The supply situation with childcare places remains tense despite the efforts of the city in Dachau. BarK/DPA © Christian Bark
The need for a childcare place in the city of Dachau is greater than ever. For example, for the 2023/2024 care year, there is already – before the registration deadline! – 1267 registrations. However, there is a lack of staff to look after all these children. The city now wants to make do with emergency solutions.
Dachau – "We are heading for collapse," a kindergarten teacher complained a few days ago in the Bavarian section of the local newspaper. The groups are getting bigger and bigger, the pay of the trained specialists is poor, the sickness rate among colleagues is high - and at the same time the federal government decided on a legal right to all-day care at primary school age from 2026. "Unbelievable," the kindergarten teacher called the current situation – and Lord Mayor Florian Hartmann now openly agreed with her.
"Big politics has failed. It promises a legal claim, but the staff for it is neither there, nor is it sufficiently paid. There's a delta in there that we have to pay for!"
Mayor Florian Hartmann
In the Family and Social Committee, the administration had given the city councillors a status report on daycare registration for the coming childcare year. And, to anticipate the most important message: the sheer number of registrations is not the problem, but the people who are supposed to look after the children. With regard to the aforementioned interview with the kindergarten teacher, the mayor said: "The specialist staff is our biggest problem." His SPD party colleague Christa Keimerl said resignedly: "Big politics has failed. It promises a legal claim, but the staff for it is neither there, nor is it sufficiently paid. There's a delta in there that we have to pay for!"
Childcare in Dachau: There is a lack of staff
In fact, the city has so far received 2023 so-called requests for a childcare place for the year 2024/1267. That is almost 100 more than in the previous year. "The trend is upwards, we had more inquiries than ever before," says head of office Markus Haberl.
Of these 1267 registrations, 269 are currently "open", which means that these parents have not yet received approval. 118 of these open registrations concern daycare places, and 98 parents are also waiting for a confirmation of a kindergarten place. 53 schoolchildren are hoping for a place in an after-school care centre or school lunchtime care.
According to Haberl, the spatial situation, i.e. the structural space available, is not the issue. According to Haberl, the new day-care centre on Amperweg went into operation in March with two groups and meant a considerable improvement in the supply situation. Further daycare center construction projects in Polln- and Konrad-Adenauer-Straße have long since been decided and are being implemented.
Daycare centers: The problem is the lack of caregivers
The problem is the caregivers. "39 crèche places and 52 kindergarten places cannot be allocated because there are no pedagogical staff for these groups," Haberl explained. And even if it were possible to find caregivers for the three crèche groups and the two kindergarten groups, which were closed due to a lack of staff, this would only alleviate the situation in the short term. Because in the long term, as the trend or the current legal entitlement shows, the need for childcare will continue to increase.
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City wants to develop creative solution
Where do we go from here? The mayor and the city administration announced that they would develop a concept that would remedy the state of emergency with creative solutions. The main aim is to retain the existing specialist staff and, if possible, to increase them. If the latter does not succeed, which is likely in view of the shortage of educators rampant everywhere in the greater Munich area, the gaps are to be filled with assistants or young people in a so-called voluntary social year. As early as June, these elaborated plans are to be presented to the main and finance committee of the city council, which is responsible for personnel issues of all kinds.
In the end, Christa Keimerl made it clear that not only parents should be grateful for new ideas, but also the many educators: As far as she knows, there is "a very high sickness rate" in Dachau's daycare centers. Colleague Zimmermann (CSU) agreed with her: "Every third person drops out. The pay is too bad, the burden too great. It's the same with primary school teachers."
