Tens of thousands of places missing for valid legal entitlement
Baden-Württemberg still has no prospect of meeting the demand for daycare places despite a massive expansion in recent years. In many parts of the south-west, the state is therefore undermining parents' legal entitlement to childcare. According to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, there is a shortage of almost 60,000 daycare places between Mannheim and Lake Constance. Since 2013, however, there has been a legal entitlement to a daycare place. Since then, every child from the age of one must actually be provided with a corresponding place.
According to the "State Monitoring of Early Childhood Education Systems" survey, 59,400 additional daycare places would be needed in the south-west alone to meet the needs of parents, according to the Gütersloh-based foundation. "It can be assumed that daycare centers in Baden-Württemberg are currently unable to fulfill their educational mandate for all children," said Kathrin Bock-Famulla, expert for early childhood education at the Bertelsmann Foundation.
Particularly large gap for the very youngest children
According to the study, the gap is particularly large in the U3 sector. According to the study, the proportion of children under the age of three who are cared for in a daycare center is almost 30 percent. However, 45% of parents would like their child to be looked after in this age group. For children over the age of three, 93% of children go to a nursery, although 96% of parents say they need childcare.
There is also a shortage of thousands of skilled workers
In order to meet the demand for nursery places, the foundation calculates that an additional 14,800 skilled workers would be needed by 2025. It is unclear where these are to come from: local authorities have long complained that the market for skilled workers is completely empty. From the Bertelsmann Foundation's point of view, the existing specialists must therefore be relieved of non-educational tasks. Another solution, in the Foundation's view, would be to reduce opening hours. If these were reduced to six hours a day, Baden-Württemberg could meet the childcare needs of all parents by 2025.
At the same time, the good staffing ratios could be maintained. The state is doing very well in this respect. According to the Bertelsmann Foundation, no other federal state has a better ratio of specialist staff to children than the south-west: In crèche groups, one specialist is mathematically responsible for 2.9 children. In kindergarten groups, there are 6.4 children per specialist. Here too, Baden-Württemberg is the best in Germany and is still below the staffing ratio of 1 to 7.5 recommended by the foundation.
Daycare providers will soon be able to decide for themselves
Due to the great shortage of skilled staff, the state wants to introduce a so-called "trial paragraph". This will allow local daycare providers to decide for themselves in future to relax staffing requirements for a limited period of time - in other words, to reduce the number of nursery teachers per group. However, this is only possible if the concept has been agreed with those affected locally. The state youth welfare office must then review the application. If the model is to be continued after the trial, its effectiveness must also be proven.
The state hopes that the new regulation will enable daycare places to be maintained and created and that sufficient childcare hours can be offered. The cabinet had already approved the regulation in mid-October, and the corresponding bill is to be finally discussed in the state parliament on Wednesday.
The lack of daycare places is impacting parents' legal entitlement to childcare in Baden-Württemberg, as the state falls short of providing the required 59,400 additional places needed to meet parental needs in the south-west. Meanwhile, there's also a pressing need for skilled workers in the labor market, with the Bertelsmann Foundation calculating that an additional 14,800 specialists would be needed by 2025 to address the shortage of nursery places. This shortage primarily affects the U3 sector, where the proportion of children under 3 in daycare centers is only 30%, despite 45% of parents wanting this for their children. In contrast, the state excels in maintaining good staffing ratios, with the best staff-to-child ratio in Germany for crèche and kindergarten groups.
Source: www.dpa.com
