CDU on families

The CDU wants to keep expanding childcare according to demand and create more nursery places. The state would support cities and towns in doing so, and the federal government should also share the costs.

The CDU wants more places in daycare and nurseries. The state should help cities and towns with this. The federal government should also give money. Every child should be able to go to daycare.

According to the platform, daycare should be open to all children regardless of their parents' circumstances or origin. Early education is to be strengthened, with language skills playing a central role. The CDU argues that early investment prevents gaps in education. For care of children under three, it holds the federal government financially responsible as well.

The CDU wants to pay childminders better and give home-based childcare more support so that supply grows. Legal hurdles for larger childminding groups are to be removed.

Childminders look after children at home or in small groups. The CDU wants to give them more money. This should lead to more childminders. Larger childminding groups should also be easier to set up.

The platform sees childminding, alongside daycare centers, as a way to meet parents' legal entitlement to childcare. Obstacles to setting up and running larger childminding groups would be reduced and new ones promoted. Quality standards and qualification options are also to be developed further.

The CDU wants to reorganize family centers as contact points for parenting questions and fund them more, especially in rural areas. Large families are to get a family card that makes visiting museums, zoos and similar places easier.

The CDU wants more family centers. Parents get advice and help there. They should also exist in the countryside. Families with many children should get a family card. It makes visits to museums and zoos easier.

The family centers are to be reorganized together with municipalities and offer easily accessible advice. Prevention and child protection services are to grow in order to strengthen expectant and young parents in raising children. Vacation childcare is to be geared more closely to demand. Family education and family recreation programs are to be expanded statewide and linked more closely with parent education.

The CDU backs ten days of statutory leave for fathers after a birth at the federal level. It also wants to act against disadvantages for parents at work and give parenthood more recognition in tax and pension law.

The CDU wants fathers to get ten days off after a birth. A law for all of Germany should set this. Parents should not be treated worse at work. People with children should do better on taxes and pensions.

The leave for fathers is based on the EU Work-Life Balance Directive. In Lower Saxony and through the Bundesrat (the chamber of the states), the party wants effective steps against workplace discrimination based on parenthood; it also opposes so-called mom-shaming. Flexible working-time models are to be supported. In addition, models are to be developed that give families more leeway in everyday life.

The CDU wants to accompany couples in family planning and continue help for those unable to conceive. Fertility clinics are to be funded and adoption law made easier.

Some couples want a child and cannot have one. The CDU wants to keep helping these couples. It wants to fund clinics for this. Adoption should also become easier.

Existing support for couples with an unfulfilled wish for children is to stay in place. Fertility clinics are to receive funding and be newly set up where needed. The party intends to push for easier rules in adoption law.

The CDU wants to bring daycare, schools and youth welfare together in a single ministry in order to fight child abuse more effectively. Uniform standards for child protection, youth welfare offices and family courts are to apply statewide.

The CDU wants a ministry for children and youth. It should be in charge of daycare, schools and youth welfare. The CDU wants to protect children better from abuse this way. Youth offices should have enough staff everywhere. Judges should get better training for working with children.

The legal foundations are to be harmonized so that prevention and prosecution work together. The state is to strengthen its oversight of child protection and ensure uniform quality standards, controlling and clear decision-making lines. A binding staffing ratio is planned for youth welfare offices. Court-appointed child advocates and expert witnesses are to be much better qualified, and family judges are to receive training. The program cites abuse cases such as the one in Lügde as the reason.

The CDU wants a state child protection law that makes data exchange between youth welfare offices, doctors, schools and prosecutors easier. Suspected child abuse is to become subject to mandatory reporting, and protecting children is to take priority over data protection.

The CDU wants a new law to protect children. Anyone who suspects abuse must report it. Offices, doctors and schools should share data more easily. Protecting children should matter more than protecting data.

The rules on data transfer are to be changed within the limits of federal law. The exchange is to include private bodies such as sports clubs or privately run daycare centers. Everyone involved is to be allowed to pass on relevant data at any time. Doctors are to be able to give information to colleagues, authorities or a lawyer without breaching medical confidentiality.

The CDU wants to require protection plans against violence and sexualized violence at all schools and daycare centers and to oblige youth work associations to adopt them as well. Preventive support, medical contact points and technical help for investigators are to be expanded.

Every school and daycare center should have a plan against violence. This should also apply to clubs that work with children. There should be more help for young families. Police should use computer programs to find abuse images faster.

The "Frühe Hilfen" (early help) program is to get more money so municipalities can launch pilot projects. Preventive checkups for preschool children are to be extended and more child protection outpatient clinics set up across the state. Artificial intelligence is to help investigators sift and filter data. Proceedings are to be child-friendly, modeled on the "Childhood House" concept, to avoid retraumatization. Also planned are a state awareness campaign on watching out and reporting, training for professionals, and education about media use and cybergrooming.

The CDU wants to introduce a youth support law and provide more money for youth work. The aim is to give young people the time and backing to discover their talents.

The CDU wants a new law to support young people. Youth work should get more money. Young people should find out what they are good at. The CDU also wants to strengthen volunteer services.

The platform calls for more education funding for youth work, especially for civic education, political participation, and spaces for learning and living. Additional action programs are to be launched every year. Summer schools are to be supported, with more school partnerships and funding that is adjusted regularly. The Landesjugendring (state youth council) is to keep receiving funds, and volunteer services are to be strengthened.