Based on the dual perspective of family care needs and family care providers

Therefore, in the specific policy context of the implementation of the national strategy to actively cope with the aging population, China should build a family support policy system with Chinese characteristics for both the supply and demand of family care services, with the direction of home-based care for the elderly.

Second, support or replacement: the theoretical logic behind the family support policy issue

The family is the most important provider of social welfare. Worldwide, families are responsible for almost 90 per cent of care, counselling, education, child protection, health care and policing. [1] With the advancement of industrialization and urbanization, the traditional social security function of the family is gradually weakening, and the social problems transformed from common family problems begin to increase. The government has to formally intervene and establish some social policies to make up for the lack of family functions and resolve social risks.

After the 1970s, in western developed countries, the family, which had long been regarded as stable and unchanged, has undergone drastic changes: the family size is becoming smaller and smaller, the divorce rate is rising, the proportion of female employment is increasing, and non-traditional family forms and problems such as unmarried cohabitation, "empty nest family" and "single parent family" continue to appear. The diversification of family forms has led to a series of social problems and corresponding policy needs, such as the comprehensive care of empty nest families, and requires governments to respond to it. Similar changes in family structure and shape also began to appear in China during the same period. The stable low fertility level, rapid population aging, large-scale population migration, and continuous improvement of industrialization and urbanization have all impacted the family as the most basic unit of social organization, and jointly promoted the miniaturization and centralization of Chinese family structure, thus weakening the ability and function of families to care for the elderly.

At the same time, for a long time, China's family policy still mainly adopts the policy idea of social assistance, that is, focusing on problem families and vulnerable groups who have lost family support, such as the "three no objects" in urban areas and the "five guaranteed households" in rural areas. In most cases, members of society must first rely on the family to meet their survival and development needs, and the government and society will only intervene in an emergency manner when there is a large-scale crisis or difficulty in the family. [2] Since the 1990s, China has increasingly emphasized the function of family security, and "responsibility sharing" with the participation of families and individuals has gradually become the dominant idea in the construction of a multi-level social security system. However, in policy practice, China not only lacks universal and various forms of support for ordinary families, but also ignores the fact that family changes lead to increased vulnerability, ignores the economic and social costs that families need to pay in old-age care, and turns the care responsibility of the elderly into a family. The lack of formal family support system has made Chinese families face many development difficulties, and the lack of family development has brought great challenges to the long-term balanced development of population and even the normal operation of modern society. Therefore, it is urgent for China to build a home-based family support policy. In other words, a variety of home care support should be provided to families from the perspective of strategic development to stimulate their willingness and ability to assume the responsibility of home care, rather than simply transferring the responsibility to families.

However, any formal social protection system established outside the family only shares, not replaces, the functions and responsibilities of the family to varying degrees and in different ways. [3] The understanding of family functions and responsibilities, that is, how the family and the government, the community and other social systems should share the responsibility for providing welfare, has been the most important factor affecting the development and change of social policy. Therefore, the process of social policy development and evolution, in a sense, is also a process of continuous definition and adjustment of the government-family responsibility distribution relationship. Under the background of rapid population aging, the construction of China's home-based family support policy should be committed to "supporting and guiding the development of modern families", that is, reasonably guiding modern families to assume due responsibilities on the basis of inheriting excellent traditional culture, and "effectively supporting the capacity building and sustainable development of modern families". We should pay attention to the continuity of tradition while transcending the limitation of tradition.