Grüne on families

The Greens want to upgrade Kindertagespflege (home-based child care by childminders) through better advice and training. It is to be considered consistently alongside daycare centers as a form of care.

Childminders also look after children. The Greens think this work is important. They want more advice and training for them. Childminders should be able to share ideas more easily.

In the platform's view, home-based child care makes an indispensable contribution to child care. Advice and training are to be improved continuously, and exchange and networking strengthened. The party wants to draw up recommendations for municipalities, for example on cover arrangements when a childminder is absent.

The Greens want to ease daycare costs for parents: the sibling discount is to become a family discount and the fee cap is to fall step by step. In the medium term, daycare is to be free of charge.

Daycare should cost parents less. Families with several children should pay less. The highest fee allowed should go down bit by bit. Later, daycare should cost nothing at all.

According to the platform, fees must not keep anyone out of early childhood education, while quality is to be maintained. The discount is no longer to apply only to siblings who attend daycare at the same time. The Sozialstaffel, the income-based scale of fees, is to be improved. The fee cap is to be lowered gradually, including the cost of meals.

The Greens want to create enough additional daycare places for the legal entitlement from age one to be met everywhere in the state. In the year before starting school, all children are to get equal chances.

Every child from age one has a right to a daycare place. There are not enough places yet. The Greens want to build more. Money for building should be easier to get. Daycare and school should work closely together.

The state is to keep investing in new places, and providers and municipalities are to be able to apply for building grants more easily. A child is also to get a place after a family moves. For the last year before elementary school, the platform envisions flexible models with a good income-based fee scale. Smooth transitions and close cooperation between daycare and school are to be supported because children develop at different speeds.

The Greens want to abolish the split between core and off-peak hours in daycare fees and introduce a monthly rather than weekly cap on hours. Parents who work very early or late are not to be financially worse off.

Some parents work very early or very late. They should not pay more for daycare than others. Daycare hours should become more flexible. Children of different ages should also be able to share a group in the afternoon.

The platform cites medicine, retail and skilled trades as examples of affected jobs; fees for overnight care are to be reviewed in parents' favor. In afternoon care, family groups are to be able to take nursery, preschool and after-school children together. Daycare rooms could be opened to childminders or parents during off-peak hours. A campaign is meant to raise acceptance of child care at unusual times of day. The party will examine whether an individual three-week family break could replace fixed closing periods, even in small facilities.

The Greens want to give families more everyday support and will look into a state law on family support. Counseling, assistance and funding programs are to be bundled and made easier to reach.

The Greens want to help families more. They will look into a new state law for families. Advice and help should be easier to find. There should be less paperwork.

Together with municipalities, the party wants a support network for all parents that covers daycare, childminders, all-day schools, clubs, early-help services, family midwives, family centers and family education centers. A state-level plan for better family support is to be drawn up, drawing on ideas such as family offices from other states. Early-help services such as parenting courses and counseling are to grow. The program also calls for more interpreters for foreign languages and sign language and for multilingual services in municipalities, which daycare centers and schools could use as well. The party wants to evaluate the planned federal Kindergrundsicherung (basic child benefit) and check whether it covers needs such as learning materials.

The Greens want work and family life to fit together better, relying on childcare and flexible working hours. At the federal level they want to push for a shortened full-time model for parents.

Parents should be able to combine work and family better. The Greens want to spend more on childcare. Companies should offer flexible working hours. Parents should also be able to work shorter full-time hours.

The state is to invest in childcare services. Companies are to be supported in becoming family-friendly in a gender-fair way through the promotion of flexible working-time models. According to the program, the aim is a fairer division of work between the genders within families. The party wants to advocate for the short full-time model at the federal level.

The Greens want to develop a youth policy strategy for Schleswig-Holstein and have new laws assessed for their effects on young people. They also want the federal government to launch a digital pact for youth work.

The Greens want a plan for young people in the state. New laws should be checked: What do they mean for young people? This is called a youth check. Youth work should get federal money for digital tools.

The strategy is to build on the federal government's youth strategy and focus on the interests of teenagers and young adults. Groups such as the state youth council and the statewide student representative bodies are to be involved. The design of the youth check is to be worked out together with young people. The digital pact the party wants from the federal government would cover open child and youth work, youth associations and youth welfare services. Youth and social workers in municipalities are to get a data-protection framework for media education work.

The Greens want to fund youth centers and open youth work and set up a program to modernize, expand and newly open them in a climate-neutral way. Young people are to get their own spaces in public areas and more cultural, sports and leisure options.

The Greens want to give money to youth centers. They should be renovated and new ones should open. Young people should get their own places to meet. There should be more sports, culture and leisure activities.

Retreat and meeting spaces for young people are to be created in public areas. Youth-oriented activities are to receive more funding, especially in rural areas and in neighborhoods at risk of poverty. Sports clubs and youth centers are to be able to offer e-sports. Young people's needs are to be taken into account in urban planning. An action plan against racism, violence and addiction is to support schools and providers in prevention, and legal entitlements to counseling under Social Code Book VIII are to be implemented.

The Greens want to improve staffing in the general social services of youth welfare offices and agree on fixed standards with municipalities. In the program's view, adequate staffing is the precondition for effective child protection.

Youth welfare offices should get more staff. There should be fixed rules for this. The Greens say: This is the only way to protect children well. An online portal should show all support services.

Municipalities are to receive support and funding when they introduce neighborhood-oriented concepts and neighborhood analyses. A statewide portal is to list all residential, semi-residential and outpatient services under Social Code Book VIII so that offices and families can find them more easily. In foster care, the requirements of the Kinder- und Jugendstärkungsgesetz (Child and Youth Strengthening Act) are to be implemented and a quality drive launched. The party will examine how the sixteen foster care services can coordinate better and offer training across county lines.

The Greens want all institutions in contact with minors to be required to adopt safeguarding plans against violence and abuse. In addition, a child protection commission is to be set up for Schleswig-Holstein.

The Greens want to protect children better from violence. Daycare centers, schools and clubs should have to have a protection plan. Adults there should get training. A commission should deal with child protection.

The requirement would cover not only daycare centers and schools but also sports clubs, music schools and leisure facilities such as swimming pools; institutions would get help in drawing up their plans. Paid staff and volunteers are to receive training. The complaints office for children and young people at the state parliament is to be expanded with regard to abuse and opened to all. The state prevention program against sexualized violence will continue, and the supervisory role of the state youth welfare office will be strengthened. Education about sexualized violence and manipulative communication techniques is also to take place in school lessons.