CDU on families

The CDU wants to give parents more flexibility with their time, for example through more flexible working hours and family time accounts. It also wants to expand services for families, such as family centers.

The CDU wants parents to have more time for their children. Working hours should be more flexible. There should be more family centers. Couples who want a child should get help.

Working with unions, employer groups and companies, the CDU wants more flexible working hours and fewer hurdles in labor, social insurance and tax law. Working-time accounts are to become easier to use and be developed into family time accounts, with the state leading by example as an employer. Tax support for household services is to stay. Funding for family centers is to be kept stable and their network expanded, and the family vacation programs set up during the pandemic are to be made permanent. The party also wants to support fertility treatment and push for more flexible adoption law.

The CDU wants to give families with children more priority in everyday life and plans a "Pact for Child-Friendliness" with municipalities and civil society institutions. Children under six are to get free admission to state-owned facilities.

The CDU wants to make Hesse friendlier for children. Small children should not pay admission at state-owned places. There should be family tickets for any number of children. Young people should have more say in their towns.

An action plan is to build on the work of the commission "Hessen hat Familiensinn." The Hessian family card (Familienkarte Hessen) is to be kept and expanded. State-owned facilities that charge admission are to offer family tickets with no cap on the number of children, and the CDU wants to promote this idea with regional transit associations as well. A child and youth support plan is to further develop state funding for youth work. Service offices and advice are meant to increase the number of local youth councils, and the HOP! state youth congress will continue.

The CDU wants to strengthen child protection, relying first on prevention and support for parents. Institutions working with children are to be required to report suspected abuse or neglect, and youth welfare offices are to get child protection coordinators.

The CDU wants to protect children better. Schools and other places should have to report suspected abuse. Youth welfare offices should get their own child protection experts. Parents should get help early.

People who work with children are to receive a guide on handling well-founded suspicions. Child protection outpatient clinics and Childhood Houses are to be expanded. An interdisciplinary competence center is to train family judges, social workers and doctors and conduct research on child protection. Against cybergrooming, meaning adults contacting minors online with sexual intent, the CDU relies on prevention and media literacy. The project "Kindeswohl im Sport" (child welfare in sports) is to be extended statewide, foster parents are to get a state award of their own, and all checkups up to adolescence are to be covered by statutory health insurance.

The CDU wants to expand all forms of childcare so that every child whose parents want it gets a good place close to home. It regards care in the family, by childminders, in nurseries and in daycare centers as equally valuable.

The CDU wants to create more childcare places. The state should give towns money for daycare centers. Childminders should also get more support. Parents should be free to choose.

The state's investment program for daycare centers is to continue, and building law is to allow faster construction of centers. The CDU demands that the federal government share childcare costs and make the money from the "Gute-Kita-Gesetz" (Good Daycare Act) permanent. Plans include a push for childminders with substitute arrangements and more company daycare centers through a framework agreement with municipalities and employer associations. A statewide digital system for allocating daycare and childminder places is under review. Responsibility for childcare is to move to the education ministry.

The CDU aims to make childcare for children aged three and over entirely free, going beyond the six hours a day that are already free of charge. The condition is that Hesse keeps more money after renegotiating the fiscal equalization system among the German states.

Today six hours of daycare a day are free. The CDU wants care from age three to be completely free. This should only happen if Hesse can keep more money. For that, the money-sharing system between the states must be renegotiated.

Full exemption from fees is to apply to all forms of care. The CDU also wants to cut red tape in state childcare funding and simplify requirements. It will examine whether the state could pay a flat amount per child up to the sixth birthday instead of using the current allocation formula. Daycare centers are to get more room to set their own priorities, and non-teaching staff are to be allowed to relieve trained staff of everyday and administrative tasks.