SPD on families

The SPD wants every Bavarian municipality to be able to offer young people places for leisure and recreation where they do not have to spend money. The state should also provide funding for youth hostels.

The SPD wants more places for young people. They should be able to spend free time there without spending money. Nobody should push them out. Bavaria should also give money to youth hostels.

The platform lists soccer fields, skate parks, pump tracks and playgrounds as examples. Young people should be able to use these places without fear of being driven away or displaced. The SPD also understands free space as free time, for instance for volunteering, a voluntary service year or a stay abroad. State funds would support the upkeep, modernization and expansion of youth hostels, which the party considers important for youth organizations.

The SPD wants to make daycare centers (Kitas) free of charge for all children, fund them better and set binding quality standards. It also wants more places in daycare, after-school centers and all-day programs to make it easier to combine work and family.

The SPD wants daycare to be free for all children. There should be more places in daycare and all-day care. Daycare centers should get more money. Fixed rules for good quality should apply to all centers.

The SPD rejects cuts to daycare and kindergartens, arguing that women would otherwise have to take on more unpaid care work. It wants to actively implement the legal right to all-day care for elementary school children and create more flexible care for single parents. Language support would become a core part of early childhood services, with language-focused daycare centers and preparatory German courses continuing. Also planned are a statewide parents' council, digital equipment, inclusion and turning daycare centers into family competence centers as a point of contact for families.

The SPD wants to raise the quality of child and youth services through better training and working conditions for educational staff. More training and university places are meant to make the profession more attractive and bring in new skilled workers.

Daycare centers and youth services lack trained staff. The SPD wants to make work there better. There should be more staff for the children. There should also be more places for training.

The plan includes better staff-to-child ratios, multi-professional teams and time for preparation and follow-up work. Heads of facilities would be released from other duties on a binding basis, with the costs reimbursed. Foreign professional qualifications would be recognized faster. Training would be updated in content, better supervised in the facilities and developed toward the Vocational Training Act (BBiG).

The SPD wants to support families in emergencies quickly and without red tape. Preventive assistance, social work in schools, counseling and crisis services would be expanded so that families are supported from a child's birth until the child starts a career.

Some families need help. The SPD wants them to get this help quickly and easily. There should be more counseling and more social work in schools. There should also be more help in a mental health crisis.

The early-intervention program "Frühe Hilfen" would be strengthened, youth social work at schools expanded and child protection offices developed further. Support is planned for foster families, young people from residential care even after they move out (care leavers), and children and teenagers who care for relatives. Career-entry support would become permanent, and counseling would focus especially on single parents. For mental health crises, the SPD plans psychosocial guides in neighborhoods and more crisis services for children and young people. Lower-income families would be provided with digital devices.

The SPD wants to write children's rights into the Bavarian constitution and set up a children's rights agency. To fight child poverty, a Bavarian supplement would top up the federal Kindergrundsicherung (basic child allowance), and children would be better protected from violence.

The SPD wants to put children's rights into Bavaria's constitution. A new office should look after these rights. Poor children in Bavaria should get extra money. Children should be better protected from violence.

The platform justifies the supplement with the high cost of living in Bavaria and the goal of letting all children take part in society. Children's concerns would also be considered in urban and building planning. Children and young people with disabilities would receive their support bundled from a single source. To protect against violence, the SPD plans protection concepts across the state, more support services and Childhood Houses as child-friendly outpatient contact points that bring several disciplines together.