The CDU wants to give itself a new program in family policy.
(Photo: IMAGO/Chris Emil Janssen)
Berlin With a fundamentally new concept for education and family policy, the CDU wants to make a counter-proposal to the planned basic child protection of the coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP. As can be seen from the leading motion for the small federal party conference this weekend in Berlin, the focus should be on the quality of daycare centers, schools and health care and less on financial aid. The application has been submitted to the Handelsblatt.
“We want to strengthen parents, children and families with a comprehensive approach,” confirmed deputy party leader Silvia Breher. “This includes good day-care centers and schools, good health care. And that includes child benefit combined with a child future benefit that bundles benefits for children.”
Accordingly, the family should remain “the most important place for children to grow up well”. “We want to empower parents who need support to take care of their educational responsibilities and give their children development opportunities,” the paper says.
In order to make this possible for all parents and children, the CDU proposes “family centers” that offer “early help”. “Family pilots” are intended to provide help for self-help. The CDU wants to improve the cooperation between daycare and school social workers, youth welfare and paediatricians.
According to the will of the party, the compatibility of family and work should be promoted through taxation. These include fully deductible childcare costs and a “low-bureaucracy voucher system”, from which single parents, low-income families and families with many children in particular should benefit. Family time accounts should help to work more flexibly without financial losses.
CDU wants to improve the situation in kindergartens
With the application for the basic programme, the party takes up suggestions from the membership. In a survey on the new program, they spoke out in favor of improving the compatibility of family and work. They considered all-day or holiday care for school children or stronger financial support to be less important.
Attention is also paid to educational institutions, such as kindergartens, which are particularly affected by the shortage of skilled workers. “Therefore, it is more important than ever to create incentives and to find creative solutions for the recruitment of early childhood professionals.” The CDU proposes practice-integrated training to create an alternative to traditional training. The federal states should agree on “binding minimum quality standards” and relieve the specialists of administrative tasks so that they can concentrate on the children.
The CDU wants to support day-care centers and schools in social hotspots with more money and staff in order to “reduce” the connection between academic success and social background.
Advertising campaign for the next generation of teachers
According to the paper, daycare and school should be understood as a unit and language difficulties, for example, should be recognized and remedied at an early stage. With an advertising campaign, the party wants to inspire young people to become teachers and thus promote the expansion of all-day schools. The municipalities should ensure leisure activities with youth centers, libraries, open sports facilities and swimming pools and combine them with youth social work.
According to the CDU plans, families should continue to receive child benefit in the future and also “receive the benefits to which they are entitled easily and unbureaucratically” via a portal. In the future, the child allowance, benefits from the education and participation package and benefits for children are to be bundled via a “child future allowance”. The CDU wants to increase and supplement the services in order to be able to pay for memberships in sports clubs, music lessons, visits to the zoo or museums or swimming courses. “A simple participation app should make participation services digitally accessible to everyone,” said Party Vice President Breher.
In the health sector, in view of the bottlenecks in doctors and medicines, the party is calling for important medicines to be produced and stocked in Germany and for the lack of paediatricians to be countered with programs for young people.
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