In view of the massive criticism from daycare associations, the Bavarian Family Minister Ulrike Scharf (CSU) has promised a further 50,000 childcare places for this legislative period. In the last legislative period, more than 80,000 new places were created in daycare centers, the politician said on Bayerischer Rundfunk on Tuesday. Now it’s about getting staff for this.
Scharf is doing everything she can to get more trainees into the specialist academies. If everything goes well, the situation will ease in 2026. The reason for the increasing demand is the growing population in Bavaria. “Ensuring childcare is one of the biggest and most challenging tasks of all,” said the Family Minister. She has great understanding for the needs of the municipalities, the daycare associations and the employees. For her, child care is “one of the biggest tasks of our time.”
Scharf promoted the controversial program for career changers, which was very successful. Since the program started around a year ago, it has succeeded in recruiting more than 5,700 additional people to work in daycare.
At an event with specialists and state politicians from the Association of Kita Specialists in Bavaria, the association representatives criticized, among other things, the fact that state politics should not focus on recruiting new skilled workers, but must also take the needs of existing skilled workers into account – so that they do not left the system frustrated because of overload and declining quality. Another point of criticism was that daycare centers in the Free State were chronically underfunded.