Bremen: Opponents criticize plan to reduce day care center staffing requirements

According to the education authority, less qualified staff should be allowed to look after daycare groups. This met with great criticism in Bremen.

A day care group, but not a fully trained specialist: Here are the education authority’s plans to make care in day care centers more reliable again and less absenteeism. The department led by Sascha Aulepp (SPD) is trying to combat the lack of educators.

The response to this proposal was mostly critical: “Sascha Aulepp’s initiative is a piece of the madness and stamps on child protection,” says Sandra Ahrens, spokeswoman for children’s policy for the CDU parliamentary group. This step is very much there jeopardizing early childhood education and putting children’s safety at risk.

FDP parliamentary group: “Standards of care not be reduced in the long run”

The FDP also criticizes the education department’s plan. “Such relaxation in qualification requirements […] we strongly reject it. New entrants can be an asset to early childhood education, but only if it is ensured that standards of care are not reduced so much in the long term,” said Fynn Voigt, spokesperson for children and education for the FDP parliamentary group in Bremen.

Holger Fricke, education policy spokesperson for the Alliance Germany parliamentary group, sees an advantage in using career changers to ensure early childhood support. But: “The primary responsibility for raising young children must rest with specialists trained in teaching methods. It is simply irresponsible to transfer childcare and support to untrained staff.”

Leftists also reject Aulepp’s plans

Criticism is not only from the opposition, but also from the coalition. “I’m surprised that the senator thinks you don’t need qualifications to look after a group of 20 children adequately,” said Miriam Strunge, spokeswoman for children’s policy for the Left Party in Bremen. vehemently rejecting the proposal.

Verdi’s union joins the criticism: Verdi says that the senator’s corresponding plans are “far from reality” and “rejected from a professional point of view”. Aulepp had proposed a separation between basic and peripheral care periods with more severe care conditions in supposed peak periods. Instead, Verdi wants, among other things, sufficient financial resources, an appropriate ratio of children to skilled workers and sufficient time for training.

Background: The education authority wants to relax the qualification requirements for day care workers to ensure more reliable care. The key point here is that instead of fully trained educators, untrained staff such as social education assistants are allowed to look after day care groups on their own at times. The education authority hopes that the new regulation can be introduced as early as next summer.

The lack of educators in the day care centers in Bremen and Bremerhaven is again leading to a lack of care times in the facilities. The future plan is that at least one fully trained teacher does not need to be available for each group in the individual day care center for 20 hours a week. At all other times, for example in the afternoon, it should be sufficient if only one teacher is present in the daycare as a contact person.

Barriers to lateral entry should be reduced

The children should then be looked after by childcare workers or social workers, for example. There should also be opportunities for career changers to work in day care centres. These should then receive further training on the job, similar to career changers in schools. The Senate must first approve the project before the concept can be introduced to the special committees and ultimately to the citizens.

This topic in the program:
Bremen Eins, news, November 8, 2024, 7 p.m