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Staffing Situation in Child and Youth Welfare in North Rhine-Westphalia

Shortage of Qualified Staff in North Rhine-Westphalia’s Nurseries and Preschools to Last

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Three toddlers are standing in front of a low shelf with toys. One of the children reaches for a pencil lying on the shelf. © Rawpixel.com​/​AdobeStock
On 22 February, Professor Thomas Rauschenbach from TU Dortmund University presented a new study to the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia: With funding from the federal state’s Ministry for Children, Youth, Family, Equality, Refugees and Integration, the German Youth Institute at TU Dortmund University has conducted a comprehensive analysis of the staffing situation in child and youth welfare for the first time. The study makes it clear that action is urgently needed, as existing staff reserves are almost exhausted and the gap will not close by itself in the foreseeable future: By 2030, there could be a shortage of up to 20,200 qualified staff.

The study takes an empirical look at child and youth welfare and its areas of activity: Nurseries and preschools are the largest area, followed by parenting support, child and youth work as well as youth welfare offices and the corresponding social services. The extensive data deliver important insights into the difficult staffing situation – and are also intended to form the basis for its continuous monitoring in the future.

The study corroborates that staffing levels in child and youth welfare in North Rhine-Westphalia are at their highest ever: In 2020/2022, the number of people working in this sector was around 193,000, which equates to an increase of 44% since 2010/11. At 59%, nurseries and preschools saw the largest staff increase. Nevertheless, the system, which has grown significantly over the past ten years, is confronted with a shortage of qualified staff: Through the continuous expansion of daycare places and the overall growing demand for child and youth welfare services, staffing requirements have risen significantly. Depending on the scenario, the study forecasts that nurseries and preschools will need an additional 9,000 to 20,000 staff by 2030. At the same time, the 2022 figures from the Federal Employment Agency indicate that there is full employment in the labor market segment of child and youth welfare, which makes it more difficult to recruit additional staff. What’s more, although the number of new trainees has risen perceptibly since 2010/11, a considerable proportion of them drop out without qualifying.

High sickness rate, reduced childcare

Professor Thomas Rauschenbach, Senior Professor at the Department of Educational Sciences and Psychology at TU Dortmund University, pointed out that the ongoing shortage has also increased the burden on existing staff: “The increasing workload leads to health risks and absenteeism. In the childcare profession, we are seeing extraordinary sickness-related absences of almost 30 days on average.” The consequence of such staff shortages and high sickness rates is that nurseries and preschools are often obliged to reduce childcare at short notice because not enough staff is present. Analyses of reports on staff bottlenecks reveal, for example, that in March 2023 almost one in seven nurseries or preschools had to reduce its childcare services due to a shortage of staff.

At the presentation of the results, Josefine Paul, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister for Children, Youth, Family, Equality, Refugees and Integration, said: “The shortage of qualified staff is a problem for society as a whole that manifests itself in many sectors. With this study, we finally have a reliable and broad database for the social and educational professions in North Rhine-Westphalia for the first time. Many of the findings coincide with what nurseries and preschools – but also other services and facilities and not least the people personally affected – experience on the frontline. We will use the study results as a basis to further hone our existing measures and work on our goal of making the rapidly growing system future-proof in terms of staffing. The positive thing is that there are many people – now as before – who are interested in pursuing one of the wide variety of careers in child and youth welfare. Our aim is to systematically attract these candidates.”

The research project was funded by the Ministry for Children, Youth, Family, Equality, Refugees and Integration of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

To the study

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