FDP on families

The FDP wants to create more childcare places together with municipalities and providers so that parents' needs are met. This is meant to make it easier to combine family and work and to strengthen early childhood education.

The FDP wants more places in daycare centers and with childminders. Towns and daycare providers should help. This should make it easier for parents to work. Children should be able to learn well from an early age.

The platform points to the expansion guarantee in place since 2017, under which the state subsidizes every local investment in new childcare places. It says the reform of the Kinderbildungsgesetz (the state's childcare law) provides an extra 1.3 billion euros a year. This course is to continue. In the party's view, good childcare geared to parents' needs is the basis for combining family and work.

The FDP wants to digitize daycare enrollment statewide and develop it further with municipalities and providers. Families who need a place should be offered one by the municipality instead of having to search themselves. After a birth, the youth welfare office is to send parents information on available support.

Parents should be able to sign up their child for daycare online. The town should offer families a place. Parents then no longer have to search for a long time. After a birth, the youth welfare office should send a letter about help.

Digitization of the procedure is planned for the short term. Beyond that, the municipality is to coordinate the allocation of places together with local providers. The party wants the first letter to a newborn to come from the youth welfare office, with offers ranging from early support services to help finding a place. Anyone with a firm offer should then be able to swap the place for one at another daycare center.

The FDP wants more flexible daycare opening hours, especially more care early in the morning and in the evening. Where needed, there should also be daycare centers that look after children overnight, for instance for parents on shift work. The aim is to make it easier for mothers and fathers alike to combine family and work.

Daycare centers should be open longer and more flexibly. This applies mainly to early mornings and evenings. Some centers should also care for children overnight. That helps parents who work shifts.

According to the platform, childcare has to fit parents' lives. The party wants to expand models such as job sharing that make no distinction between mothers and fathers. Overnight care is to be expanded according to need. Care at off-peak hours is also to become better known among childminders.

The FDP wants to abolish parental fees for early childhood education step by step in the remaining kindergarten years as well. This is meant to ease the financial burden on families.

Parents often pay for daycare. Two years are already free in the state. The FDP wants to make the other years free too, step by step. Families should have more money left over.

The platform notes that a second kindergarten year was made free of fees in the last legislative term. Free care in the remaining years is described as a longer-term prospect and is to come gradually. The party names relief for families as the goal.

The FDP wants to recruit more childcare staff in the short and medium term. The paid, practice-integrated training for early childhood educators is to become the main training route. Housekeeping and administrative staff are to relieve educators of other tasks.

Daycare centers need more staff. The FDP wants paid training with lots of hands-on work to be the main route. Other workers should take over office work and housekeeping. Then educators have more time for the children.

Speech therapists, occupational therapists and music and drama educators, who have been allowed to work in daycare since the pandemic, should be able to stay permanently; the party wants to work out how with providers and unions. The paid training is to be promoted more among men, since the profession is mostly female. The practice-integrated childcare assistant training created for participants in the Kitahelfer (daycare helper) program is to be developed and expanded. Further training within daycare centers and childminding is also to improve.

The FDP wants to expand the family centers attached to daycare facilities and broaden the advice they offer. As quickly as possible, 300 new Familiengrundschulzentren (family centers at primary schools) are to be set up statewide with permanent funding. This is meant to make education fairer.

Family centers advise and support families. The FDP wants more of them and more advice there. New centers for families should be set up at 300 primary schools. The money for them should be secure for the long term.

The primary school family centers carry the model of daycare family centers over to primary schools. With 300 new centers, the platform says, ten percent of primary schools would be upgraded, specifically in neighborhoods with particular needs. The party also wants families in all circumstances to make greater use of what family centers offer.

The FDP wants to keep supporting Kindertagespflege (home-based childminding) and open up access to pedagogical training for childminders. Everywhere in the state, there should be cover arrangements for illness, vacation and training while payments continue. Care contracts are to become more flexible.

Childminders look after children in small groups. The FDP wants to keep supporting them. They should be able to attend training courses. When they are sick or on vacation, there should be a stand-in everywhere. The money should keep coming during that time.

Access to training is to depend on each childminder's prior qualifications. Care at off-peak hours is also to become better known in childminding. The party also wants to push for more flexible care contracts.

The FDP wants to give targeted support to private providers and company daycare centers and tie them more closely into existing structures. Bureaucratic obstacles to setting up workplace childcare facilities are to be removed.

Some daycare centers belong to private providers or companies. The FDP wants to give them targeted support. They should also get money. Companies should be able to start their own daycare more easily. There should be fewer rules for that.

According to the platform, private providers and company daycare centers add to the varied range of childcare in the state. Support is to be both organizational and financial. The removal of hurdles also covers facilities founded jointly by several companies.

The FDP wants to develop the state child protection law further and improve prevention, intervention, and support in cases of sexualized violence against children. People who work with minors are to receive regular training, and counseling services are to grow across the state.

The FDP wants to protect children better from violence and abuse. People who work with children should get regular training. Easy-to-reach counseling should exist everywhere. Children should know their rights.

Minimum standards are to apply to training, and the state will help fund cross-disciplinary courses. Funding for counseling services is to be reviewed with the municipal umbrella associations. Children are to be informed about their rights and boundaries, teachers enabled to address sexuality and sexualized violence in class, and the topic made less of a taboo through public outreach. At the federal level, the FDP pushes for funded child protection networks. How school supervisory bodies and sports institutions handle suspected cases is to be studied by researchers, and the extended criminal record certificate is to be free for volunteers.

The FDP wants children and adolescents to get therapeutic help quickly after sexualized violence, especially in rural areas. Court proceedings are to be more child-friendly to avoid renewed trauma.

Children who have suffered violence should get help fast. Rural areas should get more therapy services. In court, children should be questioned gently. They should not have to testify several times.

Therapy services are to grow above all in rural areas. Plans include early questioning by video, psychosocial support during trials, and early therapeutic care. A dedicated training program on child-friendly justice is to be set up. Contact points for victims of sexual abuse and Childhood-Häuser (Childhood Houses, centers where affected children are cared for and questioned in one place) are to be expanded further.

The FDP wants to expand family education and counseling and give particular support to single and separated parents. This includes more childcare, also at off-peak hours, more flexible working time and financial relief. The platform points to the financial difficulties these families face, which affect their children's opportunities.

The FDP wants to help families more. There should be more counseling for parents. Single parents should get more childcare. This includes early mornings and evenings. They should also keep more of their money.

Services that teach parenting skills and counseling for families in difficulty are to be strengthened and advertised more widely. Mental health of children and young people is to become a fixed topic there. Families hit especially hard by the COVID restrictions are to be offered family recreation programs. For single and separated parents, the platform also lists part-time vocational training, help with child support and simpler benefits through the Kinderchancengeld (child opportunity benefit). The FDP also affirms the diversity of family forms and backs the federal government's plans in this area.

The FDP wants to merge family benefits into a single Kinderchancengeld (child opportunity benefit). It is meant to support low- and middle-income families and reduce child poverty.

There are many different benefits for families. The FDP wants to turn them into one benefit. It is called Kinderchancengeld. It should help families with little money. Children should be able to use education offers on their own.

The party supports the federal government's intention to bundle family benefits. The Kinderchancengeld is to be simple in design. Services for education and participation are to grow. Children and young people should be able to claim these services by themselves.

The FDP wants to strengthen out-of-school child and youth work and increase funding for vacation and education programs, especially for disadvantaged children. The expansion of school psychology services is also to continue because the pandemic has affected young people's mental well-being.

The FDP wants more activities for children and teens outside of school. There should be more money for vacation programs. Club memberships should also get support. This should mainly help disadvantaged children. Schools should offer more psychological counseling.

The platform sees youth work as a place of democratic education and voluntary learning that should be available everywhere. Mentoring programs are meant to show young people future prospects. Out-of-school institutions such as junior universities and museums are to get better conditions so they can reach talent from less-educated households and spark interest in STEM subjects. Students should receive suitable counseling on site.

The FDP wants to create a central online portal where families can find and apply for all benefits. This is meant to reduce trips to government offices, waiting times and red tape.

Parents often have to go to an office to apply for benefits. The FDP wants one website for all family benefits. Parents can find and apply for everything there. Anyone who prefers can still go to the office in person.

The portal is to serve as a single point of access for all key information and benefits. It is to be organized by life situations. The platform names parental allowance, advance child support payments and help with fertility treatment as examples. Personal contact with the authorities is to remain possible.