What do the parties in North Rhine-Westphalia say on families?

The AfD wants to raise the birth rate by putting traditional family support at the center of policy. Parents would be reimbursed 20,000 euros in pension contributions per child from tax funds, alongside family-based tax splitting, lower levies and help with buying a home. The party rejects the Kindergrundsicherung (basic child allowance).

The AfD wants more children to be born. Parents should get back 20,000 euros in pension payments for each child. Families should pay less in taxes and fees. The AfD does not want a basic child allowance.

The AfD wants to encourage companies to offer parents a path back into work after a family-related break. The public sector is to give parents more weight than childless applicants when hiring.

Many parents take a break from work. The AfD wants to make it easier to come back. Companies should get help for this. The state as an employer should prefer parents when hiring.

The AfD wants to compensate parents for lost earnings when they cut back on work to care for their young children themselves. It wants to promote traditional family structures while leaving the choice of childcare arrangement to parents.

Some parents stay home for their small children. Then they earn less money. The AfD wants the state to make up for that. Parents should decide for themselves how to care for their children.

The CDU wants to anchor child protection more firmly in research, training, and practice. It plans professorships for child protection, mandatory continuing education in youth welfare, and an expansion of child protection outpatient clinics. The platform sees well-trained professionals as the core of effective child protection.

The CDU wants to protect children better. Professionals should learn more for this. Universities should have their own professors for child protection. There should be more clinics for child protection.

The CDU wants to make North Rhine-Westphalia the most family- and child-friendly German state. An action plan is meant to make starting a family easier, family centers are to be expanded, and large families are to get relief through a family card.

The CDU wants to help families more. It will write an action plan for that. Families with many children should get a family card. It makes visits to museums or zoos easier. Playgrounds and small soccer fields should be repaired.

The CDU wants to maintain pregnancy conflict counseling in the state. Pregnant women should receive help rather than blame and learn how life with a child can work. According to the platform, this also serves the unborn child.

Some women are pregnant and do not know what to do. There is counseling for them. The CDU wants to keep this counseling. Women should get help, not blame. The services should be easier to find.

The CDU wants to waive parental fees for the third Kita (daycare/preschool) year before school entry as well. Care for children over three would then be entirely free of fees. The platform cites the importance of early education and financial relief for parents.

Parents often pay fees for preschool. The CDU wants to change that. The third year before school should also be free. Then preschool is free for all children over three. Parents keep more money.

The CDU wants to continue its guarantee for expanding Kita (daycare) places and set up a system for recruiting skilled staff. Educators are to be relieved of administrative work. Digital place allocation is meant to give parents more planning certainty.

The CDU wants more places in daycare centers. It wants to find more trained staff. Staff should have less office work. Parents should be able to book places online more easily.

The CDU wants to expand the state's Kinder- und Jugendförderplan (child and youth funding plan) and keep the automatic annual funding adjustment. New priorities are to include inclusion, catching up after the COVID-19 pandemic, and mental health. An action plan is to set rules for youth participation.

The state pays for programs for children and young people. The CDU wants to keep raising this money. There should be more programs for young people with disabilities. There should be money for vacation camps. Young people should have more say.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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 Greens want to give proven projects in open youth work and youth associations a permanent footing. These services should be open to all young people without discrimination or barriers, because the party regards youth work as a necessary rather than an optional service.

Youth clubs and youth groups matter for young people. The Greens want to pay for good projects on a lasting basis. All children and young people should be able to join in. This includes children with disabilities. The state should provide money for this.

The Greens want to help more daycare centers become family centers and to turn primary schools into points of contact for families as well. Parents should find exchange, advice and easily accessible help there, including after the daycare years.

A family center is a place where parents get advice and help. The Greens want more daycare centers to become family centers. Primary schools should become such places too. Advice services for families should be strengthened.

The Greens want to fund municipal time offices that better match childcare hours, bus schedules and other routines to families' daily lives. They also plan a network of family-friendly companies and want public administration to become family-friendly.

Many families have too little time in daily life. The Greens want to fund time offices in towns. These offices check what childcare hours families need. Bus schedules should also fit better. Companies and public offices should become more family-friendly.

The Greens want to expand childcare in the early morning and evening and make emergency care available. Single parents would also get one-stop help with official paperwork and access to rest and recovery programs, since the platform says they depend especially on reliable infrastructure.

Some parents raise their children alone. The Greens want to help them more. There should be more childcare early in the morning and in the evening. In an emergency, someone should look after the siblings. Advice centers should help with paperwork.

The Greens want a state initiative to create more safe outdoor play spaces, arguing that children need exercise and fresh air. Municipalities would be able to preserve play areas and make them accessible.

Children need space to play outside. The Greens want to give towns money for this. Playgrounds should stay and become barrier-free. Children should have a say in the planning.

The Greens want the same professional and staffing standards in youth welfare services statewide, and permanent local child protection networks. An independent state commissioner for child protection and children's rights would be created. The platform cites the failures uncovered by the parliamentary inquiry into the Lügde abuse case.

The Greens want to protect children better from violence. The same rules for youth welfare should apply everywhere in NRW. An independent person should look after child protection for the state. Police and courts should get better at dealing with children.

The SPD wants to bring family centers, which so far exist mainly at daycare centers, to schools and make them possible at every elementary school. Family education, support and assistance programs would be offered in one place so that parents can more easily support their children's education.

Family centers are places with help and information for families. So far they are mostly at daycare centers. The SPD wants to set them up at elementary schools too. Parents would then find all services in one place.

The SPD wants to introduce a family working time model that lets parents cut their hours without losing income. It also plans leave for partners after a birth and supplementary childcare at off-peak hours. The goal is more time together and a more equal sharing of care work.

Parents should be able to work less. They should not lose money when they do. After a birth, the partner should also get time off. There should be extra childcare early in the morning and late in the evening.

The SPD wants to create family offices that take paperwork such as the Elterngeld (parental allowance) application off new parents' hands in the first weeks after birth. Later on, they would also help families apply for benefits and find suitable services.

After a birth, parents have to fill out many forms. The SPD wants to set up family offices. These offices help with the forms, for example for parental allowance. They also help families later on.

The SPD wants to expand daycare according to need and create a suitable childcare option for every child. Daycare is to become entirely free of charge so that, in the party's view, education does not depend on income or place of residence.

The SPD wants to create more daycare places. Every child should get a suitable place. Parents should no longer pay for daycare. Money should not matter when parents decide on daycare.

The SPD wants to reorganize daycare funding through a Kita-Zukunftsgesetz (daycare future act). Instead of lump sums based on occupancy and booked hours, centers would receive stable base funding and more staff per group. This is meant to cut red tape and free up more time for the children.

The SPD wants a new law for daycare centers. Centers should get a fixed base amount of money. They should have less paperwork to do. There should be more staff for the children.

The SPD wants to organize child protection uniformly across North Rhine-Westphalia. Youth welfare offices are to have the same resources everywhere, and cooperation between agencies is to follow uniform rules. A child protection act would keep developing this further.

The SPD wants to protect children better. All youth welfare offices in the state should be equally well equipped. Agencies should work together under the same rules. A child protection law should set this out.