2021

Joint Framework of the Länder for Early Education in Child Day Care Facilities

In March 2022, the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (Kultusministerkonferenz) and the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Youth of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (Jugendministerkonferenz – JMK) updated the "Common Framework of the Länder for Early Education in Child Day Care Facilities" ('Gemeinsamer Rahmen der Länder für die frühe Bildung in Kindertageseinrichtungen‘) from 2004, which sets out the principles of educational work in the field of early childhood education and care. The binding "Common Framework" refers to support in day-care facilities for children over the entire period of early childhood education and care.

According to the "Common Framework", the focus of the educational and upbringing mandate of day-care facilities for children lies in the early strengthening of individual competences and learning dispositions, in language education integrated into everyday life, in the expansion, support and challenge of children's thirst for research, in the formation and upbringing of values, in the promotion of learning to learn and in the appropriation of the world in social contexts. Child day-care facilities also have the mandate to live inclusion as a pedagogically comprehensive principle and to offer all children good starting opportunities and development conditions. The aim is to enable participation, to promote a self-determined life and to enable all children to communicate and interact in the different areas of life.

For more information on the "Common Framework of the Länder for Early Education in Child Day Care Facilities", see chapter 4.4. on the guidelines for early childhood and care and upbringing.

Expansion of day care for children

In order to ensure that early childhood education, care and upbringing meet the needs of the children, the Federal Government supports the Länder with massive financial aid for the expansion of day-care centres. In June 2020, as part of the economic stimulus package, the Federal Cabinet decided to make an additional Euro 1 billion available for the expansion of day-care centres in 2020 and 2021. The "5th Investment Programme Childcare Financing 2020-2021" (‘5. Investitionsprogramm Kinderbetreuungsfinanzierung 2020-2021‘) made possible by the economic stimulus package is intended to create 90,000 new childcare places in day-care centres and in day care. However, the funds can also be used for reconstruction measures and for investments in new hygiene and room concepts, which are necessary due to the Corona pandemic. Due to the ongoing challenges in the context of the Corona pandemic, the deadlines of the Fifth Investment Programme were extended with the "Kitafinanzhilfenänderungsgesetz" of 25 June 2021. Thus, investments can be funded to create and equip additional childcare places that are approved by 30 June 2022.

2020

Bundle of measures for the further qualification of socio-educational professionals

Against the backdrop of the current and projected need for skilled workers in day-care facilities for children and the further expansion of all-day care, the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (Kultusministerkonferenz) adopted an overall concept for the further development of the qualification of socio-educational professionals in June 2020.

The package of measures, which was agreed with representatives of the Conference of Youth and Family Ministers (JFMK), the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), the associations of providers and the Working Group for Child and Youth Welfare (AGJ), aims to increase the attractiveness of training in order to exploit previously unused training potential.

In detail, the overall concept includes the following individual measures, particularly in con-nection with the training of pdeagogic staff: 

• Making organisational structures more flexible
• Opening up further access routes
• Systematising the recognition of prior vocational qualifications
• Strengthening and expanding part-time training opportunities
• Expansion of the quality framework