After the Diakonie gave up the sponsorship due to a lack of staff, the municipality managed to find enough educators.
For years, the house for children on Maria-Eich-Strasse in Gräfelfing could not be fully occupied. Due to the low number of staff, the responsible body, the Diakonie Jugendhilfe Oberbayern, only offered three instead of two groups. Since the state operating subsidy is calculated per child, the Diakonie could no longer run the facility without financial deficits and gave up the children’s home in the summer for business reasons. But now there is good news for the affected parents and their children: The municipality, as the owner of the property, has now taken over the facility and found sufficient educators, which is why two crèches and one kindergarten group can be fully occupied for the first time in a long time.
Petra Hierl-Schmitz, Head of the Social Welfare Office, cannot explain why the community has succeeded in hiring staff, but not the Diakonie. Four employees were taken on from the facility, four were hired, and another two will be added from October. It was also difficult for the community to find staff, says Hierl-Schmitz. It is possible that specialist pedagogical advice as support for the educators made the municipality more attractive as an employer. Municipalities are also present as employers on site, there are short distances when agreements are made. And the Gräfelfingen childcare facilities are well networked with each other, there is a lot of internal exchange, which is in demand today.
A total of 48 children can now be cared for in the house for children, it is the seventh municipally-owned childcare facility in Gräfelfing.