CDU on families

The CDU wants Schleswig-Holstein to lead Germany in the ratio of qualified staff to children in daycare centers by 2027. According to the platform, this requires enough well-trained staff and good working conditions.

The CDU wants more trained staff in daycare centers. Each staff member should care for fewer children. By 2027, the state should be at the very top in Germany. This takes enough well-trained people.

The staff-to-child ratio shows how many qualified staff there are for a group of children. The CDU notes that the ratio rose from 1.5 to 2.0 staff under its daycare reform and that the state previously ranked only mid-table. By 2027, this is to become a top position among the German states. Besides recruiting new staff, the platform also wants to keep an eye on working conditions for existing personnel.

The CDU wants to further lower the fees parents pay for childcare. Low-income families and families with several children in particular are to get relief so that all parents can afford care.

Parents pay money for daycare. The CDU wants to lower these fees further. This should mainly help families with little money. Families with many children should also pay less. Everyone should be able to afford childcare.

The platform names further fee reductions as a priority goal. The focus is on families with several children and those in difficult social circumstances. The CDU notes that the state once had the highest parental fees in Germany and that these were capped statewide under its daycare reform. It says about one billion euros in additional state and federal funds went into this over five years.

The CDU wants to allow more flexible and longer opening hours at daycare centers. They are to be geared to the needs of working parents, especially single parents and those working full time, making it easier to combine family and work.

The CDU wants different opening hours at daycare centers. They should be open longer and more flexibly. This should help parents who work. Single parents in particular should have an easier time.

The expansion of extended opening hours is to be advanced together with local governments and implemented according to need. The platform names single parents and full-time working parents as the groups the hours should be geared to. The CDU wants parents across the state to find an offer that fits their life and work plans. According to the platform, this applies equally to urban and rural areas.

The CDU wants to increase the number of daycare places across the state, including in nurseries for the youngest children. Local governments are to be supported with state funds so that every family gets the care it needs.

The CDU wants more places in daycare centers. There should also be more places for very young children. The state gives towns and cities money for this. Every family should get a suitable place.

The expansion of childcare is to follow demand and be continued. The platform explicitly mentions additional nursery places. Local governments are to keep receiving support for the expansion, for which the state intends to provide its own money. The CDU sees daycare policy as a task for society as a whole that only succeeds together with everyone involved.

The CDU wants to further raise incentives and pay for home-based childminders. This is meant to increase the number of childminding places across the state and give parents more choice.

Childminders care for children in small groups. The CDU wants to pay them more. Then there should be more of these services. Parents across the state should have more choice.

The platform describes childminding as a form of care on an equal footing with daycare centers. It says it offers flexible hours in small, family-like groups. The CDU notes that its daycare reform already introduced a minimum pay rate intended to allow comparable incomes statewide. Building on that, pay and incentives are to rise further.

The CDU wants to expand family centers and family education facilities and secure their funding for the long term. Families should get advice on government benefits in one place close to home, and in the future also online. The party also wants to promote family-friendly working hours more strongly.

The CDU wants to strengthen family centers. Families should get advice there on all government help. The advice should be close to home. It should also be available online. The money for the centers should be secure for a long time.

Family centers are to serve as contact points that also include advice on social benefits law, with enough staff to do so. Funding for preventive and educational work is to be secured permanently. All services should also be accessible digitally. The CDU wants to examine how outreach support can be strengthened, for example through visiting family helpers, for families who cannot get to fixed support offices. To help people combine family, work, and volunteering, it wants to promote flexible working hours, with the public sector setting an example.

The CDU wants to expand the preventive programs "Frühe Hilfen" (early support) and "Schutzengel" (guardian angel) so that more pregnant women, young parents, and families receive counseling and practical help. Foster families are to get closer support, and new foster families are to be recruited.

The CDU wants to grow the programs "Frühe Hilfen" and "Schutzengel." They help pregnant women and young parents. There are too few foster families. Foster families take in children who cannot live with their parents. The CDU wants to find more of these families.

Both programs are to reach more families because of their preventive effect. The state program "Schutzengel" is also to include families with disabled children. Foster families are to receive closer guidance, and foster parent networks are to be supported. Because foster families are lacking in many places, the CDU wants to develop recruitment campaigns together with the youth welfare offices.

The CDU wants to work through the Bundesrat so that months of Kurzarbeit (short-time work) are left out when Elterngeld (parental allowance) is calculated. This is meant to protect young parents from unforeseeable financial shortfalls. In addition, registering a child online should automatically trigger child benefit and the child tax allowance.

In short-time work, people earn less. Then the parental allowance is also smaller. The CDU wants to change that. Months of short-time work should not count in the calculation. Parents should also be able to start child benefit easily online.

Instead of the short-time months, income from the period before them is to serve as the basis. The platform calls this a contribution to gender equality. Because parental allowance is federal law, the CDU wants to act through the Bundesrat. At the federal level it also wants parents who register a child online to set the child benefit payment and the child tax allowance in motion at the same time.

The CDU wants to launch a pilot project for a mobile children's and youth center in rural areas. It cites the lack of leisure activities outside school and the growing importance of loneliness. At the same time, schools and child and youth services are to work together more closely.

In rural areas there are few leisure activities for children and young people. So the CDU wants to test a youth center that travels from place to place. Young people can meet there. Schools and youth services should also work together more closely.

The mobile center is meant to give young people an easily accessible way to meet others their age. In parallel, the CDU aims to link out-of-school activities closely with the school system so that schools open up more to their surroundings. Teams from different professions are to work together with children and young people. The platform gives the expansion of all-day school programs an important role in this.

The CDU wants to make safeguarding plans against violence toward children and young people mandatory outside of school as well. Daycare centers and schools already have this obligation. In addition, a justice system attuned to children is to be strengthened further.

Daycare centers and schools must already have plans to protect children from violence. The CDU wants to require this for other activities for children too. This should also protect against sexual violence. Courts and agencies should respond better to children's needs.

The platform also sees the safeguarding plans as a contribution against sexualized violence. As another building block it names a "child-sensitive" justice system. Its example is the "Childhood-Haus" in Flensburg, where children and young people who have experienced physical or sexualized violence receive all important help in a protected setting.

The CDU advocates a uniform nationwide scheme of financial help for fertility treatment. It is to be open to unmarried couples as well. The aim is for as many people as possible to be able to have the children they want.

Some couples cannot have a child although they want one. Treatment can help, but it costs money. The CDU wants financial help for this across Germany. Unmarried couples should get the help too.

The platform notes that some couples remain childless against their wishes. The CDU therefore wants to push for a rule that applies equally in all federal states. The support is explicitly not meant to be limited to married couples.

The CDU wants to give more support to pregnancy conflict counseling. The Lübeck pilot project "biko," which reimburses women on low incomes for prescription contraceptives, is to apply statewide. Education about sexuality and contraception is meant to reduce the number of abortions.

The CDU wants more support for counseling centers for women with unplanned pregnancies. Women with little money should get contraceptives paid for. So far this exists as a project in Lübeck. It should apply across the whole state. More education should lead to fewer abortions.

According to the platform, an unplanned pregnancy can overwhelm couples and especially single women emotionally. Counseling is meant to help them make the decision about a possible abortion with great care. In the state it is offered by a wide range of providers, whose funding the CDU wants to increase. The platform says the "biko" project was evaluated successfully in Lübeck.