Education: Lack of daycare places: State parliament approves flexible solutions

In the future, daycare providers in Baden-Württemberg will be able to decide for themselves to temporarily relax staffing requirements – i.e. to reduce the number of educators per group. He approved a corresponding bill Parliament on Wednesday with the majority of votes from the Greens, CDU and FDP. The SPD and AfD voted against it. This introduces a so-called “testing paragraph” that allows daycare providers to decide on site about possible deviations from the requirements of a state regulation.

The concept must be coordinated with those affected on site. The state youth welfare office must then examine the application. If the model is to be continued after testing, its effectiveness must also be proven.

The state hopes that the new regulation will ensure that daycare places are maintained and created and that sufficient childcare times can be offered. The regulation is not the only solution to the problems in the daycare sector, said Volker Schebesta, State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture. “It is one of the measures we take to maintain a balance between the children’s educational needs, the parents’ need for childcare places and the stress on educators,” said the CDU politician.

Die SPD expressed sharp criticism. The SPD representative spoke of “quality dumping”. “In our opinion, this is a big mistake that is being made on the backs of children,” said Born. The FDP welcomed the innovation, but at the same time called for further measures. “The testing paragraph alone is not the Holy Grail for solving all problems in the early childhood sector,” said FDP MP Dennis Birnstock.

The Bertelsmann Foundation published a study on Tuesday according to which there is a lack of around 60,000 daycare places in the southwest to meet the needs of parents.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:231129-99-121795/2