FDP on families

The FDP wants to extend daycare opening hours substantially and abolish the fixed closure days in nurseries and kindergartens. Care should be available when parents need it, including those working full time or in shifts.

Daycare centers should stay open longer. Each district should have one center open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. There should also be centers open day and night. The FDP also wants to end fixed closure days. Then parents can plan their vacation freely.

Every district in Bremen is to have a daycare center open from at least 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. For Bremen and Bremerhaven, the platform also calls for enough 24-hour care to meet demand. The FDP wants to scrap the 20 closure days per daycare year in the state of Bremen. In its view these mainly disadvantage single parents, because covering them uses up more than 80 percent of statutory vacation entitlement. The same applies to daycare staff, who should be free to decide when to take their vacation.

The FDP supports fee-free daycare, including nurseries, after-school care, and early and late hours. Parents should continue to decide whether their child attends; the party rejects compulsory daycare years.

Parents should not pay for daycare. This should also apply to nurseries and after-school care. Quality should not get worse. Parents should decide if their child goes to daycare. The FDP does not want to make daycare compulsory.

Fee-free care is to cover children under three, after-school care (Hort), and early and late care hours. According to the platform, this must not lower the quality of early childhood education. The FDP wants to raise overall spending in this area even without parental fees. The decision on daycare attendance is to stay with parents or guardians.

The FDP wants to introduce a Kinderchancengeld (child opportunity benefit) that combines and simplifies existing child-related benefits. It would consist of a base amount, an income-dependent amount and digital access to education and participation services. The program justifies this with the high rate of child poverty in the state of Bremen.

The FDP wants a new child opportunity benefit. It combines all support for children into one. Every child gets a fixed amount. Families with little money get more. Parents can apply online for help with education and leisure.

According to the program, the benefit has three pillars: a base amount for every child, a flexible amount tied to the parents' income, and simple digital access to education and participation services. This is meant to let children use these offers without stigma. If teenagers earn their own money, the benefit should not be reduced as a result. The program points out that, according to the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, 42 percent of children in the state of Bremen are at risk of poverty.

The FDP wants less red tape and digital procedures for Elterngeld (parental allowance) and a more flexible partnership bonus. Elterngeld and ElterngeldPlus should fit families' real lives better. In the future, only one parent at a time should be able to receive the allowance.

The FDP wants to make parental allowance simpler. Parents should be able to apply online. The bonus for couples should become more flexible. Only one parent at a time should get the allowance.

According to the program, Elterngeld and ElterngeldPlus provide financial security after a birth and make it easier to combine work and family. The FDP lists less bureaucracy, digital processes and a more flexible partnership bonus as its plans. It also wants to remove what it sees as existing unfairness, for example regarding insolvency pay or mixed income. Both parents receiving the allowance at the same time would no longer be possible.

The FDP wants to strengthen funding for open child and youth work and use it more flexibly according to need. It also wants more leisure options for young people and a future plan for youth services in Bremerhaven.

Open child and youth work offers meeting places and help for young people. The FDP wants to strengthen it. The money should go where it is needed. There should be more things to do in free time. In Bremerhaven, young people should help decide on the offers.

According to the platform, open child and youth work prevents crime and a lack of prospects and supports integration. The FDP criticizes the system as too slow to respond to new needs and costs; it calls for planning certainty and easier hiring of qualified educators. Public and private providers of leisure facilities would be better connected with users. The platform wants a review of whether empty school rooms can be used in the afternoons and during vacations. In Bremerhaven, a future plan for youth would be drawn up together with young people, providers, schools, politicians and the administration, modeled on the city's Zukunftswerkstatt Kultur (culture future workshop).

The FDP wants to support single parents through reliable childcare, lower taxes and fees, and job training. The state would also recover far more of its advance child support payments from parents who fail to pay.

The FDP wants to help parents who raise children alone. There should be reliable childcare for children of every age. These parents should pay less in taxes and fees. If a parent does not pay child support, the state pays instead. The FDP wants the state to get that money back more often.

For childcare, the platform announces a drive to recruit skilled staff. Single parents and families with children would face a lower burden of taxes and fees. According to the platform, only 6 percent of advance child support payments are currently recovered from non-paying parents; that rate is to rise considerably. The FDP notes that more than 91 percent of single parents in the state are women, almost half are out of work and 75 percent have no vocational qualification. A training drive is meant to help them enter the labor market.

The FDP wants to continue the renovation program for children's playgrounds in Bremen and Bremerhaven. Public sports fields would be expanded and playgrounds enlarged with new equipment.

The FDP wants playgrounds to be repaired regularly. There should be new play equipment. Public sports fields should get bigger. This applies to Bremen and Bremerhaven.

The platform describes playgrounds and sports fields as often the only place where children can play outdoors and as a meeting place for young families. The FDP points to a playground renovation program it says it launched while in government in Bremerhaven. That program would continue and secure ongoing maintenance. As an example of expansion, the platform names the Leherheide play park.