Special Feature - ICTI Ethical Toy Program

IETP targets support for 30,000 children through Family-Friendly Spaces programme

The ICTI Ethical Toy Program (IETP), the specialist industry programme focused on the well-being of production workers globally, has announced that it is aiming to support 30,000 children through 100 Family-Friendly Spaces, publicly recognizing 50 factories as Family-Friendly by the end of 2025. Aoife McCarthy, IETP executive, tells us more.

The Family-Friendly Spaces initiative was first launched in 2016, to support "left behind children" in China; Children whose parents had migrated domestically to major cities for work and were unable to bring them with them.

It is understood that around 23m children are separated from their parents in Mainland China. IETP’s independent research shows childcare as one of the main reasons workers leave their factory jobs; Family-Friendly Spaces are specifically designed to support the childcare needs of working parents during the summer school holiday period, creating safe, secure and well-equipped childcare facilities at factories or in the local community where children learn and play while their parents focus on work, knowing their children are safe.

Since 2016, the Family-Friendly Spaces programme has been established in 42 factories and has benefitted over 4,000 children and 4,500 working parents.

The Spaces are not simply a childcare solution, but help shape the lives of workers and their children. Xiao Min, from Yunnan in China, is 11 years old. She first attended a Space at the age of four and this summer, attended for the 7th time. Her father works and lives in Guangdong and was quick to enroll his daughter in the programme when it first arrived at his factory, allowing him to see her more. Unfortunately, the programme was not available at his factory when his eldest daughter was growing up, so he only saw her a few times a year when he could take annual leave.

A lack of parental involvement negatively impacted his eldest daughter's life & education, he told IETP: “[she] would skip going to school and would not study, so she dropped down a grade in primary school. I feel really guilty for not being around to support her.” In contrast, Xiao Min, who joined the programme aged four as a very shy and timid girl, has grown into a confident, happy and lively young girl; doing well at school and often publicly speaking at Family-Friendly Spaces ceremonies and events. In 2019, his factory successfully campaigned for spaces to be made available to migrant children, usually restricted by China’s Hukou system, allowing Xiao Min and her sister to move to live with her father full-time. Xiao Min continues to attend the Summer Family-Friendly Space and throughout the rest of the year, the After-School centres provided by her father’s factory, initially implemented by IETP and made possible with funding support from Buyer Members of IETP.

Xiao Min’s story is just one example of thousands of the social benefits of Family-Friendly Spaces. In addition to social benefits for workers and their children, the programme produces measurable business benefits. IETP data shows that, with the provision of a Family-Friendly Space, 91% of workers intended to stay working at their factory for over two years, 90% of managers said more workers were attracted to work at the factory, and 90% of managers said FFS improved worker retention rates. With increasing labour shortages, improving worker retention and attraction rates at factories is a key enabler of a secure supply chain.

The Spaces programme is proven to be sustainable and impactful; 66% of factories continue the Space following the first year of implementation and 16 factories have participated in the Family-Friendly Spaces programme at least three times. “Covid-19 disrupted factories’ ability to implement the Spaces in 2020 and 2021, but we are delighted to see numbers increase in 2022. The need for childcare has not diminished and we are very positive we will achieve our ambition and increase the repeat rate to the levels seen pre-Covid” said Carmel Giblin, president & CEO of IETP.

The plans to scale the programme would enable Family-Friendly Spaces to open all over the world, creating Family-Friendly Factories and Workplaces essential to improving the well-being of working parents and their families. In 2023, IETP will focus on opening Spaces in Mexico and Vietnam. The ambition will be achieved with the support of the global toy community. A fund of US$1.75m is needed over a three-year period. IETP is confident that this target can be achieved. No matter the size of your company or your budget you can get involved.

Companies are now rightly focusing on their social and environmental impacts and further developing their ESG strategies to go beyond traditional compliance monitoring. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are helping companies develop their strategies, ensuring they are relevant to their business. The Family-Friendly Spaces programme supports several SDGs, specifically goals 3,4,5,8, 10, 11 and 12.

2023 will be a very exciting year for the IETP community. As well as announcing our ambition to collectively support 30,000 children enabling their enrollment in a Family-Friendly Space, we will further develop our relationship with UNICEF. In 2022 we worked with the organisation to implement their guidance on Family-Friendly policies, and we are now expanding that work to create the first ever formally recognized Family-Friendly Factory programme.

“The launch of a formal recognition programme for factories which are committed to creating environments where parents and caregivers can thrive is really exciting. Children, in the toy industry above any other, are our priority and I am delighted to launch this programme, which will show the leadership and commitment of the global toy industry to children,” added Carmel Giblin.

IETP invites you all to join this global ambition – collectively we will achieve more.

If you would like to get involved in this initiative or wish to learn more about IETP, please contact Anita Lo, general manager, at: anita.lo@ethicaltoyprogram.org