More than 200 employees from the youth department, including employees from youth welfare offices, had to help out in health offices in the first Corona year.
by Holger Bock and Marie-Caroline Chlebosch
This was the result of a query by NDR Lower Saxony at the state’s 54 youth welfare offices. Experts agree: children and young people are among the losers of the pandemic. School at a distance, daycare centers in emergency care, no club sports, preferably no meetings with friends – all of this puts a strain on stable families. Wherever there are debts, job loss, serious illnesses or cramped living conditions, families are sometimes plunged into severe crises by the pandemic.
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Youth welfare offices delegate employees
It is all the more important to catch families in good time, to recognize their problems and to support them in coping with them. A task that lies with the youth welfare offices on the part of the state. Even in the pre-Corona period, these were not necessarily lavishly equipped with staff, says Johannes Schmidt, state chairman of the Lower Saxony child protection association. Now the query of the NDR Lower Saxony shows that in this very important area in particular, some municipalities have even withdrawn employees to support the health authorities in fighting pandemics. More than 200 employees nationwide, for example in the districts of Celle, Cloppenburg, Aurich, Oldenburg, Peine, Gifhorn and in Ammerland. This can be seen from the answers to the NDR query.
Child protection association: weakening youth welfare offices in the pandemic
According to the municipalities, these are employees from the administrative area. The direct help for overburdened families was not affected, it is said in unison: No employees were withdrawn from child protection-relevant areas. And yet this practice provokes fierce criticism from the child protection association in Lower Saxony. Long-time chairman Johannes Schmidt becomes very clear: If youth welfare offices were weakened in a crisis, even if only administrative employees were withdrawn, those responsible in the municipalities would have to ask themselves whether this was correct, says Schmidt. “Then district administrators and mayors would have to stand in front of the youth welfare offices and say, something like this will not happen again and the youth welfare offices are now getting more staff,” demands the chairman of the Lower Saxony child protection association.
18 youth welfare offices without secondments
After all, in the NDR query, 18 youth welfare offices in Lower Saxony also stated that they had completely dispensed with secondments. The pandemic is a major challenge for youth welfare offices in the country. One problem: Because day-care centers and schools are also closed, there is no social control, for example, says Cathrin Herwig, a social worker from the Emden Youth Welfare Office. “These are the institutions through which we as the youth welfare office often get information that says: Something is wrong, please have a look.” The omission makes it more difficult to recognize problem situations in the families at an early stage. In most cases, personal contact with the youth welfare office is only possible by telephone or video conference. In the first lockdown, almost all home visits across the country were initially suspended, report the 54 youth welfare offices in Lower Saxony.
References to child welfare risks were always followed up
It was different with child welfare risks. If a specific danger for children was identified, youth welfare offices could intervene directly in the first lockdown. “Then of course we left everything behind and helped on site,” says Cathrin Herwig from Emden. When asked by the NDR, the other youth welfare offices in Lower Saxony also emphasize that measures were taken immediately if the child was at risk. In the course of the past year, the Lower Saxony youth welfare offices have creatively dealt with the contact restrictions and they have been equipped. Laptops, video and telephone conference systems have been purchased in all municipalities in order to be able to maintain the lack of direct contact with families with problem situations, at least digitally. Help planning discussions were carried out digitally or outside. And that with very tight staffing levels. And the challenge that in most youth welfare offices you had to work alternately in teams in order to continue to be operational in cases of suspected illness or illness.
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Kinderschutzbund calls for child protection officers
Sometimes employees in youth welfare offices look after 60 to 70 cases. Far too many, says Johannes Schmidt from the Child Protection Association: “You can’t always keep an eye on all families.” The pandemic showed that the rights of children and adolescents hardly played a role. Schmidt therefore calls on the state government to appoint a child protection officer. This must be located directly with the Prime Minister in order to always raise the floor when children’s and youth rights are not sufficiently included in regulations and laws. Schmidt is certain that such a representative would have ensured that, in the greatest crisis for families, the youth welfare offices of all things would not have been weakened by personnel secondments.
Youth welfare offices fear massive need for help after the end of the lockdown
The longer the pandemic lasts, the more difficult the situation in the families is, says Roland Levin from the working group of youth welfare offices in Lower Saxony. “Tensions are rising in all families. They can’t take it much longer,” says Levin. He fears that it will slowly become clear what the consequences of the pandemic will be. Almost all youth welfare offices in Lower Saxony fear deficits in personal development, in school and in social behavior. “We will have a massive need for help for children and young people,” says Levin, who is also the head of the youth welfare office in the Hanover region. This will also have a significant financial impact on youth welfare and schools.
200 million euros for Lower Saxony
Apparently, the grand coalition in Berlin also sees the need for support coming. Federal Minister for Family Affairs Franziska Giffey (SPD) last week a “Catch-up program“announced. The federal government plans to invest around one billion euros in tutoring programs and another billion in social projects. The money should flow in the coming year. Of this, 200 million euros would come to Lower Saxony, said Lower Saxony’s Minister of Social Affairs Daniela Behrens (SPD). In close.” In cooperation with the municipalities, the money should be spent in the form of a children’s leisure bonus, for family vacation spots or multi-generation houses.
Criticism: Federal aid package is not enough
Parents and teachers’ associations have criticized the package as completely inadequate and called for additional commitment from the federal states. The Child Protection Association also sees it that way. Children and young people in districts and villages should benefit from the money, demands the Lower Saxony chairman Schmidt. Youth welfare offices would also have to be decentralized and de-bureaucratised. A rethinking of the support structure in the municipalities and districts is necessary, says the chairman of the child protection association.
