2024-08-20 11:22:19
Many daycare centers lack employees. In addition, educators are increasingly absent due to illness. A vicious circle, experts warn.
According to a recent analysis, daycare staff are absent due to illness significantly more often than other employees. In 2023, employees in childcare were unable to work for an average of almost 30 days – all professional groups together averaged around 20 days, according to the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Skilled Workers Forum, in which specialists and managers in the industry are organized.
In addition, the number of sick days among educators has risen sharply, with an increase of 26 percent between 2021 and 2023 – primarily due to psychological stress.
The foundation, which also advises the Skilled Workers Forum, bases its decision primarily on data from the DAK health insurance company, with which 12.2 percent of employees in childcare are insured. Figures from other health insurance companies available to the foundation also confirm the trend, it said.
“Many daycare centers are caught in a vicious circle: Due to the increasing number of sick days, more and more skilled workers are absent, which further increases the burden on the remaining employees,” says Anette Stein, daycare expert at the Bertelsmann Foundation. “In many places, good early childhood education, care and upbringing is no longer even conceivable.”
According to the foundation’s information from the Techniker Krankenkasse, respiratory infections were the most common reason for sick leave, followed by mental illness. According to the foundation, almost 97,000 additional full-time specialists would be needed to compensate for the downtime caused by illness, vacation and training. The cost: 5.8 billion euros annually, which would stabilize the personnel situation at least in the short term, as the foundation calculates.
The Specialist Forum describes the staffing situation in daycare centers nationwide as dramatic. In many places, there is a lack of suitable applicants and adequate funding for qualified substitute staff. The high levels of sickness absence have to be compensated for by the teams, the specialists can no longer continue their training and are under increasing psychological stress or are leaving the profession altogether.
There is therefore a need for legally anchored and nationally standardized funding for replacements by qualified personnel for all periods of absence, according to the demand. To date, a reliable regulation is lacking in many federal states.