Bertelsmann study
In 2023 there will be a shortage of around 384,000 daycare places nationwide
A caregiver walks through Munich with several small children. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
Even now, the question of childcare causes headaches for expectant parents long before the birth. The shortage is likely to worsen next year – but there are serious regional differences.
According to a Bertelsmann study, far fewer day-care places will be available in the coming year than are needed. According to new calculations for the nationwide state monitor for early childhood education, there will probably be a shortage of almost 384,000 places nationwide in 2023.
Especially in the west of Germany, where 362,400 additional childcare places are needed, there is a large supply gap compared to the east with 21,200 required places. In order to meet the demand, 93,700 specialists would have to be hired in the west and 4,900 in the east, the foundation announced on Thursday. This results in additional personnel costs totaling 4.3 billion euros per year.
Biggest shortage in NRW
The calculation, which the dpa has received in advance, is based on surveys from 2021. The analysis shows for almost all federal states that the demand from parents for daycare places is higher than the proportion of children who were in care in the past year. The greatest shortage is therefore in the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 101,600 missing daycare places. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Thuringia, on the other hand, no expansion of the places is necessary.
According to the calculations, the need for expansion is greatest for children under the age of three. According to this, there is a lack of around 250,300 day-care places for this group in West Germany, in East Germany – including Berlin – there are around 20,700.
Children’s charity calls for more efforts
The German Children’s Fund is calling for greater efforts from the federal, state and local governments. “The figures presented today by the Bertelsmann Foundation on the lack of daycare places and the lack of staffing in many places in German daycare centers are not a surprise, but rather another alarm signal,” said Holger Hofmann, national director of the German Children’s Fund.
Daycare professionals have raised the alarm several times because they could hardly guarantee the well-being of the child. “This must not be accepted with more or less a shrug of the shoulders,” said Hofmann. In addition to a specialist offensive, the child rights organization believes that more financial resources and nationwide minimum standards for the quality of care are needed. In addition, the construction of day-care centers must be promoted. The two billion euros provided for in the Kita Quality Act for the next two years are a good start, it said.
Since 2013 there has been a legal entitlement to a childcare place for children from the age of one in Germany, for children from the age of three it has existed since 1996. The authors of the study complain that this legal entitlement will not be fulfilled in the coming year either.