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Report on all-day
education and childcare
services for primary school children

Client

Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ)

Year

ongoing

Partner

Institut für Theorie und Empirie des Sozialen (ITES)


Our mission

Through measures such as the 2020 funding programme designed to accelerate the expansion of the infrastructure of all-day childcare for primary school children as well as the Ganztagsförderungsgesetz (GaFöG, All-day Support Act), adopted in 2021, the federal and state governments are seeking to accelerate the development of a needs-based education and childcare programme for children of primary school age. The GaFöG envisages a gradual introduction of legal entitlement for children of primary school age starting from the 2026/2027 school year.

Prognos compiled the report for the Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), on the status of the expansion of all-day education and childcare programmes for primary school children (GaFöG report), which is anchored in the GaFöG and must be submitted annually to the Bundestag.

Our first report 

The first GaFöG report was published by the BMFSFJ in December 2023.

Core results:

  • For the 2021/2022 school year around 1.7 million children of primary school age attended an all-day school programme or a daycare centre that offers childcare for school-aged children (after-school care). This amounts to around 55 percent of all primary school-aged children.
  • The last years have seen significant expansion in the education and childcare services on offer for children of primary school age across all regions. The result is a wide range of services.
  • To be able to provide services that meet demand, taking into account demographic developments, the childcare requirements of parents and the legal entitlement that is gradually coming into effect, 393,000 new places will have to be created by the 2026/2027 school year. This is of course providing that parent demand does not significantly change in the future. Should parent demand increase, then an estimated 545,000 additional places would be required. The middle ground would amount to around 470,000 additional places.
  • In terms of the gradual introduction of legal entitlement, a large range of preparation measures can be seen across Germany’s states. The state funding earmarked for this purpose has until now largely contributed to the qualitative expansion of services.
  • All-day care experts estimate furthermore that personnel, financial resources and the spatial equipment of all-day services, further training for staff and parental involvement are critical.
  • Trans-regionally agreed “Guardrails” such as the recommendations of the Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK) held in October 2023, serve as orientation for regions and municipalities and help reduce variation in execution quality in all-day services.

Our approach

The expansion status of all-day education and childcare services for children of primary school age is examined on the basis of the KMK’s all-day school statistics and the official child and youth welfare statistics. Parent demand is represented with the help of the Childcare Study conducted by the German Youth Institute in the form of a nationwide parent survey. To calculate the number of all-day places that will be required in the future, the Statistic Offices’ 15th coordinated population forecast was also consulted.

The national and state measures in preparation for the implementation of legal entitlement are essentially represented in terms of the state-specific funding guidelines and administrative data on the Federal Government’s investment programmes as well as an online survey of the federal states.

In cooperation with ITES, qualitative questions about the further development of existing all-day services will be addressed. In addition, surveys will be conducted with school principals, parents, children, and case studies carried out in municipalities.

Links and downloads

GaFöG Report 2023 (BMFSFJ website in German)

GaFöG Report 2023 (short version, web magazine, in German)

More about our work in this field

Project team: Dr Dagmar Weßler-Poßberg, Gwendolyn Huschik, Sören Mohr, Dr Anna Marina Schmidt, Rahel Reemtsma

Latest update: 06.12.2023

Do you have questions?

Your contact at Prognos

Dr Dagmar Weßler-Poßberg

Partner, Head of Social Policy

View profile

Gwendolyn Huschik

Project Manager

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