Análisis por producto

In response to wide variety of participation rates for under 3 year olds throughout Germany, the Federal government in close collaboration with the competent authori- ties has formulated an ambitious action plan to build the capacity of day-care services throughout Germany. The goal is to reach a participation rate of the target group of on average 35% across the different states. In addition to this target, a new federal law (the ‘Kinderförderungsgesetz” –- Child support act – adopted in 2008) entitles every child over the age of 1 access to an affordable day-care service, starting August 2013. In addition, qualitative demands were also formulated regarding the provision of day-care places for children under three. However, it is especially this legal entitle- ment behind the policy that caused considerable traction with the individual states. Particularly the Western-German states had to formulate an ambitious agenda to reach this target, because compared to the Eastern states they were far behind in terms of participation in day-care services of this youngest group of children. In this case study we look more specifically at the policies taken (and their consequences) in NRW to be able to meet this legal entitlement to every child older than 1 by August 2013.

2.2.2. Approach

This case-study will consider the developments associated with this new legal entitle- ment throughout Germany, by looking at the policy developments in Nordrhein West- falen. Even though the federal government approved this act, and also made available some funds, most has to be done by the individual Länder. Preparing for the new legal entitlement to day-care in August 2013 is a considerable task; from 2010 onwards ap- proximately 30.000 new day-care places have been developed in NRW. The NRW gov- ernment set itself the target that 144.000 day-care places by August 2013 would be sufficient to cover the increased demand associated with the new legal entitlement. If these 144.000 day-care places have been realised, NRW will have achieved a capacity of 32 % of all children under three. This 32% as target has been set in collaboration with other states, and must be seen as the contribution towards reaching a German average of 35% coverage.

Specific responsibility for the development of quality day-care was allocated by the federal government to the local ‘youth-offices’ (Jugendamt). Next to further develop- ing formal day-care services, the law explicitly promotes the development of more in- formal types of day-care, like family day-care (Kindertagespflege). In this type a childminder takes care of children in her own house. Such informal types are more flexible to react upon changing demand of services, which is part of the reasons that it is supported by the federal level and the local authorities. Another advantage when enlarging provision is that the law only requires these ECEC workers to follow a rela- tively short (160 hours) training. As the figure below shows however, this type re- mains less popular than the more institutionalised forms of day-care facilities.

To ensure quality of all types of day-care, the law calls for further regulations of the experience and qualifications of providers. Moreover, to ensure the quality of staff, the

federal bill requires that in the contributions for day-care sufficient attention is paid to additional expenses for the family day-care (such as risk insurance, or staff pensions). Even though the federal government does not have the competence to set minimum cost levels, it hereby implicitly does so by setting forth what elements should be in- cluded in the price. The federal government also encourages private family day-care providers to work together with the public institutions for day-care, to ensure the level of quality in return for financial support. In short, the government (both federal as the state) has an ambitious target to raise day-care coverage, while at least aiming to maintain the quality of the care delivered.

Development of "U3" places 2008-2013

0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 140000 160000 Daycare Family Daycare Total Daycare 44600 58424 68315 75382 84518 106567 Family Daycare 14145 16245 20349 25519 32561 38316 Total 58745 74669 88664 100901 117079 144883 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Source: Ministerium für Familie, Kinder, Jugend, Kultur und Sport des Landes NRW

The NRW government directly support the local youth offices to expand the provision of day-care services. These local offices have to report the progress made every year to the ministry, which results in the figure above. In order to meet the targets, the NRW government spends in total more than a billion Euros; of this money, local com- munities and the state support new day-care services financially for about 2/3, while complemented by the federal government that contributes approximately 1/3 of the required funds to expand day-care services for children under 31_{. Furthermore, to be}

able to meet the target in August 2013 and support local efforts in more practical is- sues, the NRW government has founded a ‘U3-Taskforce’ in December 2011.

This Taskforce has the aim to support local communities and municipalities in the practical problems that may arise in expanding the day-care coverage. Consider here for instance issues with local bureaucracies, or zoning plans that may come in the way of developing new day-care services. It offers a very practical approach to potential bottlenecks in the development of new day-care places for Young children. The idea behind the taskforce was to have a specific agency, close to the ministry (it resided at the ministry) to be able to coordinate quickly and effectively between local stake- holders and policymakers at the state level.

1 _{MFKJKS: http://www.mfkjks.nrw.de/kinder-und-jugend/betreuung-fuer-unter-dreijaehrige/ (18 March}

It was founded in February 2012, and is therefore a very recent policy initiative to support local stakeholders. It opened up a Telephone hotline and received questions by e-mail, especially after the taskforce presented itself at a stakeholder conference. It handled various requests by various institutions. Most questions were coming from day-care services and municipal youth offices. Childminders that offer family day-care were also a considerable Group of persons that approached the taskforce, followed by companies that had questions regarding the provision of day-care for their employees. Finally, questions also came from parents with questions regarding provision of ECEC for their Young children and potential investors that were interested in providing as- sistance to the setting up new services.

Most of the issues that the Taskforce dealt with concern the financing of projects, mostly coming from the youth offices that were practically involved in assisting new services, but required help in the scale of this project. Often, not only new facilities were being built, but existing day-care services were often renovating to offer a higher capacity to younger children. Another important issue for which the taskforce was often approached concerned practical problems with regard to planning and de- velopment policies, or for instance building permits that are related to fire safety, ar- chitectural demands.

As already mentioned, the role of the taskforce was primarily the assisting of institu- tions with practical issues that arose from increasing “under 3” capacity. Often the Taskforce took on a role of mediator between different services, sometimes even be- tween administrations of the same municipality. It happened for instance that a local planning office of the municipality would deny plans to further expand a particular day-care institution. Due to these administrative hurdles, projects often slow down, but with the help of the taskforce both municipal offices can be brought together, without loosing too much time. In fact, after the intervention of the taskforce in one large city, the Youth office decided to organise regular meeting with the office for building permit, with the goal to coordinate together future plans. It is mainly in these practical issues, that the taskforce played an important role. Similarly, it could also serve as a relevant helpdesk for individual day-care institutions that did not have the expertise (yet) with handling building permits, or even with the demands of the youth office.

As a preparation towards August 2013, when the Legal entitlement to a place is im- plemented, the taskforce also launched a state-wide website for parents, where they can find day-care services in their neighbourhood. This initiative also answered a lot of questions of worried parents that could not find a suitable day-care service near their homes. As such, the Taskforce U3 must be seen as a tool of the ministry to facilitate better cooperation between the stakeholders in the project of raising the capacity of day-care services for children under 3.