Supplementary Childcare - From Pilot Project to Standard Offer

The service starts at 6:00 a.m., but the kindergarten doesn't open until 8:00 a.m. The meeting once again lasts longer than planned, but the kindergarten closes promptly at 5:00 p.m. A business trip or training is scheduled, and no one can be found to look after the children during this time. Especially working single parents often cannot afford to pay for additional care during these fringe hours.

To find out how flexible childcare during fringe hours affects the employment opportunities of single parents, the state associations of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Berlin of the Association of Single Mothers and Fathers e.V. (VAMV) initiated a model project from 2014 to 2017 with the support of the Walter Blücher Foundation. The project "Supplementary Childcare, Emergency Care, and Counseling for Single-Parent Families" supported single parents in taking care of their children at three locations. The result of the evaluation accompanying the model: Individual, flexible, and needs-based supplementary childcare indirectly increases employment opportunities, boosts employment income, stabilizes household income, and leads to independence from social transfer benefits.

Sun, Moon & Stars

One of the funded model projects is the "Sun, Moon & Stars" project in Essen. The central component of the offering is to ensure the provision of childcare early in the morning, late in the evening, and during the night. An offering that is a basic requirement for shift workers in many professions to successfully balance family and work. "Many single parents work in the caregiving sector with shift services early in the morning, at night, or on weekends," says Antje Beierling, board member of VAMV NRW. "Yet the standard childcare services, such as day care, kindergartens, or all-day schools, leave significant gaps in child care." Therefore, single parents are provided with childcare workers, "child fairies," at "Sun, Moon and Stars," who accompany the children through the day and then take them to kindergarten or school. They pick up the children from school or kindergarten and together conclude the day or stay overnight in the family's household. "We deliberately offer care in the single parents' households so that the children can remain in their familiar surroundings and do not have to adapt to additional group settings. All child fairies are well-prepared for their tasks and continuously supported by specialist advisors," reports Sung Sauter-Mehla, the responsible specialist advisor.

Beyond the marginal childcare hours, single parents also receive advice and coaching. Solutions are developed together to noticeably ease everyday family life through individual changes. For example, it is determined whether working hours can be made more flexible, whether other childcare hours can be purchased in the daycare or school, or whether support for childcare can be found within the family environment. Or whether someone can take the children to school or daycare or pick them up.

The funding was completely covered by the Walter Blüchert Foundation during the project phase. Therefore, the offer was free of charge for all participating single parents. After the project concluded, further financing was initially unclear. In its most recent meeting in June 2018, the Youth Welfare Committee of the city of Essen decided to continue the project. Essen is thus far the only municipality that has implemented the legal obligation according to § 24 paragraph 3 sentence 2 of the Social Security Code (SGB) VIII in practice and thus "provides adequate full-time places and additional support so that the guardians can pursue employment, start employment, or are seeking employment (...)".

The other model projects in Berlin and Rhineland-Palatinate have also shown that this type of support had a significant impact on the employment of the participating single parents. The Association of Single Mothers and Fathers e.V. (VAMV) has therefore formulated the action recommendations "Closing care gaps: Implement needs-based opening hours of regular institutions and supplementary childcare – Strengthening working time sovereignty!" Ten action recommendations that are intended to benefit not only single parents in the future.

This is what the VAMV demands (shortened version):

• a nationwide entitlement to appropriate supplementary childcare up to the age of 14 beyond the current legal claims.
• The federal government, states, and municipalities must contribute to the costs according to their financial capacity.
• The care during off-peak times should particularly meet the criteria of personnel continuity, reliability, individual suitability, and child-related needs adjustment.
• A professionally qualified coordination office should be established on site.
• Atypical working hours and short, often only hourly work shifts require an appropriate balance between effort and compensation for the caregivers.
• Employees should generally have an individual right to choose their own working hours and workplace.
• The right to vote should be linked to binding regulations on occupational safety and health protection.
• Employees in part-time positions require a right to return to their original working hours.
• The guiding principle of a "short full-time" should be generally established and prevail.
• It is necessary for both parents to be temporarily relieved financially and time-wise through a "family working time" to balance between family and career equally.

You can find the comprehensive recommendations for action here

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