The Standing Committee of the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress held a special press conference on the 29th in Chengdu to brief the public on the "Sichuan Province Elderly Care Service Regulations" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"). The Regulations were recently approved by a vote at the 29th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th Sichuan Provincial People's Congress.
At the press conference, Xu Hong, deputy director of the Social Affairs Committee of the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress, said that elderly care is a major livelihood issue that bears on the country's long-term development and social harmony and stability. The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan explicitly calls for "coordinating the layout of elderly care service facilities, optimizing the supply of basic elderly care services, and promoting the expansion, quality improvement, and efficiency enhancement of elderly care services."
Sichuan is a major province in western China and a major population province. By the end of 2025, the province's resident population aged 60 and above reached 21.5 million, accounting for 25.85 percent; the resident population aged 65 and above stood at 15.3 million, accounting for 18.39 percent. Sichuan has entered a moderately aging society, with its elderly population ranking third nationwide.
Accelerating the high-quality development of elderly care services and meeting the needs of seniors has become a major and urgent task for the current period and beyond. As population aging deepens in Sichuan, elderly care work continues to face new situations, new problems, and new challenges, making local legislation urgently necessary to promote the healthy and orderly development of elderly care services.
The Regulations consist of 7 chapters and 78 articles, covering the elderly care service network, service supply, support and safeguards, and supervision and management. Compared with relevant local regulations on elderly care issued by other provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, the Regulations set up a separate chapter on the "elderly care service network," which is a major feature of Sichuan's legislation this time.
Yang He, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress, explained that in order to improve an elderly care service network covering both urban and rural areas, the Regulations specify that local people's governments at or above the county level should improve a three-tier elderly care service network covering urban and rural areas, build county-level comprehensive elderly care service management platforms, strengthen the development of township (subdistrict) regional elderly care service centers, and set up village (community) elderly care service facilities and sites according to local conditions.
The Regulations also incorporate community elderly care services into the key content of building urban convenient living circles and develop embedded community elderly care services; stipulate that supporting elderly care service facilities for new residential projects should be planned, built, inspected, and delivered simultaneously; encourage qualified rural collective economic organizations to use part of their collective economic income for elderly care services for seniors in their villages and establish a urban-rural elderly care service cooperation mechanism.
The Regulations also aim to optimize the supply of elderly care services. To build a pattern in which home, community, and institutional care are coordinated and medical care and health care are integrated, promote the expansion and quality improvement of elderly care services, and ensure that services follow wherever the needs of seniors are.
The Regulations strengthen basic elderly care services with a focus on caring for disabled and cognitively impaired seniors, and improve the basic elderly care service list system and the comprehensive assessment system for seniors' abilities; strengthen support for family-based elderly care, improve mechanisms such as door-to-door care, home accessibility renovations, family elderly care beds, and visitation and care, and develop services such as elderly meal assistance, bathing assistance, daytime care, short-term respite care, and rental of rehabilitation assistive devices; and promote the classified development of bottom-line guarantee-type, inclusive support-type, and fully market-based elderly care institutions. They also deepen the integration of medical care and elderly care and promote the integrated development of medical and health services and elderly care services.
Li Liang, member of the Party Leadership Group and deputy director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Civil Affairs, said that next steps will focus on the urgent and pressing concerns of seniors and advance the implementation of the Regulations' various measures. The department will take the lead in developing major policy measures such as an implementation plan for deepening the reform and development of elderly care services, measures for the recognition and management of inclusive elderly care institutions, a plan for building a three-tier urban-rural elderly care service network, and an implementation plan for developing mutual-aid elderly care services; weave a dense county-level elderly care service facility network, innovate service models such as "property management plus elderly care" and "domestic services plus elderly care," strengthen the research, development, and promotion of elderly products, deepen the creation of application scenarios and service platform development, and cultivate specialized, chain-based, and branded elderly care service market entities; and build a professional and stable talent team, promote the establishment of long-term systems for entry subsidies for elderly care workers and rewards for skill-level certification, develop policy-based positions in elderly care services, and enhance the appeal of the elderly care industry.