Action Alliance for Children's Welfare Founded in Hesse
22 institutions and social enterprises are working to improve child and youth services
The situation regarding outpatient and inpatient care for children and adolescents is precarious. That is the view of 22 companies, foundations, and associations in Hesse. They have now joined forces to form the “Child Welfare in Hesse” coalition and are advocating for better care for the state’s youngest residents. Five key demands are at the heart of their efforts.
The needs in Hesse’s child and youth welfare system are great and have been steadily growing:
“Increasingly complex challenges are being met by an ever-decreasing number of qualified staff in child and youth welfare. According to the State Statistical Office, approximately 95,000 young people in Hesse are affected, both in outpatient and inpatient care. Social services are being cut at the expense of the youngest segment of the population. We must take action, which is why we have founded this Action Alliance,” explains Klaus Friedrich, Executive Director of EVIM in Wiesbaden and one of the three spokespersons for the Action Alliance for Child Welfare in Hesse.
The Action Alliance for Child Welfare in Hesse is composed of social enterprises, foundations, and associations, all of which provide educational support services. The Action Alliance has the following members:
Albert Schweitzer Children’s Village Hesse e. V., Caritas Association Frankfurt e. V., Diakonie Hesse e. V., German Red Cross Hesse Regional Association e. V., Evangelical Foundation Arnsburg, Evangelical Association for Child and Youth Welfare Rhine-Main e. V., EVIM gGmbH, Evenius Sonnenstraße GmbH, Haus am Kirschberg – Help for Abandoned Children e. V., Haus Hohensolms gGmbH, Hephata Hessian Diaconal Center e. V., IB Südwest gGmbH, Mission Leben gGmbH, Pädagogische Perspektiven e. V., Reinhard von den Velden Foundation – Kinderheimat Reinhardshof, Schottener Social Services gGmbH, St. Elisabeth Association, Kurhessisches Deaconess House Foundation in Kassel, Nieder-Ramstadt Diakonie Foundation, Theresien Child and Youth Services and St. Josephshaus e.V., Association for the Support of Girls* in Need e. V., Association for Youth Services Leppermühle e. V.
“We quickly reached an agreement in two meetings. We formulated five core demands. Implementing them would bring about a lasting improvement in the situation of child and youth care,” explains Christian Scharfe, specialist advisor for the Albert Schweitzer Children’s Village Hesse e. V. and also spokesperson for the action coalition.
The demands are as follows:
Shared responsibility for children’s welfare in Hesse. In the opinion of the Action Alliance, public and private providers can only effectively deliver high-quality educational support services by working together. A key step toward improving the situation is a regular dialogue among experts—organized through the so-called AG 78 and the youth welfare committees—on the principles of effective educational support. Only professional dialogue on an equal footing guarantees that the necessary quality standards are discussed and regulated in a binding manner. The provisions of Section 80 of the Social Code must be consistently implemented, says the alliance. This concerns, among other things, the continued operation of facilities, consideration of young people’s needs, and the catalog of youth welfare services.
Two professionals on double shifts. In residential group homes, the Action Alliance for Child Welfare in Hesse calls for the provision of double shifts by educational professionals during core working hours as a mandatory minimum standard. On-call duty must be compensated, night shifts must be recognized as working hours, and sick days, vacation, continuing education, and other absences must be realistically factored into staffing calculations. Group leaders should be appropriately relieved of regular care duties to perform leadership, coordination, and quality assurance tasks.
Tailored support. This demand includes the option for guardians to work with the relevant Youth Welfare Office staff to select the appropriate facility for the child in question and, under certain circumstances, to reject facilities. At the same time, preventive support measures should be strengthened as “intervention before intervention.” This includes more consistent and earlier engagement with parents, as called for by the Action Alliance for Child Welfare in Hesse.
Outpatient support services. Based on a state-wide binding framework, qualitative and quantitative standards for outpatient educational support services in Hesse must be formulated. These standards must be incorporated into a framework agreement that bindingly regulates the scope of services, the professional qualifications of the staff deployed, funding, and conflict resolution procedures.
Equal Opportunities for Education and Participation. Equal treatment of all children and adolescents in educational support services must be ensured through comparable access pathways, services, and programs. The services and monetary amounts specified in the supplementary benefits must be defined in a binding, objective, and ongoing manner—this is the fifth core demand of the Action Alliance for Child Welfare in Hesse.
“We have developed solution-oriented proposals within our Action Alliance, and now intend to consistently present them to local political decision-making bodies; we are also working to raise public awareness of this issue,” adds Dr. Felix Blaser, Executive Director of the Arnsburg Foundation and spokesperson for the Action Alliance. Efforts are also being made to establish contact at the federal level. A parliamentary evening at the German Bundestag, organized in collaboration with the Action Alliance for Child Welfare in Schleswig-Holstein and under the patronage of two SPD members of the Bundestag from the districts of Nordfriesland and Lahn-Dill, is planned for November 24, 2026.
ACTION ALLIANCE FOR CHILD WELFARE IN HESSEN
Spokespersons: Dr. Felix Blaser | Klaus Friedrich | Christian Scharfe
Am Rühling 30 | 35663 Lahnau-Atzbach
+49 179 2209877 | kontakt@kindeswohl-hessen.de
More information at www.kindeswohl-hessen.de