Day care center crisis: “Politicians must not stand by and do nothing”

Created: 05/19/2022, 12:00 p.m

By: Manuel Eser

Meeting in the sandpit: Member of the state parliament Johannes Becher (Greens), spokesman for early childhood education in the state parliament, likes to visit kindergartens regularly and happily – “not just for a short morning, but often for a whole morning to get a feeling for the worries and needs”.

He will be in Allershausen soon.

© Kathrin Schierl

In view of the escalating care crisis, Freising's MdL Johannes Becher warns of the consequences - and offers possible solutions.

Freising

– The waiting lists for daycare centers in the district are getting longer and longer.

In most cases, it is not the premises that are lacking, but the staff.

The FT spoke to MdL Johannes Becher (Greens) about the care crisis.

The Moosburger is spokesman for early childhood education in the state parliament.

The good news: there are solutions.

But action must be taken quickly.

Mr. Becher, Corona and the war in Ukraine have shown that the state can mobilize billions to combat acute crises.

Why doesn't he do it with regard to the shortage of skilled workers in kindergartens, when the foundations of state and society are at stake, which are becoming more and more fragile?

Of course it would be possible to make money loose.

If you consider that due to the current situation with the Ukraine we want to place additional children in our highly stressed daycare system, it is even urgently necessary to set up unbureaucratic funding pots as quickly as possible because we have to relieve our staff with everything that is possible.

"We have maneuvered ourselves into a vicious circle with the politics of the CSU and FW"

To do this, however, the government would first have to acknowledge that there is a care crisis

.

There are increasingly clear statements in the Ministry of Social Affairs and also in the committee that clearly point to the daycare crisis, but the government apparently lacks the strength to make clear decisions.

In doing so, we maneuvered ourselves into a vicious circle with the politics of the CSU and the Free Voters.

How does he look like?

We're understaffed.

The staff that is available is overworked in more and more daycare centers, is absent more often and for longer periods, or is constantly looking for something else, which in turn leads to even more overload for those who remain in the system.

That is why it is now a very elementary political task to change course in the interests of the children, the parents, the municipalities, who have to fulfill the legal entitlement, and the specialists who are currently working through it.

Politicians must not continue to stand idly by.

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The demand for care is increasing, the supply is decreasing, the waiting lists in day-care centers are getting longer and longer.

How do you put that back together?

Not only is it crucial to attract new specialists, but also to keep existing specialists in the system.

The first thing I would do: no longer invest money like a watering can in non-income-related contribution subsidies, but divert the money to relieve the burden on the staff.

“We also have to train those we can on alternative routes”

And how?

With multi-professional teams.

We need the kitchen staff to help with the food distribution, as well as office staff to take on administrative tasks.

In this way, I can relieve the specialists so that they can concentrate on their core tasks.

But we also need career options for older workers who have a great deal of work experience but want to hand over responsibility for a managerial position, for example.

For them, we need positions with special tasks, where the experienced specialist is still grouped like management - simply to keep them in the system longer.

They could, for example, use their know-how to accompany younger colleagues and introduce them to managerial tasks.

And how do we attract new specialists?

Nobody can bake 1000 educators.

But we also have to train those we can in alternative ways.

With Optiprax there is already the possibility of dual training.

The Optipraxler spends two or three days in the day-care center and the rest of the time in the specialist academy.

In order to be able to fall back on such junior staff, however, the day care centers need more financial freedom to be able to finance this.

Does society also have to rethink?

Unfortunately, there is still the social image of the handicraft aunt.

That doesn't do justice to the importance of the task.

I'm also not happy with the terminology used in the state government's "Herzwerker" campaign.

Because of course you need staff in the daycare center who have empathy.

But we are dealing here with highly professional specialists who have a decisive influence on the educational opportunities and thus also on the further lives of the children.

I would like this professional work to be seen.

In other professions where you are looking for professionals, you would never think of driving a nice, nice heart worker campaign.

"Municipalities can do all sorts of things to recruit staff"

What can mayors do to improve the local care situation?

The municipalities can certainly not solve the Bavarian-wide shortage of skilled workers alone.

But municipalities can do all sorts of things to recruit or keep staff: pay allowances, identify better job codes, finance additional staff from their own resources, offer apartments.

The nice thing is that municipalities that invest additional money to create better working conditions also find staff.

Shouldn't the state also invest more because failed early childhood education causes even more costs, and our most important raw material in the country is brain wax?

Education is our raw material.

If you want to look at it from an economic point of view, these are investments in our future.

I think that the well-being of the child is enough of an argument to create the best possible framework conditions in the day-care center.

But if the economic considerations lead to a rethinking in the state government, I should be fine with that.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

What contribution can parents make?

I am convinced that the vast majority of parents would be willing to pay a little more if they noticed in return that there were enough staff and that the workload was relieved in such a way that more quality could be achieved and that the individual support for the children could once again be afforded .

I would wish for a solidarity between staff, parents, municipalities and carriers.

Because we are all in the same boat.