees chartered by the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services- municipalities, NPOs, private organizations
Receiving the best possible care during early childhood is the base for the child’s development and advancement throughout life. Centers located throughout the country work daily, under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services, to provide the best possible professional solutions to youngsters with delayed development and their families at the earliest possible stages of their lives. This stage is extremely significant and has the utmost effect on the child’s progress and the strengthening of the family unit in the future. As a supplement to individual, professional treatment, there is a need for an appropriate, professional and respectable physical infrastructure providing solutions to all parties involved in this field
The Guide to Planning and Founding Rehabilitation Daycare Centers is the joint initiative of the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services, National Insurance Institute (Bituah Leumi) Foundations – The Foundation for the Development of Services to the Disabled, and the Shalem Foundation – the three strategic partners in development of this service, who promote dozens of construction and/or renovation projects throughout the country
The Guide is an equal opportunity manual, explaining how to get quality service anywhere in the country, and sets forth a uniform set of standards for establishing such facilities. A wide range of partners from various areas of expertise joined together to produce this guide, with the aim of helping to understand the criteria for foundation assistance, the demands and the physical needs necessary to establish suitable services
The Guide outlines the connection between policy and procedure of various organizations – TheMinistry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services, the National Insurance Institute – The Foundation for the Development of Services to the Disabled, the Shalem Foundation, municipal policy makers, operators/franchisees and architects – and the daily needs of the youngsters, their families, and the staff whose job it will be to provide the best and most professional services
The Guide was developed by the Ministry Social Affairs and Social Services in conjunction with and funded by the National Insurance Institute Foundations – The Foundation for the Development of Services to the Disabled and the Shalem Foundation
Professional assistance and development
Fanny Goldshmit – architect
Dina Ben Lavy, Social Worker – National Supervisor Rehabilitation Daycare Centers
Tami Ayalon, Social Worker – Senior Coordinator, The Foundation for Development of Services to the Disabled, Foundation Division, National Insurance Institute
Micky Cohen, Social Worker – Vice Chairman, The Shalem Foundation
Text and editing: Sarah Karniel
Design and Printing: Chen Design
