Abstract: With China's new birth policy, the infant and child care service is becoming increasingly in short supply, and infant and child care is not only a family matter but also a state affair on the government's decision-making agenda.Multiple-streams theory is often used to explain policy agenda setting problems. This paper constructs a six-streams analytic framework for shaping childcare policies in the context of Confucian culture. The “policy problems stream” composed of the disordered family structure, the imbalance between supply and demand, and the lack of institutional governance; the “policy solution stream” concerning the population aging, the policy proposals, the academic achievements, and the opinion leaders; the “political stream” concerning party philosophy, public mood and international demonstrations.The hidden role of process stream, program stream and technology streamin facilitating the implementation of policies is identified, the research is extended to the operational mechanism, further enhancing the explanatory power. Implementation of the country's Healthy China initiative and fertility policy adjustment accelerated the confluence of streams, and policy entrepreneurs must take advantage of these opportunities to promote the opening of policy windows.In the future, we should strengthen sectoral collaborative governance, improve the network of childcare services, increase the training of professionals, promote the digital transformation of childcare, and enhance family care support.

Key words: childcare service, agenda setting, policy change, policy windows, multiple-streams theory