Childcare in the district of Landsberg: the situation is dramatic

Created: 05/18/2022, 09:49 am

By: Susanne Greiner

Around 250 children will not be able to find a childcare place in the Landsberg district in the coming school year.

Then there are the children of the Ukrainian refugees.

© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa/Illustration

District – Not all municipalities have yet reported the number of children who will need a place in a crèche or kindergarten from the coming school year.

But the situation is already anything but rosy: District Administrator Thomas Eichinger (CSU) expects around 250 children who will not find a place - and that's without the little ones from the Ukrainian refugees.

Then there is another “three-digit number”.

The district administrator cites the lack of staff as one of the reasons for this.

"The problem didn't go away over the next year.

This is longer term.”

The individual municipalities are responsible for the childcare places, and the district takes over the planning of requirements, explained the head of the youth welfare office, Peter Rasch, in the district committee last week.

As of now, there are 110 kindergarten places too few, and around 100 places are missing in crèche care.

In addition, there are the Ukrainian children, who also have a legal right to a childcare place six months after their registration in Germany.

The problem of space - numerous communities are currently building new daycare centers or expanding existing daycare centers - is of secondary importance, even if it always takes a while for a new daycare center to be completed.

More serious is the acute and worsening shortage of staff.

On the one hand, it is not possible to simply enlarge the respective care groups, since the statutory care key has to be observed.

A certain number of skilled workers is always required, and support by supplementary workers alone is not possible.

A lack of staff is already an acute problem: “This will hit us hard, especially in urban areas.

The day care center in the Wiesenring in Landsberg should actually close completely.”

In addition, the supervisors are overburdened if the groups are enlarged - and the resulting additional migration of staff.

"We are already experiencing this spiral movement: if one caregiver is absent, others have to step in.

There are sometimes diaper babies, so it keeps you busy.” And those who are so stressed “just throw in the towel”.

Rasch explained that the burden primarily affects the individual municipalities.

However, if the parents' legal entitlement to a childcare place is not fulfilled, the parents could sue - against the youth welfare office.

Which means that the district has to pay compensation if, for example, a parent cannot work because they have to stay at home because of the child.

"It should be dramatic for us, too," Rasch is convinced.

The agenda item in the district committee was actually only for information.

However, Josef Loy (CSU) resisted this.

Do you need a solution?

"In my opinion, a political solution must be found here," Eichinger replied.

The problem is rooted in demographics and current regulations – similar to care.

Either the staffing ratio has to be changed “or the legal entitlement has to be questioned”.

Schondorf's Mayor Alexander Herrmann (Greens) also emphasized the need to increase the pressure on politicians: "We must be allowed to pay the staff more."

Last but not least, from 2026 there would also be a right to all-day care in elementary school, District Administrator Thomas Eichinger explained.

The problem is also not "very fresh".

If no political solution can be found, the district and municipalities would have to capitulate.

Eichinger: "I'm not expecting anything good."