Funding for daycare centers

Lord Mayor Klingebiel and the parliamentary groups agreed that the general conditions for nursery teachers in daycare centers urgently needed to be improved.

The only point of contention was the question of how the measures to improve working conditions and increase quality in daycare centers should be financed.

Mayor Klingebiel categorically rejected the idea of financing the measures by reducing expenditure in the children, youth and family department by around €1.65 million, as this would have led to fears of a dramatic deterioration in child and youth care. Instead, the Lord Mayor opted for additional state support from the €5 billion in funding from the federal government's "Good Daycare Act".

In intensive and protracted negotiations, which President Ulrich Mädge (Lord Mayor of the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg) and Vice President Frank Klingebiel (Lord Mayor of the City of Salzgitter) conducted on behalf of the Nds. Minister of Culture Grant Hendrik Tonne on behalf of the state of Lower Saxony, it was agreed that the state of Lower Saxony would pass on an amount of EUR 359,566,000.00 from the federal funds available to it to the cities and districts as local providers of public child and youth welfare services to improve the quality of daycare facilities for children in the approval period from January 1, 2020 to July 31, 2023.

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Mayor Klingebiel: "The negotiations were tough on the matter, threatened to fail several times, but were then brought to a successful conclusion. For Salzgitter, this means that according to the agreed distribution criteria "number of daycare groups" and "number of children with a migration background and primarily non-German speakers", Salzgitter will receive a total of €6,270,343.46 in funding for the approval period from 01.01.2020 to 31.07.2023. This means that the city of Salzgitter has €1,749,863.30 per year at its disposal to improve working conditions and promote quality in daycare centers. A great negotiation success, but also urgently needed."

Salzgitter can now invest not only in the construction of new daycare centers, but also in improving the quality of care in the daycare centers.

"This not only improves the funding conditions for the children, but is also a clear and necessary improvement in the quality of the workplace in the daycare center," says Mayor Klingebiel.

The guideline on quality in daycare centers issued by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs on 23.10.2019 includes six areas of support; in Salzgitter, the following areas are favored after consultation with the daycare providers:

Additional childcare staff:Here, the Quality guideline replaces the Quick guideline. Previous Quick staff can be re-employed from 01.01.2020 and are eligible for funding. 52 QuiK staff are currently employed in the daycare centers.It will now be possible to increase the number of additional staff in the groups of 3-year-olds and older in the daycare centres once again over the next three years. The weighting of the deployment on site is coordinated with the daycare centre providers on the basis of integrated social structure planning.
Additional management staff: The use of additional personnel resources to support daycare center management is to be promoted.
Additional staff training: Funding is provided for personnel expenses for the employment of persons who acquire a first professional qualification as a socio-educational assistant while working.

The conceptual considerations regarding the use of financial resources are developed in the Quality in Daycare Centers working group, consisting of representatives of providers and daycare center managers under the moderation of the city administration. A concept agreed between the city of Salzgitter and the daycare providers must be submitted to the approval authority by April 2020.

Background:

According to the funding guidelines, the recipients of the funding are the cities and districts as local providers of public child and youth welfare services, which forward the funding to the respective providers of daycare facilities in their area of responsibility.

Applications for funding must be submitted to the Lower Saxony State Education Authority - Regional Department Hanover (State Youth Welfare Office) - as the granting authority by 30.11.2019 using a standardized form.