The district of Ebersberg wants to strengthen and expand its network of childminders. On the way there, the district has now increased the remuneration and the grants for qualification and material expenses per hour and child.
There are currently 45 childminders registered in the district, as Florian Schörghuber from the youth welfare office reported at the most recent meeting of the youth welfare committee. At the moment they look after 180 children with different hours. There is the aunt or grandmother who looks after a few children for three hours after school, or takes care of working parents before school starts, as well as the full-time childminder, who looks after five children 40 or 45 hours a week, explained he on demand.
Child care in the district should become more attractive
In principle, however, there is also a high demand in day care for children, and the corona pandemic has led to an additional aggravation of the situation. That’s why child day care in the district should become more attractive, explained Schörghuber. Last but not least, this could help with the care of small children of Ukrainian refugees, for whom accommodation options are increasingly being sought in the autumn, with the municipalities and providers desperately looking for educators and childcare workers in their facilities.
The cash benefits to childminders were last increased in October 2020. Schörghuber referred to the increased cost of living, which now made another adjustment necessary. The remuneration is made up of three pillars: the additional payment for material expenses, a qualification supplement and a recognition amount. The qualification supplement is only given to those who have completed at least 300 hours of training – the minimum requirement is 100 hours. In Ebersberg, this qualification supplement, which has now also been stipulated by law, has been paid since 2019. According to the representative of the youth welfare office, the aim was to ensure an increase in quality even back then. The amount will now be increased by another five cents, from 1.30 to 1.35 euros per child and hour.
The material costs are increased by ten cents, and the members of the committee agreed on an hourly increase from 3.15 to 3.25 euros for the recognition fee, which is basically the basic wage. All childminders get this.
Day care is financed 25 percent from state funding, 37 percent from municipal funding and 28 percent from parents’ contributions to costs. The youth welfare office pays ten percent. In order to counter-finance the increase, the parental contributions will also be increased accordingly. Schörghuber pointed out that the district of Ebersberg has never reached the limit of parental contributions and has always been cheaper than the neighboring districts. A 40-hour care costs from September 1st around 400 instead of 383 euros.