In order to reduce the risk of infection with the coronavirus, there should be no more staff changes in childcare facilities.
In Dachau, this regulation now means that the monastery kindergarten had to be closed.
Some of the teachers there had caught a cold;
Colleagues from other municipal institutions are not allowed to help out.
Dachau
- “In an optimal world,” says Markus Haberl, head of the municipal childcare facility, “everyone is healthy.
There are no illnesses, no pregnancies, no absenteeism ”.
Unfortunately it is the case that he “has not yet experienced this optimal world in his life”.
There are always gaps in staff to fill in the municipal crèches, after-school care centers and kindergartens;
the shortage of skilled workers on the kindergarten market does not make things any easier.
Especially in autumn and winter, in the course of the annual flu and cold season, his employees practiced a happy little tree-changing game: If workers are absent in one facility due to illness, the other facilities are asked: Who can help out today ?
In normal winters, short-term solutions can always be found in the meticulously timed schedules of full-time and part-time employees: Any colleague can “drive over” to help out in the hour of need.
To the chagrin of Haberl and presumably all those responsible in the childcare area, other rules currently apply: namely, Corona rules, which say that there must be no change within the groups - neither with the children nor with the staff.
Of course, the health department emphasizes when asked, facilities should organize a replacement in the event of a “long-term” absence of an educator.
However, this replacement should "not be found with the classic Springer solution, ie in daily change".
Rather, another educator who has been ill for a long time has to step in permanently - of course, under the corresponding "documentation" of the change and regular corona tests.
This, which is also clear to the health department, reduces the likelihood of a corona infection, but on the other hand "there is no longer the flexibility that was previously common".
Finding a long-term replacement for sick teachers is impossible given the thin staffing of local childcare facilities.
A force "to postpone a whole week is simply not possible," emphasizes the municipal office manager Haberl.
By plugging a staff hole, he is merely tearing open another.
In the Dachau monastery kindergarten, the worst possible case happened: Because employees had called in sick - not because of Covid-19 mind you, but because of common colds - and because Springer solutions with other municipal institutions are no longer permitted on a daily basis, the monastery kindergarten had to do this week conclude.
The broadcast to the parents was "not a fun story," as Haberl reports.
The parents of the 48 kindergarten and 24 after-school children would now have to watch "with great pain" as their little ones were cared for this week.
Haberl believes it is highly likely that such problems will also arise in other communities in view of the current cold season.
In any case, he is of the opinion: “The smaller the agency, the more difficult it is to implement the rules.” Currently, not even the city, as a relatively large agency, would be able to ensure that all children are looked after.
Ursula Neisser, director of the St. Georg kindergarten in Hebertshausen, considers the current regulations to be “completely nonsensical”.
The ministries were actually aware of the lack of educators, as well as the fact that illnesses are "normal" at this time of the year.
With her, groups currently have to close an hour earlier because of this very problem.
The anger of the parents, Neisser complains, does not have to be listened to by the Prime Minister, but “we get it off”!
In general, with all their efforts for the safety of the children, she and her colleagues would ask: "Who is actually protecting us?"
