Social
Study: More than 125,000 skilled workers missing at daycare centers
View into the room of a daycare center with chairs stacked up. Photo
© Friso Gentsch/dpa
The Good Daycare Act of 2019 was intended to ensure better care in daycare centers. However, the opposite is the case, according to a new study.
Daycare centers in Germany are suffering from a persistent shortage of staff, according to a study, more than two skilled workers are missing per facility. Often there are more, according to the 2024 daycare report published on Monday by the Paritätischer Gesamtverband. This currently corresponds to 125,000 missing Specialists in the entire field of child day care. Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus (Greens) recently spoke of a shortage of 50,000 to 90,000 specialists in Germany’s daycare centers by 2030.
Juliane Meinhold, the head of social work at the association, sees the shortage of skilled workers as “a double problem”. A lack of staff leads to additional overtime and an increasing overload of existing employees. This threatens further staff shortages,” she warned. The children are at a disadvantage because activities and support are restricted.
With the so-called Good Daycare Act, the federal government raised hopes in 2019 that the situation in daycare centers could improve across the board, the association noted. However, the daycare report shows that the general conditions in most daycare centers have worsened between 2021 and 2023, particularly because the shortage of skilled workers is proving to be a major burden.
The Paritätische Gesamtverband called for more skilled workers to be recruited through better training conditions. For example, school fees should no longer have to be paid, and trainees should no longer be included in the staffing ratio. At the same time, additional staff is needed in inclusive child day care facilities and in facilities with a high proportion of children at risk of disadvantage.
The funding of daycare centers is currently the subject of a dispute between Paus and Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). On the basis of the Daycare Quality Improvement Act (Good Daycare Act), the states had committed themselves to complying with certain standards. However, the federal government’s financial participation ends at the end of this year. There are currently no plans to continue. As part of the Daycare Quality Act, the federal government supported the states with around four billion euros in 2023 and 2024. Paus and the federal states are insisting that Lindner continue to provide high funding for Germany’s daycare centers from next year.