Daycare centre requirements plan adopted until 2025

At its meeting today, the city council adopted the daycare centre requirements plan up to 2025. Over the next two years, nursery and kindergarten places in Chemnitz will continue to be gradually reduced across the board. This is a response to the decline in the number of children living in Chemnitz. At the same time, the quality of education will be increased through improved framework conditions.

In terms of children living in Chemnitz, the actual take-up rate of nursery places in 2022 was 52 per cent, which corresponds to 3,102 occupied places. In kindergarten age, the actual take-up rate was 87 per cent, which corresponds to 7,967 occupied places. Based on the population estimate up to 2025, it is clear that the number of resident children in the city of Chemnitz will continue to decline and that there will be too many childcare places available in the future.

For this reason, the daycare needs plan up to 2025 stipulates that 398 crèche places and 42 kindergarten places will be reduced in the coming year. In 2025, 176 crèche places and 181 nursery places are to be reduced.

The reduction in place capacities will improve and increase the quality of education in the facilities. For example, since autumn 2023, the municipal daycare centre at Walter-Ranft-Straße 72 has been providing inclusive care for six children with increased support needs in a first "development island". With the reduction of 20 places, the spatial, personnel and material requirements for this will be created.
Inclusion has become a central social task with the adoption of the Child and Youth Empowerment Act. The guiding principle of inclusive child and youth welfare and standardised responsibility for all children with and without disabilities was enshrined in the reform of Book Eight of the Social Code. Further development islands are to be created by the end of 2024 in line with demand.

In addition, a total of 66 places will be reduced at the Harthweg 2 daycare centre by summer 2024. 30 places will be reserved for the admission of kindergarten children who were cared for by childminders until the age of three.
From the 2024/2025 school year, all after-school children at Altendorf primary school will be looked after in the Harthweg 2 building, meaning that 90 after-school places will be available there. This will ensure that the legal requirements for operating a daycare centre are met and improve the educational conditions for the children.

The lease for the property at Fürstenstrasse 263 to 265 ends in May 2028 and will not be extended. The property will then no longer be operated as a daycare centre. No new children are already being accepted. This will result in a reduction of 106 childcare places.

In addition, the reductions will create rooms for educational work, for example movement and creative rooms, as well as staff rooms, thus improving the general conditions for the children and staff.

Background to the daycare centre requirements plan

The requirements plan is to be understood as an ongoing process that is regularly updated and adapted to changing needs in cooperation with the independent providers and childminders in order to meet the needs of childcare. Demographic and social developments are taken into account.

The development of the number of children and the annual births in the planning period are of particular importance for the planning of child daycare. In addition to other economic and socio-structural framework conditions (employment situation, family structures, individual needs of families, infrastructural conditions, available childcare services), the number of resident children is causally linked to the expected demand for childcare places.