SPD on families

The SPD wants to scrap parental fees for daycare, which have already been halved, completely. Education is to be free at every age; this is meant to improve educational opportunity and make it easier to combine family and work.

Parents pay money for daycare today. The SPD wants to end these fees completely. Education should be free for everyone. This goes from daycare up to a master craftsman title or a university degree.

According to the program, parental fees have fallen by half in recent years. The remaining share is now to be dropped. The SPD sees this as relief for families' take-home income. Freedom from fees is to be permanent and extend up to a master craftsman or master's degree.

The SPD wants to create more nursery and daycare places, renovate existing facilities, and raise quality. Training for childcare workers is to be paid and free of tuition, and the staff-to-child ratio is to improve.

The SPD wants more places in nurseries and daycare. Old daycare buildings should be repaired. People training as childcare workers should get paid and pay no tuition. Each worker should look after fewer children.

Expansion is to focus on urban areas and early or late hours. Practice-integrated training (PiA) is to become the norm; for curative education nursing the SPD plans a training wage and nationally aligned standards. The quality program covers German language support, the transition to elementary school, inclusion, cultural education, and physical activity. Daycare centers are to be able to become family centers and get extra budgets where social needs are high. Multi-professional teams in daycare are a priority for the next term.

The SPD wants to make it mandatory to involve children and young people in decisions at local and state level and to write children's rights into the state constitution. A child protection commissioner, more civic education and more money for youth work are also planned.

Children and young people should have more of a say. The SPD wants to make their involvement a duty. Children's rights should be in Saarland's constitution. There should be a commissioner for child protection. Youth work should get more money.

Plans include a mandatory rule on participation with its own budget, a review of a state youth parliament, and a "fund for young ideas" whose project grants are decided by a body including the state youth council. Every law is to undergo a youth check. Civic education is to grow from daycare to graduation, and every student should visit a memorial or a site of democracy at least once. Out-of-school youth work will be expanded in poor, rural and structurally weak areas. After the pandemic, special youth welfare planning, higher funding rates for youth education and more youth education officer posts are to follow.