Hesse as number one state for the family – with professional child day care

The availability of child care plays an important role in improving the work-life balance. There are still too few places available, particularly for children under the age of three. This is set to change in coming years, with child day care set to play a part in meeting demand. With the support of IROK, Hesse’s state government tested new ideas on increasing the amount and quality of child day care in Hesse.

One goal of state policy is to become the number one state for the family in Germany. This includes increasing the amount of child day care on offer in order to provide parents with a real choice in the type of care available. In 2006 and 2007, in two stakeholder workshops with players from across Hesse, IFOK assessed demand and formulated the requirements for a pilot project to increase child day care for the then Hesse Ministry of Social Affairs (since February 2009:: Hesse’s Ministry for Employment, Family and Health). Based on this, IFOK developed the concept for a Hesse-wide pilot project for developing a secure underlying framework for child day care. On behalf of the Karl Kübel Stiftung für Kind und Familie [Karl Kübel foundation for the child and family], Hesse’s Ministry for Employment, Family and Health, and with the professional support of Hesse’s Child Day Care Office, the project began to look for pilot locations in the summer of 2007. Since the start of 2008, different concepts for increasing child day care have been developed and implemented at selected locations in Hesse. IFOK’s input in the project, which runs until the start of 2010, comprised project planning and organisation of the selection process through to creation of a practical guide, and we were responsible for the entire process and project management. In addition to supporting the pilot locations, this also involved holding associated events and project-related working groups.