At the end of August, Bavaria’s Minister of Social Affairs, Ulrike Scharf (CSU), announced that she would make a big splash against the shortage of skilled workers at daycare centers. There was talk of “groundbreaking opportunities for childcare” and of “extraordinary design options”. She campaigned for the implementation of the experimentation clause, which has long been in the law. The keywords “larger groups” and “poorer quality” were particularly popular with many daycare center managers, providers and educators. The excitement was great. But if you ask around after almost four weeks, you will hear a great deal of composure and the statement: much ado about nothing. The worries were unfounded.
What happened? The problems should be solved, “but that’s by no means the case,” says Dirk Rumpff, head of the Evangelical Kita Association in Bavaria. Although the quality in the day-care centers is maintained, the minister has not presented a solution to the shortage of skilled workers. You are not a step further.
Under the experimental clause, which is limited until 2024, day-care providers can also set up “mentor groups” in which the usual ratio of skilled workers of at least one educator or nanny to eleven children does not apply. Less qualified supervisors who do not meet the usual language level can work there. Mini daycare centers, i.e. groups of specially trained childminders, are allowed to enlarge groups. But in the day-care centers themselves, the usual standards apply. “So the experimentation clause does not affect 99.5 percent of daycare centers,” says Rumpff.
The need for care is increasing
He suspects a balancing act by the ministry between maintaining the quality of daycare centers and giving municipalities the opportunity to avoid the wave of lawsuits because they cannot create the necessary places. Well intentioned, then. It is undisputed that the experimentation clause was a reaction to the fire letter from the municipalities in the summer. The municipal umbrella organizations had complained about a dramatic shortage of skilled workers in Bavaria and declared that the legal entitlement to all-day care for primary school children, which will apply from 2026, would not be feasible. Other concepts should probably provide air. Already three hours are now considered to fulfill a legal claim. In this way, additional children should be accommodated without additional specialist staff. 620,000 girls and boys are cared for in day-care centers and by childminders in Bavaria. The demand is constantly increasing.
One problem was probably in the communication: The ministerial letter left questions unanswered for the providers and educators. And Minister Scharf announced at a press conference that in the new “entry-level groups, grandmothers or someone who enjoys doing the job” can look after them. The outcry was great, her house rowed back. Of course only with special training, they said. And not just anyone. Is it all a big misunderstanding?
Rumpff is not alone in his conclusion: The colleagues from the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (Awo) and the Catholic daycare centers in Bavaria share relief and criticism and concern about a “two-class system”. The lower level should not be transferred to the daycare centers, says Awo state chairwoman Nicole Schley. Seeing three hours of care as fulfilling a legal entitlement, she finds “extreme”, sees a tendency to “keep” instead of fulfilling the education and training plan. “And which parents can go to work with three hours of daycare?”
It would be “absolutely extensive measures necessary”
So far, none of the 481 Awo daycare centers have used the clause, says Schley. “It will hardly have any effect in terms of attracting or relieving staff.” Ulrike Scharf should have launched a specialist offensive. Rumpff, Schley and Alexa Glawogger-Feucht, managing director of the Catholic Kita Association in Bavaria, have a number of suggestions: faster recognition of foreign educators, faster further training, opening up to pedagogical career changers, abolishing the numerus clausus for the “Social Work” course, more study places for childhood education, more apprenticeships at technical academies. The demand is there, the number of prospective nannies and educators is increasing. But that’s not enough. In 2026, when the legal entitlement applies, many educators will retire, says Glawogger-Feucht. It would therefore be “absolutely extensive measures necessary”. The Ministry of Social Affairs has started an advanced training concept. “But the speakers first have to be certified.”
The supporting associations of professors of the childhood education courses in Bavaria are getting tailwind: They warn against too much “opening downwards”. Unqualified personnel, who first have to be trained by specialists, do not relieve and do not contribute to the reputation, not to the “attractiveness of the profession”. Instead, career paths would have to be created in day-care centers and the framework conditions improved. A quarter of the staff leave daycare centers in the first five years, “probably because they are frustrated and cannot meet their own requirements,” it says.